Do you want to buy a PS5? Good luck, because it is really difficult to find one at the MSRP price set by the company and those that are second-hand are in the arms of speculation. It is not the same scenario as in graphics cards, but it has some similar tinges, except for the fact that it could be that SONY is voluntarily limiting the stock.
PS5 and sales: well below PS4
Being the PS4 the best-selling console in history, it is normal that PS5 is always being compared to it. The problem is that the latter does not face a scenario like the first, since now the situation is much more complicated. Christmas has left some curious reports that SONY has shared and that reflect that PlayStation 5 is a gold mine, but with feet of clay.
In the last quarter of last year there have been 3.9 million PS5 units, a small but noticeable increase from 3.3 million in the previous quarter. 2021 closed with total sales figures of 17.3 million units, which is a figure below what PS4 achieved by no less than 3 million.
In addition, SONY’s gaming division lost a 8% year-over-year in revenue, although earnings rose by 12.1%. What does this mean? Well, if we cross all the data and listen to certain industry players, we have a rather curious and possibly unusual cocktail in this sector.
The PS5 generates more and more losses: voluntarily limited stock?
It seems and we have heard certain SONY managers speak, it seems that the company cannot manufacture more PS5 for different reasons of limitation of the industry in the semiconductor crisis that we are experiencing. But the truth is that PS5 is still losing for SONY, that is, the hardware it implements makes the company lose money.
This presents an incredible paradox that could explain the almost zero stock of the Japanese console: SONY does not want to sell more consoles, it does not even want to manufacture them. Recover from the shock and we will explain the reasons. Selling fewer consoles has a positive effect economically speaking, because as a loss-making console, selling more units means a bigger economic hole, so selling less means higher profits, understanding in this case profits as generating fewer economic losses.
The theory tells us that if instead of ordering 1 million units we asked for 10 million, the manufacturer or manufacturers of the components ordered would give us a better price. That continues to be true, but the problem is that there are components that are so overpriced that the number of units ordered does not compensate for the expense and possibly never would.
Therefore, the purchase of components for a specific number of consoles is limited, minimizing losses and avoiding blows as best as possible, since the price of the PS5 does not rise and that makes SONY supposedly have to limit stock . Here the market dictates the rules and the Japanese are smarter than AMD and NVIDIA with their GPUs. Why do you want to manufacture and achieve sales of PS5 at 700 euros if a limited number of users are going to buy them? Consoles do not generate value as GPUs do with Ethereum or other cryptocurrencies, therefore, the voracity of stock would not be such and would create a bad brand image for the company.
