Finding A PS5 Just Became Even Harder

Bad news for players still trying to get their hands on a PlayStation 5: Sony has significantly cut back its expected production run for the year, indicating that supply chain issues have put a damper on the company's plans. This comes just a day after Valve's upcoming Steam Deck announced delays for the same reasons, and just one week after a similar production cut made things look bad for the Nintendo Switch.

A new report from Bloomberg's Takashi Mochizuki cites claims made by Sony personnel familiar with the situation, and they're saying that Sony is cutting production of PS5s by a full one million units, from a planned 16 million consoles to 15 million. While that's still not a small number by any means, it's potentially bad news for frustrated gamers.

Sony's PS5 was released last November to general critical praise, but much like the Xbox Series X|S, players have had a hard time actually purchasing one. Scalpers and online bots have already made acquiring these coveted items a nightmare, but with Sony scaling back its production, finding a PS5 just became even more complicated. 

Bloomberg's report points to the ongoing global supply issues as Sony's biggest challenge. Bloomberg's contacts maintain that Hiroki Totoki, Sony's Chief Financial Officer, acknowledged the situation would get worse before it got better, indicating during a conference call that these types of supply issues have become more common for the company over the course of the pandemic.

Though the PS5 has risen to become the fastest-selling Sony console (per CNET), the company has struggled to keep up its momentum. As noted by Bloomberg, PS5 sales have begun to fall behind the previous console generation's, and the scarcity of the console certainly isn't helping matters.

Now with even fewer consoles presumed to be available, prospective buyers will have to work even harder to beat scalpers to the punch and secure the console for a reasonable price. As fewer and fewer PS5s become available through legitimate retailers, the asking price for Sony's popular hardware will undoubtedly rise on sites like eBay. It seems like, at least for the time being, players will have to choose between playing the waiting game or giving in to the scalper market if they're serious about buying a PS5. Hopefully these supply chain problems won't continue through the life cycle of the PlayStation 5, but the short term is looking like quite the headache for fans.