Buying a PlayStation 5 is going to be difficult until some point in 2022, Sony told analysts
- It's been over six months since the PlayStation 5 launched, and it's still nearly impossible to buy.
- Despite regular restocking, PS5 consoles sell out instantly through Sony and major chains.
- Sony is now saying that PS5 supply won't meet demand until some point next year.
It's not going to get any easier to buy a PlayStation 5 anytime soon.
"I don't think demand is calming down this year," Sony CFO Hiroki Totoki told analysts, according to Bloomberg. "Even if we secure a lot more devices and produce many more units of the PlayStation 5 next year, our supply wouldn't be able to catch up with demand."
Totoki warned the analysts that the PS5 will remain in low supply until some point in 2022.
Sony's PlayStation 5 has been in short supply since launch in November 2020 due to a variety of factors: overwhelming consumer demand, a robust resale market that employs sophisticated software to beat normal consumers, international manufacturing and shipping issues, a global chip shortage and, of course, the ongoing pandemic.
Sony hasn't officially said when it expects PlayStation 5 supplies to normalize, and representatives didn't respond to a request for comment.
In a series of interviews earlier this year, PlayStation boss Jim Ryan said he expects "really decent numbers" of the console in stores by this fall.
"It will increase as each month passes," he told GQ. "And the situation will start to get better hopefully quite quickly. We have been relentless in terms of trying to increase production." It's not clear if the most recent guidance from Sony's CFO is an update to Ryan's previous interview statements.
Even in mid-May, over six months after launch, it's still nearly impossible to buy a PlayStation 5 from a retail outlet.
When re-supplies of the console go live online, they are swept up nearly instantly. Many are still being swept up by resellers, some of whom are using bots to beat out human buyers. On StockX, a resale site, the PlayStation 5 is still be sold for nearly $800 - a $300 markup over retail of the more expensive version of the console.
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