The PlayStation 5 will be hard to find until at least this fall, says PlayStation CEO

• Sony's PlayStation 5 launched in mid-November 2020, and has been sold out ever since.
• Those supply issues are expected to stretch into 2021, PlayStation boss Jim Ryan said this week.
• The pandemic is partially to blame, Ryan said, but microchip shortages are another major factor.

Sorry folks: You won't be able to easily buy a PlayStation 5 for at least a few more months.

That's according to PlayStation boss Jim Ryan, who confirmed as much in a series of interviews published this week. The PlayStation 5 isn't expected to be readily available at retailers until the latter half of 2021.

"By the time we get to the second half [of the year], you're going to be seeing really decent numbers indeed," Ryan told the Financial Times.

Demand for Sony's latest PlayStation console has overshot supply since the PS5 launched in mid-November 2020. That level of demand paired with the impact of the ongoing pandemic on manufacturing, as well as the ongoing microchip shortage, rendered Sony unable to make as many PlayStation 5 consoles as it would've liked, Ryan said.

"Demand was greater than we anticipated. That, along with the complexities of the supply chain issues, resulted in a slightly lower supply than we initially anticipated," he told the Washington Post.

Even in late February, 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.

Ryan said he's hoping the situation will improve sooner than later.

"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."

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