Sony Doubles Production of PlayStation 5 Units, Anticipating Increased Demand Due to Coronavirus

Bloomberg and Nikkei report that Sony is scaling up production of PlayStation 5. Back in spring, the company’s plans were to release five-to-six million units of the next-gen console in the first months after release. Now, that number has increased to 10 million units.

According to Bloomberg, Sony predicts increased demand for PlayStation 5 because of the coronavirus: according to global trends, quarantine measures will last a long time, so potential consumers will continue to sit at home. And since PlayStation 5 is entertainment for the home, the interest in the console will be higher.

Earlier, Sony asked suppliers to provide 10 million DualSense controllers for the PS5 by March 2021, but now the planned circulation has increased as well. The number of controllers is not equal to the number of PlayStations 5 because DualSense will be available separately.

According to Sony’s current schedule, five million PlayStation 5 units will be completed by the end of September, and five million more between October and December. The first half is expected to be shipped to store warehouses by November, and the largest part of the second batch should arrive in 2021.

However, as noted by sources of Bloomberg, the increased production does not necessarily mean that Sony will be able to meet PS5 demand for the holiday season, due to shipping logistics. A large number of consoles are made in China, and ocean line shipments take months to travel to the U.S. and Europe. While Sony could try to meet holiday demand using faster air cargo shipments, it seems unlikely they would be able to put this into practice. Sony would have little opportunity to reserve flights due to reduced airline schedules caused by the pandemic.