On January 12, Bloomberg quoted people familiar with the matter as saying that in order to cope with the chip shortage on sony's PlayStation 5, Sony plans to produce another 1 million PS4s this year to allow gamers to stay in Sony's ecology as much as possible.
The Sony PS5 has been in short supply since it first came out in November 2020. As a new console for the next generation, the sony PS5 has a significant upgrade in performance and is very powerful. The same performance of PC hardware, graphics card, high-speed memory, etc. The price has always been high, and it costs a lot of money to assemble a high-performance PC desktop, then the PS5 is very cost-effective, so it is sought after by many players.
One of the worst supply chain bottlenecks this year is inexpensive general-purpose chips for audio, power and wireless communication functions. Some of the chips on the PS4 are not as advanced as those on the PS5, and they are simpler to manufacture. Even if some chip foundries are affected by the new crown epidemic, they can find alternative products as soon as possible, and even if they build new production lines, it will not take a long time.
The advanced chips on the PS5 are not so simple, and they use more advanced processes. Nowadays, the advanced process production line is basically fully loaded, and Samsung and TSMC have repeatedly raised the OEM price, which may not be able to bear the current price of the PS5.
Even if chips are built at great prices, the cost of shipping and other goods is still rising, and it costs a lot of money to synthesize. Once the price of the PS5 exceeds most people's expectations, consumers may turn to the PC platform, or the purchase volume of the PS5 will drop sharply, so that Sony will not be able to make money by buying games and selling membership services.
In addition, by increasing the output of the PS4, Sony will be able to better negotiate with the foundry to reduce the OEM price of the PS5 as much as possible.
Released in 2103, the Sony PS4 has sold nearly 116 million units to date and remains a popular choice for consumers. At present, the price of the second-hand PS4 is still quite cheap, which is very suitable for beginner players who are just starting to start hosting. If players understand very well that their favorite game can only run smoothly with PS5, then it is better to rush to buy it when it is in stock.