#PS5 supplies could be hit due to global parts shortage

With the world slowly healing from the pangs of the COVID-19, a new normal is being ushered in. Many countries that were previously quarantined have begun to open up and the global economy is headed for a recovery. But there remains one big problem, always that one big problem after another that the world just can’t seem it rid itself of. The electronics market has found itself in a bit of a pickle. With lockdowns ending everywhere, the supply-demand chain remains somewhat riled.

An article by Bloomberg explores the industry’s new blazing concern — a huge weakness in the global supply chain of electronic products, a problem that has been hounding phone makers and console makers alike since the beginning of the pandemic. An acute shortage of semiconductors, exacerbated by the business shutdowns imposed by various governments during the previous year, has left electronics majors puzzled and with little repose, its after-effect of this is expected to be felt in the automobile market as well.

As chipmakers rush their production centers, ‘smaller-volume’ buyers of semiconductors in the video-game industry are losing out to tech giants, reports VGC. Among them are Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo, popular PC makers like Lenovo, and GPU makers like Nvidia.

“Sony Corp. said Wednesday it might be unable to fully sate demand for its new gaming console in 2021 because of production bottlenecks,” the Bloomberg article claims, hinting at delays in a fresh supply of Sony’s next-gen console.

This crisis, Bloomberg ventures, stems from various factors, one of them is intrinsically related to highly advanced chip-making behemoths like TSMC and Samsung Electronics Co., to whom the manufacturing is outsourced by most companies, being unable to meet the leaping demand brought on by the post-covid economic boom precipitated partly due to the advent of 5G phones and the surge of internet users.

Sony, the VGC claims, had already suggested that parts shortages could hit its supply of PS5s during their quarterly earnings call last week.

“For next fiscal year, we believe that there will be strong demand to continue,” Totoki spoke about the PS5 with the help of an interpreter. “Compared to the original plan, we try to procure components at the level of the second year of the launch of the PS4 at 14.8 million – we would like to exceed that level of PS4 when it comes to PS5. However, the level of demand by customers [is] so high for PS5. Therefore, for various devices, we try to procure a larger volume. However, we have to look at the global shortage of semiconductors. When we try to increase our capacity, we face difficulties because of this global situation. However, we are doing our best to exceed the original plan in terms of shipments.”

As the gaming hardware industry braces for the obvious, impending crisis, things are looking rather positive for video game giant and console maker Nintendo. Shuntaro Furukawa, president of Japan’s premier gaming company, informed investors last week that Nintendo had a sufficient supply of components for the time being notwithstanding the shortage that is being felt globally.