Sony told us that they were going to be ramping up the manufacturing and sale of their newest gaming console, the PS5, but it seems that we’re now finally seeing what that looks like on a market level. It’s approaching the silly season for games, but also for gift giving, and so new data from David Gibson, a senior analyst at MST Financial, would suggest that Sony have resolved some of their manufacturing issues at just the right time to ensure that they can meet consumer demand into the big holiday period.
Gibson wasn’t specifically able to comment on the raw numbers of consoles that PlayStation had produced, but we’re in a position to extrapolate based on the information he has been able to provide. Gibson has observed a change in the weight of the stock that Sony has been shipping, increasing from 1.5 million kilograms of stock in September 2021, to a figure that is five times the figure, or representative of a 400% increase, now shipping 7.5 kilograms of stock in September 2022. It’s pretty definitive, but it still may not be accurate with recent discoveries into newer models of the PS5 revealing that the most recent iteration of the PS5 disc and discless versions has shaved off a few grams of weight as things like chipsets grow smaller in size. Extrapolate this figure across millions of consoles and suddenly many extra consoles are required to fill the same space that the previous SKU would have taken. It should also be noted that this represents all Sony Interactive shipping, so it may include PS4 consoles, PS VR, and more, but the lion’s share is most certainly PS5 consoles.
There are some further points that Gibson emphasized in his report, “Lots of reports of improved PS5 supply in the past few months, but no data until now. Import data into the US confirms that Sony Interactive (PlayStation) shipments in Sept were +400% YoY. Yes, you read that right. Some of that will go into inventory for GoW launch for sure.” He also expanded to compare that to what was occurring on the green team’s side, “That’s US imports to be clear. Sorry. So how is it for Xbox? Data requires more interpretation to get the right sources, but based on my estimate Xbox supply into the US in Sept +89% YoY.”
Based on the data we have available from Gibson, it seems as though the 2022 holiday shopping period is going to be favoring the futures of the next generation platforms, both the PS5, and the Xbox Series X|S well, but it’s Sony’s new console that seems to be the one that you’ll have the easiest time getting – that, or they’re still endeavoring to catch-up with earlier pre-orders that they’ve yet to fulfill. Whichever new platform is your preference, it seems that you will soon have a lot of new fans for company this holiday.
