Hopes of picking up a PS5 console in 2022 look all but dashed at this stage, with the latest Q3 2021 earnings report (ending 31st December) forecasting a rather grim outlook for production of the highly coveted console in the coming quarters.

To that end Sony has revised its full 2021 gaming revenue forecast 2.73 trillion Yen, which represents a 6 percent decrease, as a result of lower than initially expected PS5 console sales.

Unsurprisingly, Sony also looks to be a fair margin behind the PS4 in terms of console sales compared to the PS5 during its life cycle, with 17.3 million sold since the current-gen console went on sale in November of 2020.

The PS4 during the same time frame, managed 20.2 million units, illustrating expertly how the pandemic has impacted Sony’s gaming ambitions over the past couple of years.

Added to this is an ability for Sony’s manufacturing partners to provide the desired components, mainly chips, for the PS5, which recently prompted the Japanese company to pivot to manufacturing more previous-gen consoles as a respite.

This likely due to the fact that Sony has several big exclusive titles releasing in 2022, such as Horizon: Forbidden West and God of War: Ragnarok on the cards.

As far as how many PS5 consoles are expected for the coming fiscal tear, the revised forecast sees the figure drop from 14.8 million to 11.5 million. Given that there is no indication how many each region of the globe will be allocated, South African PlayStation fans may find themselves well down the pecking order.

Interestingly though, despite shipping less PS5’s than forecasted in the most recent quarter, Sony’s operating profit actually rose 12.1 percent, as the company makes a loss on each PS5 console sold at the moment.

Either way, the current-gen consoles will be hard to come by in coming months, which means you should be curious of any pre-order or sales than seem too good to be true.