• In its latest financial report, Sony outlined that it is looking to exceed its previously set manufacturing target for PlayStation 5 consoles just in time for the holiday season.
• The Japanese entertainment giant is now looking to produce over 18 million units and a further 23 million for next year.
• This comes as the previously set restrictions caused by the pandemic including those on the supply of materials and logistics begins to wane.

Gamers rejoice: stocks of the highly coveted PlayStation 5 (PS5) consoles are looking to be increased soon by manufacturer Sony, according to a recently released financial report.

It has been grim in recent months for players looking to find the latest PlayStation consoles available in the wild. At the beginning of the year, we covered how Sony was struggling to manufacture more consoles due to the instabilities created by lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, including the industry-wide chip shortage.

In February, Sony revised its forecast for how many PS5s it would be building in 2022 to 11.5 million consoles, dashing the dreams of millions of fans. Since South Africa remains at the bottom of the pecking order in terms of the regions that get the most machines, it is still difficult to come across a PS5 in the country.

And when a machine pops up it is quickly gobbled due to the high demand. However, now it seems that Sony is looking at increasing stocks of the highly coveted system.

In the Japanese entertainment powerhouse’s latest financial report [PDF], Sony says it managed to build more PS5s much faster than originally planned due an easing of the restrictions on the supply of materials and logistics brought about by the pandemic.

To this end the company has managed to build 6.5 million units so far and says that it aims to exceed its previously set forecast of over 18 million units by the year-end holiday season just in time for the release of the platform’s next big-time title God of War: Ragnarök.

For the next fiscal year, Sony has set an even grander target at 23 million units according to Bloomberg. More than double the amount set at the beginning of 2022.

“We recognise that demand from customers for the PS5 continues to be strong,” Sony says. Apparently, in September the company managed to sell out a batch of 100 thousand PS5 units in the US only 17.5 hours after arrival in the country.

In the same financial report, the company outlined that it lost nearly 2 million subscribers from its PlayStation Plus (PS Plus) service in just over three months. Most of the losses incurred were from gamers on the PlayStation 4 (PS4) while subscribers among PS5 consoles “remain at a level significantly higher than that of PS4.”

To offset this latest drop in subs, Sony is looking to put “…even more effort into accelerating the penetration of PS5 hardware to recover this user engagement going forward.” Which coincides with the manufacturers lofty goals of 23 million PS5 units next year.

As players start dropping off the PS4, the company looks to finally be getting ready to swing its full weight behind the PS5.

[Image – PlayStation]