Sony still struggling with chip shortage, drops forecast for PS5 sales

(Image Courtesy: Sony)

The chip shortage isn't going away anytime soon, and Sony in an analyst webcast said they were dropping the sales forecast for PlayStation 5 again for the fiscal year.

Compared to the PlayStation 4, which moved 20.2 million units during its holiday fiscal quarter, the PlayStation 5 has managed 17.3 million. Sony reported only 3.3 million PlayStation 5 units were sold in the key holiday fiscal quarter.

Also Read: Intel, Apple to be among attendees of White House meeting on chip shortage

Sony has lowered its sales forecast for the PlayStation 5 from 14.8 million units to 11.5 million units for the financial year ending March 31.

As reported by Venture Beat, Sony Chief Financial Officer Hiroki Totoki said that the demand for the new console was still quite high and not impacted by the shortage. However, because of the supply chain issues it could not make enough units to keep up with the demand. Totoki said that the company's partners were still struggling to fulfil orders.

Also Read: Global chip supply shortages could take couple of years to address: Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger

Totoki also expects the component shortage to continue, at least during the first half of 2022.

The PlayStation games division's sales accounted for a sizeable portion of Sony's revenue for this quarter.

The imaging division posted a 22% increase in revenue year-over-year, and the movie division raked in $4.02 billion in revenue, due to hit films like Spider-Man: No Way Home.

Global supply chain and material shortages will continue into 2023, according to companies like Intel that are going through a semiconductor shortage of their own.