Sony are looking to meet the massive demand for their PlayStation 5 console by increasing production tenfold.
“We are planning heavy further increases in production, taking us to production levels we have never achieved before,β says Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan.
Increased production comes after sales for the PS5 were rather underwhelming despite massive demand, due to the pandemic and subsequent global chip shortage.
Sony say that to ensure that production rates remain high, they have sourced materials from a variety of suppliers, and are negotiating collaboration between them to ensure smooth logistics.
Senior equity analyst at SBI Securities Yoshiharu Izumi stated that βTo expand production, it’s important to further promote collaboration in procuring materials with the semiconductor and electronics business segments.β
Sony have also upped the production capacity for image sensors at a Nagasaki Prefecture plant. Demand for these components is set to skyrocket, due to their use in premium smartphones and self-driving vehicles. Sony are looking to spend 900 billion yen on image sensors over three years through the 2023 financial year. The company hopes this would increase their 53% global market share of image sensors to 60% by 2025.
The Japanese tech conglomerate hopes that their efforts will result in a 57% increase in PS5 sales for the fiscal year, which would mean 18 million consoles.