PlayStation 5 production woes mean they might be in short supply (Update)

Update, September 16, 2020 (1:30 AM ET): Sony has provided a statement to Bloomberg stating that it has not revised its production number. Read the full statement below.

While we do not release details related to manufacturing, the information provided by Bloomberg is false. We have not changed the production number for PlayStation 5 since the start of mass production.

Original article, September 15, 2020 (7 AM ET): Sony could face a major blow even before the next-gen console war begins. The PlayStation 5‘s production forecast has been cut by more than 26% due to manufacturing issues, according to a Bloomberg report.

The Japanese company is reportedly plagued by low yields of its custom chipset which may see it build fewer consoles than predicted. Sony reportedly believed that 15 million units could be produced this year, but that forecast has been lowered to 11 million.

The PS5 chipset employs AMD-made Zen 2 cores with ten times the processing power, double the RAM, and much faster NVMe-based storage when compared to the PlayStation 4. Microsoft is set to use a similar high-bandwidth hardware cocktail for its next-gen consoles.

Speaking of the Redmond firm, the news couldn’t come at a worse time for Sony. Microsoft has arguably been one foot ahead of the Japanese firm in the weeks before launch, stealing the limelight by confirming information early. Both the Xbox Series S and Xbox Series X have confirmed pricing and availability details. Sony has yet to announce its plans.

Sony will likely out more specifics at its event scheduled for tomorrow (September 16), but it’s not clear how the PS5’s alleged production troubles could affect the console’s global availability.

Next: Playstation 5 and Xbox Series X – what we know and how they compare