Imagine: you walk into the big store in your neighborhood, hoping to buy a PlayStation 5, and you’re done. It’s on the shelf. You can pay for it, you can leave the store and it’s yours. No need to sit at your desk refreshing your browser tabs all day. Sounds pretty good, right?
On November 12, 2020, Sony released the PS5 in a handful of markets, with a global release the following week. Four months later, he did roman almost impossible to achieve one, a scarcity that can lead to a perfect storm of climbers, production hiccups and an unprecedented global pandemic. Even worse, the situation shows no signs of declining and may even persist until the latter part of the summer.
“The main challenge here is the shortage of semiconductors that basically affects everyone, from cars to computers to graphics cards to PS5,” said Mat Piscatella, executive director and video game advisor at the NPD Group, he told me recently in a Zoom call. “It looks like it will be a challenge for a while, probably until Q2 or Q3 or even later, depending on a whole host of factors.”
Like the Harvard Business Review detailed last month, that the shortage of semiconductors / chips is and is not the result of the pandemic. Last year, the fires basically shut down two large production plants in Japan: one that manufactures fiberglass (used in the construction of computer parts) and another that manufactures electronics. The automotive industry also played an important role. When the pandemic first fell last spring, confining millions to the home, carmakers cut orders on virtually every production part, including chips, which are essential components in many modern cars. Then, as vehicle travel increased again at the end of the year, the companies themselves increased chip orders. And then there’s Donald Trump, who really made things fuck up kickstarting an inadvisable trade war, regulator the sale of American-made semiconductors to companies based in China (which forced these companies to stock up), and directing the federal government will blacklist the China-based Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation.
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Beyond that, like HBR notes that air transport has experienced significant restrictions in recent months, due to a number of factors, including the priority need to send covid-19 vaccines, the widespread decrease in passenger travel (meaning that companies can use these flights to inventory of ships) i the February base of a Boeing fleet.
Now, wrap it up all this in a global pandemic that has raised the supply chain too many ways to list. You can start to see how the production of the most anticipated gaming console on the market has stopped.
The PlayStation 5 uses a chip developed by Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), a California-based semiconductor manufacturer that produces graphics cards, processors and the like. (AMD did not respond to any comments from Kotaku.) Earlier this year, AMD CEO Lisa Su he said CNBC says the company expects chip production shortages at least during the first half of the year. How reported by Tom’s Hardware, Su said the same during an AMD earnings call starting in January.
“Production lines can only produce as many units per hour. An assignment of production lines that can build things like a new console are not infinite. So we’ve seen that, in the past, all successful new consoles face supply shortages of one kind or another, usually during the first six months to a year. But this is only because demand always significantly exceeds production capacity. Therefore, we would still reach the capacity limits. Just right now, these chips add an extra layer of capacity challenge, “Piscatella said. He also noted that the number of new consoles manufactured right now doesn’t differ much from previous generations of consoles. The main contrast is that , usually at this point in the cycle some kind of increase in production can be noted.This is not the case this time. (Piscatella could not provide specific numbers as a result of data agreements between console manufacturers and NPD ).
But, well, the White House is there. Last month, President Biden issued an order reviewing the causes of this semiconductor deficit. The brief version is that, pending the results of the review, this order would basically result in the United States producing more semiconductors nationwide. It remains to be seen if this equates to anything. In accordance with research run by consulting firm McKinsey, it can take up to two years to set up a semiconductor factory, in addition to a year or more, to increase production.
So what does this mean for you and your potential PS5? That dream, where you can just walk into your local Best Buy (Target, GameStop, Walmart or anywhere else) and buy a PS5 from the shelf? When does this happen?
Sony has not said. When it came to comment on when it would be wide, there could be regular availability for the PS5 – at least according to the company’s estimate – a Sony representative said he would discuss the issue.
Piscatella is marginally more optimistic: “If nothing else goes wrong, hopefully August, September, we’ll start to see a little more inventory for people.”
Now, suppose you’re really looking forward to making a fully digital PS5 and you’re lucky on a model with a temporary hard drive. (This also applies to those who are in a reverse situation.) Probably the best option is to take the first model you find.
“I don’t know if people will be able to pick and choose [between models], especially over the next six months, “Piscatella said.” If they want one, they’ll just have to grab whatever is available to them, because they won’t let go soon. “
In other words, the PS5, like all and sundry, depends on the whims of Part II: 2021 2020.
“Hopefully, sometime this year, they’ll be on a shelf somewhere and you’ll only be able to pick one up,” Piscatella said. “But, you know, 2021. Chaos reigns. Everything is uncertain. “