Gamers hoping to get their hands on a launch PlayStation 5 when the console arrives later this year could find themselves going home empty-handed, a new report suggests.
In an article published earlier today, Bloomberg, citing anonymous sources, says it has learned of major problems plaguing the manufacturing process of Sony’s next-gen device, setbacks that have reportedly culminated in the company being forced to slash production. The crux of the issue, it seems, stems from the custom system-on-chip (SOC) housed within the PS5, yields of which have reportedly fallen to as low as 50%. As an integral component of the console, a shortage of SOC chips spells total disaster for the assembly process, essentially resulting in millions of useless, unsaleable PS5s.
This spanner in the works, so to speak, has prompted Sony to slash availability forecasts by approximately 4 million for the current fiscal year, according to Bloomberg’s sources, who have chosen to remain anonymous due to the information provided not yet being public.
Troubling developments, to say the least, especially as this isn’t the first time we’ve heard of potential production woes affecting the PS4’s successor. Several rumors surfaced earlier this year suggesting that the PS5 was suffering from substantial overheating and hardware difficulties. Whether the latter has any connection to Bloomberg’s own report remains to be seen, but the increased chatter is certainly concerning.
Fortunately, however, fans won’t have to wait much longer in order to find out when, where and for how much they’ll be able to pick up a PlayStation 5 this Holiday season, as Sony has locked in a special broadcast for tomorrow, September 16th, which is expected to finally put all the speculation to rest.