Sony PS5 Restock News Keeps Getting Worse
According to Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan, "everything is sold." Ryan spoke of the Sony PlayStation 5, the company's latest gaming console, and the state of affairs the company and the public are now in. Ryan suggested that "of all the things" he learned this year, he said he "wouldn't plan on doing another big console launch in the midst of a global pandemic." He added that he "wouldn't recommend it to anybody else."
Not that things could've really gone any different. Planning a console launch as massive as what Sony's done with PlayStation 5 takes years of preparation. Ryan dropped some numbers on the launch, with respect to the launch of the last major console from the company, PlayStation 4.
Per Ryan speaking with Tass, "all history indicates that the initial cohort, from the launch to Christmas, about three quarters will be upgraders from the PS4." He suggested that the other quarter of the people that buy the PlayStation in this time are coming from another console or "will come from outside the console ecosystem."
As such, Ryan suggests that "the great majority of those who buy a PS5 will have a PS4." Ryan noted that there are "around 114 million PS4s in the world," and that "the number of those who transfer if you keep that in mind is a small number."
We can safely assume that Sony's not sold millions of PlayStation 5 units in the first weeks it's been on sale, but certainly more than 100,000 units worldwide. According to Famitsu, Sony sold 118,000 PS5 units (domestically) in the first four days it was available for sale in Japan. This same source suggested that Microsoft sold approximately 16,247 Xbox Series X units domestically (in Japan) in its first 6 days on sale.
"Absolutely everything is sold," said Ryan. "I've spent much of the last year trying to be sure that we can generate enough demand for the product. And now in terms of my executive bandwidth I'm spending a lot more time on trying to increase supply to meet that demand." We'll keep hitting that refresh button to look for stock – but we're not holding our breath!