Gamers looking for a PlayStation 5 may have to wait a bit longer to find one.
Sony warned on Wednesday that it is struggling to meet the demand for the hot-selling game console as it struggles with a shortage of computer chips.
The Japanese tech giant said it has to compete with a wide variety of other companies for the semiconductors used to make the PS5, such as car makers and smartphone companies.
“It is difficult for us to increase production of the PS5 due to the shortage of semiconductors and other components,” Hiroki Totoki, Sony’s chief financial officer, said at a news conference.
Despite the manufacturing issues, Sony said it has sold 4.5 million PS5 consoles from its November launch to the end of December. That performance was comparable to the launch of the PlayStation 4 in 2013, which brought 4.5 million units to market in the first quarter, Sony said.
Sony said it is on track to meet its goal of selling more than 7.6 million PS5s by the end of March, even though it has “failed to fully meet high customer demand.”
The $ 499 consoles have been hard to come by since pre-orders sold out within hours in September. Scalpers tried to sell the consoles on eBay for thousands of dollars after they officially hit stores.
“We will continue to do everything we can to ship as many devices as possible to customers waiting for a PS5,” Sony said in its earnings report on Wednesday.
Sony’s New York-listed stock rose a whopping 10 percent to $ 109.48 on Wednesday after the company raised its earnings outlook, thanks in part to the strength of its gaming unit.
Sony now expects to record operating profit of 940 billion yen (about $ 9 billion) for the year ending March 31, with 340 billion yen (about $ 3.2 billion) coming from the games and network services segment.
With pole wires