PS5 redesign will enter production in 2022, new report claims

Sony will reportedly start production on a PlayStation 5 hardware redesign in 2022.

That’s according to Taiwanese business website DigiTimes, which claims that suppliers including semiconductor foundry TSMC are planning to start producing the redesigned PS5 console between the second and third quarters of next year.

As noted by Kantan Games analyst Dr. Serkan Toto, DigiTimes’ supply chain sources say the redesigned PS5 will come with a “new semi-customized” 6nm CPU from AMD.

• Further Reading: 2022 games

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It’s likely the redesign is purely components-focused and won’t feature any significant external changes.

Sony recently said it’s unlikely that supplies of PS5 consoles will drastically improve in its current fiscal year, which ends on March 31, 2022.

However, during an investor call following the publication of record PlayStation financial results, Sony CFO Hiroki Totoki said the company was considering various solutions to help it cope with the global shortage of hardware components, including potentially altering hardware designs or sourcing secondary suppliers.

“As I said earlier, we’re aiming for more sales volume than the PS4 [during year 2]. But can we drastically increase the supply? No, that’s not likely,” he said.

“The shortage of semiconductors is one factor, but there are other factors that will impact on the production volume. So, at present, we’d like to aim at [beating] second year sales of 14.8 million, which was the second year of PS4.”

Asked specifically about the shortage of semiconductors, which is affecting all consumer electronics industries from smart phones to automobiles, Totoki suggested Sony had means with which it could cope.

“For example, we could find maybe a secondary resource, or by changing the design we could cope,” the exec said.

Following “unprecedented” consumer demand for PS5, Sony claimed that the platform recorded “the biggest console launch of all-time”.

Further reading

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Sony reports 7.8m PS5s shipped in ‘PlayStation’s best year ever’

PS5 is tracking ahead of PS4 and Sony expects sales performance to continue this year

PS5 shipped 4.5 million units during its launch quarter and a further 3.3 million units in the quarter ended March 31, 2021, according to Sony. It means total shipments reached 7.8 million in the first two quarters since launch in November 2020, surpassing the 7.6 million sales achieved by PlayStation 4 during the same timescale.

Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan has refused to guarantee the company will be able to satisfy PS5 demand by the 2021 holiday sales season, noting in a February interview with the Financial Times that “there are very few magic wands that can be waved,” although he said the supply situation will improve throughout the year.

“It will get better every month throughout 2021,” Ryan said. “The pace of the improvement in the supply chain will gather throughout the course of the year, so by the time we get to the second half of [2021], you’re going to be seeing really decent numbers indeed.”