Sony’s hardly resting on its laurels with those sales figures; T3 reported that Sony CFO Hiroki Totoki said during the company’s recent earnings call that one potential solution to the shortage could be a redesign of the console (via Creative Bloq).
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The context for the comment is important here as Totoki was responding to a question regarding the semiconductor shortage, which is one of the major driving factors for the limited PS5 availability. He indicated that two potential solutions for the problem would be finding another source (for the necessary semiconductors) or changing the design. Before you start imagining a PS5 Slim or a drastic rethink of the somewhat controversial PS5 chassis, he was likely speaking about an internal redesign that would somehow reduce the material needs for the console. Unfortunately, he didn’t elaborate on the idea and no follow-up questions were asked on the matter. Totoki indicates these steps could be taken within this fiscal year, which started on April 1 for Sony. That seems like an aggressive timeline, but considering the consistent reports that this shortage will be ongoing through at least early 2022, it is certainly plausible that the company has already been looking into these options. With PS5 fans still clamoring for the consoles and Totoki saying the company hopes to hit at least the same 14.8 million consoles that the PS4 did in its second year on the market, there’s little doubt Sony is going to do whatever it can to get more consoles on shelves.
