Sony expects shortages of the PS4 in the UK to persist till April

An executive for Sony Computer Entertainment in the UK and Ireland said in an interview that the PlayStation 4 video game console will continue to be in short supply till April, maybe even a little later.

As Sony PlayStation 4 is outselling its arch-rival Xbox One by almost two times in the UK, according to some retailers, not everyone can get it because of shortages caused by overwhelming demand. Since the company is still expanding geography of the PS4 availability and struggles to meet demand in different parts of the world, local shortages will continue to occur. At present it is hard to predict when the PlayStation 4 is set to become freely available in the UK, but local executives believe that this will happen around April.

“I can’t work it out precisely, but based on what I have seen so far, I think it is going to be tricky until around about April,” said Fergal Gara, vice president and managing director of UK & Ireland at Sony Computer Entertainment, in an interview with MCV UK. “You might get a fortnight or a week here or there where it is more available, but we should be back to free supply by about April.”

Sony has already sold over 5.3 million PlayStation 4 units around the globe, which is more than the company originally planned to sell this fiscal year (ends on 31st of March, 2014). As a result of overwhelming demand for the console, Sony had to increase orders to contract makers who assemble the PlayStations. However, since manufacturing capacities may be limited, it will naturally take some time before the company adjusts its supply with demand from gamers.
“[April timeframe] is our best guess,” stressed Mr. Gara. “It might be a little earlier than that, or it might be a little later. But we’ll get there.”

KitGuru Says: It is obvious that the current demand for the PS4 is mostly driven by core gamers who play a lot of games and in many cases own more than one console. Sony did a lot to attract these people to the PlayStation 4 last year. What will be interesting to see is whether the company will manage to repeat its success and attract casual gamers to the new platform just as well down the lifecycle of the PS4.

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