A tube advert for the launch of the PlayStation 5
(Picture: PA)Sony has been forced to slash its sales target for Playstation 5 consoles this year due to part shortages and supply chain woes.
The Japanese entertainment and technology company reduced its sales target from 22 million to 18 million, blaming worries over a lack of available components.
Sony CFO Hiroki Totoki said: “18 million units is what we feel comfortable we can get the parts and components for and we feel there is higher demand than that.
“Stock and inventory remains low, and in terms of providing consoles to customers we are still falling short.”
Totoki cautioned that there would be no immediate resolution to its supply chain issues.
“We believe the external environment in 2022 will be quite hard with many issues we’ll have to address,” Totoki said.
The company reported sales of 9.9 trillion yen (£61 billion) in 2021, up 10% on the previous year, while operating income reached 1.2 trillion yen (£7.5 billion). That was short of analyst expectations.
The growth was led by a 65% increase in sales at its films division as cinemas reopened. Its biggest release was Spiderman: No Way Home, produced in partnership with Marvel.
Sales at Sony’s games division nudged up 3%.
Microsoft’s rival Xbox console has benefitted from the shortage of Playstation 5s, with the company reporting its highest ever monthly sales figure in March, though it also warned lockdowns in China would affect its supply of consoles.
Sony’s shares have fallen 18% over the past month, reflecting a wider drop among tech stocks battling industry wide supply chain issues and cost inflation.
The company announced a 200 billion yen (£1.3 billion) share buyback programme to help bolster its faltering share price.
Sony’s global sales and were bolstered by a fall in the value of the Yen, which has slipped 11% against the dollar since the beginning of March. However, the company said the devaluation of the currency was affecting the cost of components.
Sony senior vice president Sadahiko Hayakawa said: “We are purchasing in US dollars and therefore the raw materials price rise… will undermine our profit structure.”
