PS5: Sony Aims to Exceed PS4's 14.8 Million Second-Year Sales - But Parts Shortages Might Stop That

Sony plans to sell over 14.8 million PlayStation 5 units during its second financial year on sale, April 2021 to March 2022. That's more than the hugely successful PS4 shipped in its own second financial year – but that goal could be affected by a global semiconductor shortage. In a briefing following Sony's Q3 FY2020 earnings (transcribed by The Motley Fool), a Sony spokesperson noted the company's hopes to outsell the PS4's second-year sales numbers. "For [the] next fiscal year, we believe that there will be strong demand to continue. The second year of the launch of the PS4 [hit] 14.8 million, we would like to exceed that level of PS4 when it comes to PS5," the spokesperson said. The statement came in response to a question about the PS5's lower inventory being a consequence of a global semiconductor shortage, which has inhibited how many consoles can be manufactured – and could continue to do so. "However, we have to look at the global shortage of semiconductors," the spokesperson continued. "When we try to increase our capacity, we face difficulties because of this global situation." As we reported in late January, AMD is anticipating chip shortages through the first half of 2021, caused in part by the lack of semiconductors entering the market. AMD's chips help power PS5, meaning there could well be a knock-on effect for Sony and the production of more PlayStation 5 units. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=the-best-ps5-games&captions=true"] In the shorter term, Sony said it is on track to meet its current-year sales target of 7.6 million units by 31 March 2020, but notes that it was not able to meet the "high level of demand" from customers, which it expects to continue into the next fiscal year. Sony's earnings also revealed that the company had sold 4.5 million PS5s as of December 2020, matching the PS4's launch. In other PlayStation 5 news, a recent system update has fixed the PS4 disc installation bug affecting users. If you've been lucky enough to get hold of a PS5, check out our list of the best PS5 games and, if you need help with it, check out all our PS5 how-to guides. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Jordan Oloman is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter.