According to one report, Sony are internally expecting to ship 16 million PlayStation 4’s this year, with the supply chain “expected to start mass shipments in August” – that’s apparently from component makers producing parts for the next-gen console.
That figure is likely extrapolated, though, with the actual launch numbers much smaller and then projected across the (financial) year.
Digitimes reports that the PlayStation 4 will be manufactured by Foxconn Electronics (Hon Hai Precision Industry) and Pegatron Technology, with Sony just beginning the request for quotation (RFQ) processes for the related internals.
This suggests that shipments for the parts will commence around August, which should in turn mean the console itself could appear on shelves just as 2013 comes to a close.
77 million PlayStation 3s were sold since its launch seven years ago. 16 million at the beginning, whilst clearly a worldwide title and the result of a little bit of guesswork (but one that might well point to a 2013 European release), sounds like quite an ambitious target.
Bilbo_bobbins
I think its good they are going in with high numbers, it will hopefully show those in the industry they mean business next gen.
KeRaSh
The thing about missing previously set goals is that it’s always accompanied by sudden stock value drops, so setting the goal too high could bite them in the rear.
DJ Judas
FIngers crossed it’s such a high figure because they’re including Europe.
Klart
Yes. I don’t feel like waiting for months.
Taylor Made
A bit too optimistic ain’t they 16 million.
KeRaSh
Well, if they want to come anywhere near that number, they better make sure they release it across Europe before Christmas…
TURRICAN-808
The components of the PS4 will be made in China, Czech Republic, Japan, California, Brazil and Mexico.
TURRICAN-808
More specifically:
http://www.pegatroncorp.com/company/businessOperation.php
Unihan in Taiwan will be making the games console, which is where the first model PS3 Slim was leaked from if memory serves me right.
TSBonyman
16 million – did they get the contract for providing consoles to China or something? :)
kjkg
Well I’m getting one, but wonder where the other 150,999,999 are going to go.
teflon
I’m going to make a house out of them.
kjkg
Oops, extra 0 in there. 151 million shipped would be a bit excessive.
damoxuk
Add 2 more for me :)
freezebug2
As long as the most important component is shipped first to factories before anything else…..high quality solder, none of that pound shop glue crap! :O
teflon
Sounds to me that this is a singular point of reference, and we all know the kinds of cockamamy nonsense some people can cook up from a single point of information, rather than the whole picture…
16 million is far more plausible as a full first year order, when you take into account that they may be over-ordering in order to lock up supply of vital components (like those huge GDDR5 chips) and additionally could be struggling with yields of the APU, which combines a lot of tech into a single point of failure during manufacture.
hazelam
so no bs shortage excuse for the, almost, inevitable eu delay. ^_^
cc_star
they don’t know how fast they can reliably make them yet.
I think 16m sounds way over-optimistic unless it’s <£250 or something.
Assuming the 16m number is correct though, like Sky pundit Teflon says, maybe it's massively over-ordering on APUs, because yields could poor until manufacturing process is refined… or the same with the RAM.
jimmy-google
To match the PS3 launch numbers they’re need at least 1.6m (400k, US, 200k Japan, 1mil EU) to include Europe on day one.
According to reports they only met 40% of the demand in the US so they could well be looking for over 2 million for a world wide simultaneous launch. The PS3 were seriously expensive so anything cheaper could well yet need higher numbers at launch .
Peter Chapman
The story of the PS3 launch is really interesting. I read somewhere ages ago that they were going to delay the EU launch further, to divert units and meet US and Japanese stock needs but the head of Sony Europe hired 4 Antonovs from Russia, flew to Japan and emptied the warehouses, bringing the consoles back to Luton. Balls like brass bedknobs.