Sony Wants To Produce More PlayStation 5 Consoles And That Means Cutting PS4 Production

With the Sony PlayStation 5 now launched in most areas across the world (pre-orders in India begin on January 12), it seems that Sony is closing the curtain on the previous generation PlayStation 4 consoles. Some, if not all variants and in Japan at least, if not all regions. According to a recent report, the Japanese electronics major has discontinued all but one PlayStation 4 models including the flagship PlayStation 4 Pro. The report, published in a Japanese website called GameWatch, says that most of Sony PlayStation 4 Slim and all of PlayStation 4 Pro models have already been discontinued by Sony, at least in Japan.

The report says that the only PS4 model that it will continue making is the PS4 Slim Jet Black 500GB variant. Further, it says that the popular glacier white colour and the larger 1TB storage capacity won’t be produced anymore, at least in Japan. The report goes on to say that Sony Interactive Entertainment plans to cut the production of the PlayStation 4 in order to increase the production of the new PlayStation 5 console, which is seeing a continuously growing demand amid an extreme shortage of units. As the GameWatch report surfaced, a tipster going by the name @Cheesemeister posted a photo of a PlayStation 4 rack in a Japanese store, which said: ““Dear customers: due to the manufacturer ending production, the following products will not be restocked,” further listing the products as PS4 Pro 500GB Glacier White, PS4 1TB Jet Black, PS4 1TB Glacier White, PS4 2TB Jet Black, and PS4 Pro 1TB Glacier white. This, in a way, confirms the development, at least to the extent that one specific store won’t be restocking most PS4 models.

While there is no official word from Sony about discontinuing the PlayStation 4 consoles in any region, it is being speculated that the move would make sense in order to meet the massive demand for the PlayStation 5, which has seen major stock shortages since its launch. So far, it seems that the move has only been announced in Japan, and it is unclear if other markets will follow suit. In the US, a move like this would also make sense as the PS4 Pro and the PS5 digital edition carry the exact same $399 (roughly Rs 29,200) price tag.

Sony’s rival Microsoft also made a similar move with the latest Xbox consoles, as the company discontinued its previous generation Xbox One X and the Xbox One S Digital Edition ahead of the launch of the Xbox Series X|S consoles.

Sony is set to launch the PlayStation 5 in India next month, on February 2, with the pre-orders for the new generation consoles beginning on January 12. The PS5 is priced at Rs 39,990 for the Digital Edition in India, while the PS5 console with a disc drive costs Rs 49,990 in the country.

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