Sony has revealed that due to continuing high demand for the console, PS4 stock shortages could continue until April.
Having launched back in November, PS4 stocks remain hard to come by, with Sony’s latest console offering still listed as ‘sold out’ with a number of major retailers.
Now, Fergal Gara, Head of PlayStation UK, has warned gamers that the console could remain in short supply for another couple of months yet.
Questioned on when the Xbox One rival will be readily available to consumers and in strong supply, Gara told MCV: “Based on what I’ve seen so far, I think it is going to be tricky until around about April.”
He added: “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.”
Although suggesting the PS4 should be filling retailer’s shelves come April, Gara cast shadows over his own predictions with a little caveat.
“That’s our best guess,” he said. “It might be a little earlier than that, or it might be a little later. But we’ll get there.”
With PS4 sales widely reportedly to have eclipsed those of the Xbox One, a trend that is said to be continuing in Sony’s favour, Gara has claimed that unexpectedly high demand has affected stock availability.
“PS4 pre-orders were obviously a strong indicator of what was going to happen, but they were so big that we were pinching ourselves and wondering if people we pre-ordering in more than one place, and if some of these pre-orders were real.
“We were getting numbers we never imagined, let alone seen before. But it proved to be real.”
Offering his views on why the PS4 has proved to be so much more popular than the company expected, the PlayStation UK boss has suggested are becoming more used to high-price technology upgrades.
“I think the world has changed since we launched PS3,” Gara stated. “The price differential between PS3 and PS4 is not nearly as big as it was between PS2 and PS3.”
He added: “You are also talking about a public that has become used to regular technology upgrades on reasonably expensive devices, like tablets and smartphones.
“There is a comfort level with upgrading that meant consumers were ready earlier and there was a pent-up demand that we couldn’t anticipate.”
Are you happy to wait for a PS4 or are stock shortages pushing you towards the Xbox One? Let us know via the comments boxes below.
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