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GeppyX

Can someone explain the PS5 shortage?

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I understand that there has been a shortage for a long time. It's some kind of semi conductor shortage, due to the pandemic. I don't really understand it though. The pandemic started a while ago, I thought most of us have moved on for the most part. 

Also, how will Sony make money if they don't have enough PS5's if PS6 comes out before they can produce enough? It's been about a year and a half. So if another year and half goes by and we're in the same situation, we have to start thinking about PS6. 

So can someone explain to me the chip shortage in simple terms? I really don't understand it. I understand that Covid affected many things. But the worst of the pandemic is over. There may always be a virus, like the flu, but the worst of it is over and I don't see how you can use Covid as an excuse anymore. We play video games inside. 

Now I might not be aware of how this all works. Maybe it's not the virus itself, but the aftermath of it. I don't get it though. Nobody has explained to me what this all means. There's no more deadly pandemic.

Edited by GeppyX
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It's a back to back whammy starting with Covid, then Russia's invasion. Covid forced manufacturing in some areas to not have requisitions for new chips as demand dropped due to people staying at home and spending less money to buy products. That shifted the market over to electronics like computers. Then ps5 and Xbox was released right in the middle of the pandemic and never expected the huge demand. It takes a few months to produce the chips. And I have no proof, but I don't doubt businesses are hoarding chips. Then Russia's invasion has halted production of neon in Ukraine that's used to make half of the world's supply for chips from 2 companies Ingas and Cryoin. Ingas is in Mariupol which is a city that has been destroyed and Cryoin also shut down. Russia makes a huge chunk of palladium for the chips and sanctions has crippled it. Taiwan is the largest chip supplier which makes it a prime target for China to seize control. Other countries including the U.S. are looking to start up chip manufacturing at home. Then again we need other suppliers of neon and palladium. All this could very well lead to a global crisis with everyone trying to gain the upper hand to control the market. 

https://www.reuters.com/technology/exclusive-ukraine-halts-half-worlds-neon-output-chips-clouding-outlook-2022-03-11/

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2022-03-16/when-will-the-chip-shortage-end-u-s-eu-spend-billions-in-race-to-beat-china

 

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I would say another part of it was just bad timing. As the pandemic hit, people weren't worried about gaming as much as normal, as they were hoarding things like toilet paper and food. And this affected every industry in the world. Sony had a lot of workers that couldn't come in, thus their production was slowed down. Add into it the fact that the pandemic also slowed down the production of microchips that were needed to make the PS5, that slowed them down even more. So for every 10,000 that wants a PS5, only one will get one. And that's not changing any time soon, unless they go through a scalper, or pay some extortionate price from places like Walmart online.

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Scalpers, the Pandemic, the war between Ukraine and Russia are all affecting supplies because certain components for electronics come from Ukraine only. It'll probably be like this until next year as the world is returning to a bit of normalcy in terms of supplies.

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It isn't an easy one at all, the global pandemic, resulted in delays of products scarcity, which is the main reason in which PS5 was delayed though. The ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine also caused more delay as well. 

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17 hours ago, Justin11 said:

It isn't an easy one at all, the global pandemic, resulted in delays of products scarcity, which is the main reason in which PS5 was delayed though. The ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine also caused more delay as well. 

Scalpers also played a huge role in the whole saga - buying up the whole stock and selling the consoles way above their market price and the idiots who bought from these scalpers.

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Just now, killamch89 said:

Scalpers also played a huge role in the whole saga - buying up the whole stock and selling the consoles way above their market price and the idiots who bought from these scalpers.

The scalpers are the ones who made the price of this consoles to be so high. Had it been they never came in and changed the price to something so high, many could've gotten it freely by this time and affordable too. 

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Those scalpers really aggravated the problem. They are sitting on gold now, but who will buy? The shortage will probably keep the prices high even in the future. It's estimated the chip shortage and ps5 shortage will get back on track in 2023. But I haven't seen anything change in the world. Has anyone else? Is there a new factory producing neon? Chip companies say they have up to 6 months of neon in reserve. What happens when that runs out? China  has companies that produce neon and has already jacked up its prices. 

https://www.vox.com/recode/22983468/neon-shortage-chips-semiconductors-russia-ukraine

 

Edited by Reality vs Adventure
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This whole chip shortage thing, in addition to my 5700xt having driver issues, has made me way more productive than I was planning on. When scalping has become an unethical yet legitimate career option. What a wonderful time to live in.

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I have now come to the conclusion that PS5 will never be readily available, definitely not in this gen. It's been over a year and a half. If they are not able to have them available now, then there's no reason to think that they will in another couple years. Nothing is going to change. So the only solution, outside of some luck, would be to get it from a scalper. But then again, there's a lack of games. 

If it isn't available now, then this is how it's going to be.

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I got lucky and found mine on Craigslist. The price was great considering that it came with 3 games as well. There's a lot of them being sold on CL, but you're going to have to weed through a lot of bullshit posts to find the one legit one. I contacted someone about a PS5 before I got the one that I have now, and they straight up told me that they were a scalper. I told them to piss off and blocked them. I'll do without before I buy ANYTHING from a damn scalper.

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19 hours ago, GeppyX said:

I have now come to the conclusion that PS5 will never be readily available, definitely not in this gen. It's been over a year and a half. If they are not able to have them available now, then there's no reason to think that they will in another couple years. Nothing is going to change. So the only solution, outside of some luck, would be to get it from a scalper. But then again, there's a lack of games. 

If it isn't available now, then this is how it's going to be.

Sony mentioned several times that their will be console shortage until 2023, i think if you put a little effort in it, i'm sure you can manage to put down a preorder somewhere, i think most people who wanted a ps5 badly have one by now so it's just a matter of being lucky now or having patience.

look it on the bright side by the time you may get a ps5 a lot of games may already be on sale, so you win in the end by saving money 😉

Also nice avatar geppy-x kind off a forgotten ps1 shoot em up that is still a blast to play, if only the music wasen't so ridiculous.

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