Switch Sales Top 108 Million - Global Hardware May 15-21

[The_Liquid_Laser]

curl-6 said:

Doctor_MG said:

Sure, but this just reinforces my point that PS5 won't sell 30M in a single year. As it gradually becomes more available attitudes will begin to shift. By the time it gets to 20M sales in a year we would be seeing them on store shelves no problem. At that point, the scarcity principle no longer applies and demand is no longer amplified. 

The thing about the scarcity principle is that demand doesn't stay pent up for long once something is readily available.

To be fair, I never said it will sell 30m in a year, what I meant was that it could if supply issues weren't a thing. It was more of a hypothetical scenario. I acknowledged that by the time the crunch is over it could be too late for it to happen.

Semantics aside, my general point is that I feel like a lot of folks are underestimating the PS5 by looking at current (strangled) sales and not factoring in just how much pent up demand there is.

There is actually not that much pent up demand for the PS5.  Use some common sense instead of reading internet forums and social media.  Here are some more important things to thing about.

1)  The best way to gage demand is to look at the resale market.  When the NES mini launched for a MSRP of $60, you could find it regularly resold for $300 or more.  That is 500% of the MSRP or a 400% mark up.  That is a situation where demand far outstrips supply, and even then it meant that Nintendo just needed to make several million more.  (It did not mean the NES mini would be a 100m+ seller.)  Right now I can buy a PS5 on Ebay for $690.  That is only a 38% markup.  That means demand is just barely outstripping supply, at least in the US.  The demand is not overwhelming.  It is almost met.

2)  One must ask oneself what would be causing demand for the product.  In the PS5's case, there is not much reason to buy one.  Where is the exclusive software?  Ratchet and Clank is probably a decent game, but it isn't selling like BotW or AC: New Horizons.  Software sells hardware, and PS5 mostly just has cross-gen games.  I also just watched a State of Play that told me that most of the big games for the next year will be cross-gen.  There is not much reason for the PS5 to keep selling. 

Basically we should expect PS5 supply to meet demand sometime this year.  Demand is currently just a little bit higher than supply, and there is not much driving demand in the near future.