Sony’s PS5 production on track for holiday launch 

Sony said that the launch of the PlayStation 5 video game console is on track for the launch during the 2020 holiday season.

The Japanese company made the announcement as part of its earnings release early Tuesday morning. The company said that while PlayStation 4 hardware production was slightly impacted due to issues in the component supply chain because of the pandemic, production is back to normal.

On top of that, Sony said that the PS5 production faces “constraints” due to employees working from home and restrictions on international travel. But the company said all necessary measures are being taken to launch the console for the 2020 holiday season. Neither Sony nor its rival Microsoft have announced the launch dates for their consoles yet, except to say they will debut in the holidays

“At this time, no major problems have arisen in the game software development pipeline for Sony’s own first-party studios or its partners’ studios,” the company said.

During the first fiscal quarter ended June 30, Sony reported revenues of $5.65 billion, up 35% from a year earlier, and it said net income was $1.17 billion, up 50% from the same period a year earlier.

Sony forecasts a significant increase in its forecast because of game software and PS 5 sales. Sony also said that The Last of Us Part II and Ghost of Tsushima, two major exclusives for the PlayStation 4, are trending well. Sony’s PlayStation Plus subscriptions have reached 45 million players.

Sony said it sold 18.5 million copies of first-party game software for the PS4 in the first fiscal quarter ended June 30, up from 11.7 million a year earlier.