According to a report from Taiwan’s DigiTimes, Sony is planning to ship a whopping 16 million PlayStation 4 consoles this year. This is based on supply chain information from various component makers. Sony will manufacture the PS4 at Foxconn and Pegatron Technology, and will aim to start manufacturing in August, in order to have enough inventory for the Fall launch.
16 million consoles does sound like quite a lot, especially for just a few months worth of sales. The PlayStation 3 sold only a few million during its launch, and so did the PlayStation 2 (which eventually went on to sell 150 million units).
It could be that the source is referring to the “fiscal year”, which would end March 31, 2014. But even then, selling 16 million consoles would make the PlayStation 4 by far the fastest selling game console in history. It just seems like too much, no matter how you look at it.
DigiTimes isn’t known for their accuracy when it comes to rumors, so we’ll take this one with an extra grain of salt.
