Sony Discontinuing Certain PS4 Models, According to Rumor - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 02 August 2021 / 4,292 Views
Sony launched the PlayStation 5 in November and despite selling a record number of consoles at launch, Sony has not been able to keep up with demand. The PS5 has already sold over four million units worldwide through December 19, according to VGChartz estimates.
With a focus on the PS5, stock for the PlayStation 4 has been limited with sales down significantly year-over-year during the holidays. Sony had shipped 113.6 million PS4 consoles as of September 30, 2020.
A Japanese PS4 user has posted an image at a retailer that says Sony has stopped manufacturing certain PS4 models. The models include 500GB and 1TB Glacier White models, the 1TB and 2TB Jet Black models, and the PS4 Pro 1TB Glacier White model.
This should be treated as a rumor until Sony makes an official announcement.
“Dear customers: due to the manufacturer ending production, the following products will not be restocked.”
— Cheesemeister (@Cheesemeister3k) January 3, 2021
・PS4 500GB Glacier White
・PS4 1TB Jet Black
・PS4 1TB Glacier White
・PS4 2TB Jet Black
・PS4 Pro 1TB Glacier White pic.twitter.com/nub3lxcJGX
Thanks, DualShockers.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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I feel like global shift in production (dropping SKU) is inevitable, even Sony wants to keep selling PS4 is it really worthwhile to sell multiple SKUs of both base and Pro? A Super Slim to go along with price drop makes sense (really, irrespective of price drop, it could increase profitability), and then the question is if they go disc-less. The hypothetical profits gained are probably significantly less than for PS5, given this is end-of-gen cycle and targetting the most limited budget consumers, but it's probably worthwhile if they are doing a Super Slim refresh anyways (and could save shelf space at retailers for more PS5, once supply/demand stabilizes, that is).
or they could potentially stop ps4 production entirely and force people to go for the ps4 digital.
One nuance is a process shrink for CPU/GPU is probably not likely. For one, I think Jaguar can't be moved to new processes with just simple "shrink" and would need re-factoring it's design that just wouldn't be worth it. But even ignoring that, it doesn't make sense to use the constrained supply from newest fabs on a last-gen long-tail product, when it should be going towards increasing PS5 supply. Whereas keeping PS4 on last-gen node doesn't compete for the same fabs' limited capacity.
With that in mind, dropping disc drive (~$20 all inclusive) is probably one of the single largest cost reductions they can aim for, although they can try to drive down everything else too (the margin on last-gen fab products and had drives should be dropped, capital costs already paid off), the prospects are just smaller. Without a process change the power draw shouldn't change much, so shrinking power supply also isn't major prospect. All in all, the benefits of online software retail margin is main factor in pushing new disc-less SKU although they probably wouldn't need to subsidize it as much as disc-less PS5 to reach cheaper price.
I'm surprised we haven't seen a Super Slim by now.
With how successful the PS4 has been. Sony really should've gone for a Super Slim. But maybe since they made a mid-gen upgrade like the PS4 Pro, they didn't want a fourth hardware variant. No PlayStation home console has had more than 3 yet, and I don't count tiny things like memory changes or port changes on an existing model.
It makes me wonder as well if a PS4 Super Slim would've been digital-only. Sony could save a little money cutting out the Blu-ray drive, and it would help the console be slimmer. It would be even more pro-consumer if they included a 2 TB drive. But considering Microsoft didn't do that with the Xbox One S All-Digital, I don't think Sony would either.
I personally haven't seen White PS4 consoles in a long long time
After getting Xbox Series X, I must say that both Sony and MS should discontinue all their past consoles. Its criminal to play with old school hard drives. SSD gaming is the future and its here now.
1: SSDs are great, but they aren't necessary for gaming. You can use a HDD and still be fine, it's just recommended for a more fluent PC experience.
2: If you really thought that then you should have got a gaming PC a long time ago. SSDs have been around since 1991, but haven't really become mainstream till around 2010. That was 3 years before the PS4 and Xbox One even came out. So you could have been "in the future" before the 8th generation even started. This was one of the reasons people kept saying the PS4 and Xbox One came out 3-4 years outdated (the jaguar CPU in both systems helped with that too). Now Sony and Microsoft came out with systems that have much newer tech that makes their systems feel like a next generation. The PS4 Pro and Xbox One X both could have had SSDs, but they chose not to and were still held back by that crappy CPU.
Right, I don't even know what that has to do with the topic. If you want SSD and next gen power Sony has option to sell that, this is for customers looking for budget option, and SSD is still more expensive not to mention all PS4 games are designed around functioning on base hard drive models. But some people cannot pull their head out of their own ass and realize a topic isn't all about them despite flashing neon signs saying exactly that.
Expected. They want to keep the lowest priced one in stock for a low price. Same reason Microsoft is only keeping the Xbox One S. Next gen is here, but last gen systems mostly live 1-2 years in the next gen system's lives. I say "mostly" because the Wii U died before the Switch was even out. It did get few software releases that year, but I'm referring to console life spans.
For discontinuations for everywhere I'll say PS4 2022 or 2023. Xbox One S I'll say this year (2021) or 2022. It is weird to say only 2-3 these systems are done after PS5/XBS when back then some consoles went 3+ years after their successor.
Xbox got discontinued 4 years after Xbox 360, Xbox 360 3 years, PS2 nearly 7 years, PS1 6 years, PS3 4 years, GBA 6 years, Atari 2600 10 years (out lived the 5200 and died on the same year as the 7800), NES 13 years, SNES 7 years, and the Master System and Genesis are still sold to this day in Brazil.
For the Japanese market yes it makes sense for Sony to do this. However PS4 is still doing alright in the European and North American regions. Jim Ryan has gone on record to state PS4 will be supported for another 3 to 4 years. I'll wait for Sony's PR regarding this issue. Sony never drops support of their home consoles 7 years into their life cycles.
Interestingly enough, PS3 was discontinued last in Japan. It survived until early 2017. It seems the opposite is happening now. PS4 will be discontinued in Japan this year, it seems. It should survive in North America, Europe, and possibly Australia for another 2-3 years.
Also...by stating "we will continue to support the PS4 for 3 to 4 years" does not mean at the hardware production level. We will see games, services and features for PS4 over that timeframe, but that doesn't mean that hardware will continue.
@Tridrakious That could be taken in multiple of ways in terms of what Mr. Jim Ryan truly meant by that. Point still stands that Sony never drops production of their home consoles 7 years into a life cycle. If anything Sony always aims to manufacture as many of their home consoles as they can within a decade and beyond of their respective life cycles. So I'll wait for Sony themselves to give insight on this matter.
It's crazy how long PS1 and PS2 especially lasted.
Very true man. Sony manufactured those consoles beyond a decade ... Crazy.
I would be surprised if we go all of 2021 without Sony announcing they will discontinue production of the PS4 line of consoles. With the pandemic, they really should be focusing more and more on the ability to get more PS5s produced. That's going to be the bigger driver of profitability, not helping to keep PS4 inventory up.
