Why Sony PS5s Are So Hard to Find

It's been over five months since the release of the new Sony PlayStation 5, but somehow, the company still hasn't been able to produce enough of the product to stock store shelves or land in the homes of everyone who wants one. We're rounding home on six months, yet the demand for a Playstation 5 still far outweighs the supply. They are nowhere to be found.

My 13-year-old son has made it his life's mission to obtain one. He looked around his room and sold things he didn't need to generate the money needed to buy the game console. You would think that would be the hard part. He's got more than enough money to cover the PS5's $499 price tag, but the product is just not available.

Earlier this week, I tried to help him out by posting a status on Facebook asking if anyone knows where I can find a PlayStation 5 at retail price. Readers could barely contain their laughter.

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My son was excited that he was "in queue" to buy one, but it was sold out before he could even ask for my credit card.

My question is, why don't they just make more consoles? Sony certainly doesn't benefit from the disparity between the supply and the demand. The only benefit is to the people gouging the price up and selling them on the black market.

It turns out the lack of availability of the PS5 is a combination of a few things, including COVID-19 slowing down the production of pretty much everything, and a shortage of the microchips needed to manufacture the system.

One of our listeners, Aaron Houbre, also had this insight. He suggested that producing limited amounts of the PS5 means that there won't be an excess of them still out there when they launch a Gen 2 or Slim version of the popular console.