There are still hopes that more PS5 stock is going to be released in 2020 in both the UK and the United States.
Re-stock options remain thin on the ground, although this week saw PlayStation 5 consoles return to websites like GAME, Walmart, Currys and PlayStation Direct.
Back in November, Sony pledged to bring as many PlayStation 5 re-stock options to the market as possible, telling gamers:
“We want to thank gamers everywhere for making the PS5 launch our biggest console launch ever.
“Demand for PS5 is unprecedented, so we wanted to confirm that more PS5 inventory will be coming to retailers before the end of the year – please stay in touch with your local retailers.”
So there’s a good chance of another re-stock event going live before January 2021.
And there are plenty of analysts who believe that demand for the PlayStation 5 will remain strong in the years to come.
One of those is the technology analyst firm Omdia, who has backed Sony’s PS5 to push sales of 64 million consoles by 2024.
That would mean PlayStation 5 sales going smoothly over the next few years, despite the initial supply problems.
Omdia also predicted that Microsoft would ship 42 million Xbox Series X and S brand consoles over the same period.
For 2020, Omdia predicts that Sony will sell more PS5 consoles in 2020 than Microsoft will sell Xbox Series consoles.
However, the difference will be small, perhaps less than a million sales will keep the two companies.
This will only increase in the years to come, widening until Sony commands a strong lead, but not as large as the one between PS4 and Xbox One.
Speaking more on the subject to Gamasutra, Omdia senior analyst George Jijiashvili added: “This forthcoming generation is ultimately PlayStation’s game to lose.
“Strikingly, whereas in the fourth full year of the previous generation, Xbox was only selling 41 per cent as many consoles as PlayStation, this time around we predict Xbox to be tracking at 63 per cent of PlayStation’s numbers in 2024.”
Interestingly enough, this will be the same period when cloud gaming starts to grow in usage.
It will provide new competition to the traditional console market, although Omdia also predicts growing pains ahead for those services.
Omdia polled over 5,000 consumers across five key markets to gain insight into consumers’ awareness and uptake of cloud gaming services.
And according to those findings, Only 18% of all respondents knew about cloud gaming services.
Of that group, 5% were existing subscribers and 4% were planning to subscribe, with Omdia confirming: “The global cloud gaming market is currently small, generating $1.4bn in 2020, or about 1% of the consumer spend on games.
“Over the next five years, it will expand at an impressive CAGR of 54%, with total annual revenue reaching $12bn in 2025, or about 7.5% of total consumer spend on games across all formats.
“Public launches of cloud gaming services from Google (Stadia), Microsoft (Xbox Game Pass Ultimate) and Nvidia (GeForce Now) have solidified dedicated gamers’ familiarity with the concept of cloud gaming.
“Casual gamers, however, have remained largely apathetic to it, but we believe this will not be a significant barrier for service providers targeting this consumer segment.
“The likes of Facebook Gaming, Hatch and several white-label telco services emphasise instant playability of games, without focusing on the technology.
“This approach is most evident on the Facebook Gaming platform, where the new cloud gaming titles are offered alongside existing HTML5 Instant Games. Therefore, it’s very likely that soon, many casual gamers will be unknowingly playing games in the cloud.”
Expect more news from Sony when it comes to the PlayStation 5 and more stock being released to retailers.
