Ever since its launch, the PlayStation 4 has been sold out at world wide retailers. Here and there, small shipments of them appear but just as quickly as they appear, they tend to disappear into gamer hands. The situation itself certainly won’t be improving in the near future as Japan, Sony’s home country is the latest region that the powerful console has just launched in, ensuring that global supplies will once again take a hit. With the company selling a whopping 5.3 million units, well ahead of Microsoft and the Xbox One, Sony is having a problem that many companies would like to have, where demand outstrips supply. Still, keep it up for too long and those excited buyers might turn their attention towards the competitor or a different product category.

So when can we expect PS4 production to catch up to demand? Not for a few months it seems.

Speaking with MCV UK, PlayStation UK/Ireland boss Fergal Gara indicated that gamers should expect PS4 supply to be limited for the majority of Spring:

 I can’t work it out precisely. But based on what I’ve seen so far, I think it is going to be tricky until around about April. You might get a fortnight or a week here or there where it is more available, but we should be back to free supply by about April. That’s our best guess. It might be a little earlier than that, or it might be a little later. But we’ll get there. 

With key games like inFamous: Second Son and DriveClub likely to launch in the late Spring, early Summer timeframe, its only reasonable to presume that demand for the PS4 will continue to build while the latest installment feature Snake and company, Metal Gear Solid 5: Ground Zeroes will make its next gen debut in mid March, putting a further hindrance on supplies.

Discuss:

Have you been struggling at getting your hands on a PS4?