Microsoft ended production of Xbox One at the end of 2020; Sony will continue producing PS4s through 2022
The beginning of the new console generation has been defined by shortages. The PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S have been notoriously hard to find since launch, and the two companies have responded to this issue in diametrically opposed ways.
In a statement released to The Verge yesterday, Cindy Walker, senior director of Xbox console product marketing, said "To focus on production of Xbox Series X / S, we stopped production for all Xbox One consoles by the end of 2020." While both variations of the new Xbox console are still facing shortages, the Series S is generally easier to find than the Series X or the PS5. This is possibly because the Series S chip is easier to make. "We can actually build more of the Series S [chips] in the same [chip] die space as we can the Series X," said Xbox head Phil Spencer in another statement to The Verge last year.
Meanwhile, Sony is facing these challenges by focusing on the PS4. A Sony spokesperson has confirmed to Bloomberg that they have no intention of stopping production on the console, saying “It is one of the best-selling consoles ever and there is always crossover between generations." Reportedly, sources had told Bloomberg previously that Sony planned to end PS4 production by the end of 2021, but revised its plan due to the ongoing component shortages. Since the PS4 is cheaper to produce and uses more readily available parts, the company thinks it will be a budget-friendly alternative to consumers. This has derailed PlayStation Chief Jim Ryan's previous statements about wanting to transition users from the PS4 to the PS5 quickly. "As we move towards the next-generation in 2020, one of our tasks -- probably our main task -- is to take that community and transition it from PlayStation 4 to PlayStation 5, and at a scale and pace that we've never delivered on before," he said in a statement to gamesindustry.biz in November 2019.
Despite these issues, both consoles are performing better than any in either company's history. The PlayStation 5 is Sony's fastest-selling console, selling ten million units after eight months, one month faster than the PlayStation 4 did. Phil Spencer also confirmed in a recent interview with The New York Times that the Series X|S were also Microsoft's fastest-selling consoles, though he didn't give specific numbers.