It seems that Sony has discontinued the PS4 Slim 500GB console. While this variant of the wildly popular console sells in parts of the world, retailers in India have been informed that they would no longer be getting stock of the PS4 Slim 500GB. Instead, they have been told to take larger quantities of the PS4 Slim 1TB. Like most of the world, the PS4 is the market leader in India with Microsoft’s Xbox One family of consoles trailing behind by a considerable margin. So much so that some retailers in the country don’t even stock the Xbox One S or X. Nintendo is a non-entity outside parallel imports due to the company not having an Indian presence.
The lack of a PS4 Slim 500GB variant has left game stores troubled. Reason being, it was the most popular version of the PS4. This can be attributed to its relatively low MRP of Rs. 28,580 versus the PS4 Slim 1TB’s price of Rs. 33,650 and the PS4 Pro India price of Rs. 38,710. Sony has not replied to our request for comment and we’ll update our story if we hear from the company. For their part, retailers have lamented the loss of a best seller.
“The 500GB PS4 Slim made up around 50 percent of our PS4 sales,” a Mumbai-based store owner tells The Mako Reactor under the condition of anonymity. “Sony was pushing it aggressively through the year with good bundles and discounts. Discontinuing it is a problem because customers don’t find the new PS4 1TB options to have that much value.”
This lines up with what sources in the supply chain have told us in the past — the PS4 Slim 500GB variant has been the biggest seller in India followed by the PS4 Pro 1TB and then the PS4 Slim 1TB. The widely accepted install base for the PS4 in India is around 400,000 units. This includes grey market sales of the PS4 and PS4 Slim as well as the PS4 Pro sold via various channels (official or otherwise) sold till date, which has seen it surpass the PS3 with which only mustered 350,000 units in its lifetime.
With the biggest selling console out of the equation and supply of the PS4 Pro exceptionally irregular, Sony seems to be undermining its own position as market leader in a country that’s theirs for the taking.
