A new report from Digitimes claims that Sony is planning to ship a massive 16 million PS4 units before the end of the year, with mass shipments starting as early as August. The ambitious target suggests that a European release of the console could be on the cards, and appear on shelves just towards the end of 2013. The report also points out that the console will be manufactured by Foxconn Electronics (Hon Hai Precision Industry) and Pegatron Technology.
The 16 million units figure, most likely extrapolated with a bit of guesswork, hopefully means Sony are planning for a worldwide release before the end of the year. The PS3 missed it’s initial shipment quota when it launched in North America back in 2006, and the European launch was delayed until March 2007, hopefully Sony has the logistics sorted out for the PS4 so we don’t see a repeat of events.