Sony Group Corporation (NYSE: SONY) launched its next-generation PlayStation 5 gaming console in November.

Sales of the gaming hardware are going through the roof, as seen in the strong sales numbers revealed by the company in its earnings report for fiscal year 2020.

What Happened: Sony is now prepping to clock in record PS5 sales in fiscal year 2022, and to achieve the feat, the Japanese electronics giant is planning to ramp up production to at least 22.6 million.

The strong outlook comes despite the uncertainty surrounding a  semiconductor shortage.

"We aim to make fiscal year 2022 our strongest ever," Jim Ryan, president and CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment, said in an investor presentation.

The previous record for Sony in annual console sales was in fiscal year 1998, when it sold 22.6 million units of the original Play Station console.

Sony noted that monthly active users, game play average hours per account and game monetization have all increased with the PS5.

PS5 sales for the year ended March 31, or fiscal year 2020, stood at 7.8 million.

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Why It's Important: Sony launched the PS5 in China in late April and began accepting preorders. China is a huge market for console sales and the fact that Sony has gotten in ahead of Microsoft Corporation's (NASDAQ: MSFT) Xbox bodes well for the Japanese company.

The company sees redoubled China focus, broadening of direct physical retailing capacity, first-party studio expansion, cloud & service strategy, new levels of immersion and ‘Beyond Console' approach as next growth vectors.

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Photo courtesy of Sony.