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Sony’s PlayStation 5 arrives November 12, priced at $500
If in-person events were still a thing in 2020, there’s a pretty good chance we’d know a lot more about the PlayStation 5 by now. With tech companies setting their own event schedules, however, Sony and Microsoft have offered themselves a more leisurely schedule with which to portion out news. Microsoft struck first, with aggressive pricing, two different launch models and a financing plan.
Now it’s Sony’s time to shine. Today’s big event answered some of the lingering questions about the next-generation console. The company waited until the bitter end for the most important details. The PS5 will arrive in select markets on November 12 for $500, while the Digital Edition (sans-optical drive) runs $400.
On that date, the console will be available in North America, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and South Korea. The rest of the world will get their hands on the console a week later, on November 19. The pricing keeps the PS5 plenty competitive with the new Xboxes. The Series X hits the same price point, while the lower-end Series S runs $299. Microsoft’s console launches a full two days earlier than Sony’s, so that should be fun.
Sony’s pricing was the source of a good deal of speculation and hand-wringing in recent months. But while Microsoft got the first salvo, the PS5 is going to be right there along with it — a fact that should be the source of a good deal of concern for Redmond’s gaming team. Pricing is going to be a big factor in decision making. While game spending has ballooned during the COVID-19 shutdown, many folks are cautious about pulling the trigger on big-ticket items amid such an uncertain economic slow down.
As ever, the event leaned very heavily toward trailers and gameplay demos, showcasing the titles the PS5 will have on offer. Things kicked off with some major franchise blockbusters, including Final Fantasy XVI and the best look yet at Spider-Man: Miles Morales, which featured an extremely compelling bridge battle.
The Spider-Man expansion is due this holiday, to coincide with the console’s launch. Ditto for Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, which got a brand new trailer, including some RC car action.
The long-rumored Harry Potter RPG finally got a name and official trailer. Hogwarts Legacy looks like an epic time in the Wizarding World. That’s due out at some point in 2021.
What’s this? A non-franchise game? Yes, it’s Bethesda’s Deathloop. The time-looping adventure game is due out in mid-2021. The sufficiently creepy trailer for zombie favorite Resident Evil: Village asked more questions than it answered. The title is also slated for next year.
Other titles include Devil May Cry 5 Special Edition (due at launch), Oddworld: Soulstorm and the Demon Souls remaster. Also a little time for Fortnite, which is set to be available for the console at launch.
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Sony reschedules PS5 event for June 11th
After an indefinite postponement last week, Sony’s PlayStation 5 event is officially back on.
The event has been rescheduled for a live stream on June 11 at 1:00 pm Pacific Time according to a tweet from PlayStation’s official account. It will live stream on Twitch and YouTube.
See you Thursday, June 11 at 1:00pm Pacific time (9:00pm BST) for a look at the future of gaming on #PS5: https://t.co/9XJkXYProo pic.twitter.com/8EoN34UPdd
— PlayStation (@PlayStation) June 8, 2020
The event, which was originally scheduled for June 4th, was postponed last week in response to protests against police violence flaring up across the United States and the world. The company’s statement at the time indicated that the timing didn’t feel quite right to make flashy announcements around new PS5 titles. “While we understand gamers worldwide are excited to see PS5 games, we do not feel that right now is a time to celebrate and for now, we want to stand back and allow more important voices to be heard,” the company’s statement read.
Sony has already shared plenty of details regarding the next-generation system, but details have been a bit more scant when it comes to the launch titles for the console. As Sony and Microsoft go head-to-head this holiday season with new consoles, the question will be whether PlayStation can maintain its edge in delivering launch exclusives that out-rival what Xbox can, even as Microsoft bulks up on studio acquisitions.
The event, which the company has detailed will last about an hour, will tee up “what’s in store for the next generation of games,” Sony says. We’ll be tuning in Thursday and giving a thorough rundown of what gets announced.
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Sony postpones PlayStation 5 event, in order for ‘more important voices to be heard’
Sony’s planned June 4 PS5 event has been postponed indefinitely, as the U.S. grapples with widespread protests over the death of George Floyd. It’s understandably a difficult time to focus on video game launches, amid national and global unrest.
— PlayStation (@PlayStation) June 1, 2020
The company noted via Twitter, “While we understand gamers worldwide are excited to see PS5 games, we do not feel that right now is a time to celebrate and for now, we want to stand back and allow more important voices to be heard.”
The event was set to unveil new titles for Sony’s next-gen console due out at the end of the year. It follows a recent similar event from Microsoft, as companies readjust their schedules in the wake of COVID-19-related cancellations of big gaming conferences like E3. Sony’s call to “stand back” follows similar comments from other tech giants, though so far the company has done so without specifically citing Floyd’s death at the hands of Minneapolis police or the subsequent protests.
The decision is — perhaps unsurprisingly — being met with mixed reactions from gamers. The complaints range from notes that gaming is a form of escapism from reality to…well, far more problematic suggestions from people upset about having to wait just a little longer before seeing some gaming trailers. As much as it may disappoint some people to say, however, there are, indeed, more important things than video games.
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EA games on PS4 and Xbox One could be ‘upgraded free’ to next-gen console versions
2020 and 2021 will be one of the periodic transitional eras in gaming as Sony and Microsoft debut their shiny new consoles, the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X. To ease the process (and spur adoption of the next generation), EA may make its upcoming titles free to “upgrade” to your chosen console.
On an earnings call last night, EA COO Blake Jorgensen at the end of his remarks noted a possible effect on revenue “from the games we are launching for the current generation of consoles that can also be upgraded free for the next generation.”
EA declined to comment on the comment, but the meaning seems obvious enough. It likely refers to “cross-gen” games that will appear on both existing consoles and those set to debut later in the year. If you buy the next, say, “Battlefield” game on PlayStation 4, you will have the option to transfer it somehow to the PlayStation 5.
Exactly how this would work is not clear — there will almost certainly be some rigmarole involving deactivating the license on your old copy — but the effect is a positive and consumer-friendly one. People can buy a game, from EA anyway, safe in the knowledge that they can continue to play it even if they buy a new console. That hasn’t been the case, in general, before.
In fact, the whole transition is looking to be a relatively easy one: The new consoles will be backward-compatible with many games from the previous generation; services like online access and monthly free games will cross over; some hardware and accessories will be shared; built-in streaming options mean improved portability.
EA’s apparent commitment to cross-gen upgrades is among the first, though some publishers and developers have floated the idea or declared support for it, pending approval from the console makers themselves. The confirmation could trigger an avalanche of announcements as others hurry to assure gamers that they, too, will provide this option.
Sony and Microsoft are the ones left holding the bag here: While a sale is a sale for EA or Ubisoft, the console makers are under tremendous pressure to show their console launches are successful. (Nintendo, as usual, is pursuing its own agenda independent from the cadence of its rivals.)
Part of that strategy is high-profile next-gen exclusives that people save up to buy alongside the new consoles, providing revenue spikes and platform lock-ins. When a large amount of those sales occur earlier in the year, and technically for the previous consoles, it’s not a good look.
These policies have a way of evolving right up to and beyond the moment of release. Sony clowned so devastatingly on Microsoft’s confusing and limited game transfer policies at E3 2013, the outset of this console generation, that it affected the whole zeitgeist, boosting PS4 sales and forcing Microsoft to reconsider. (You can see me in the video of it; I’ve rarely heard a crowd so excited about something.)
It’s better to err on the side of liberality, it turns out. EA, which has routinely erred in the other direction over the last few years, hopes perhaps to curry favor in advance of a gaming market opening up in new directions. We’ll see if other companies follow suit.
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Watch Sony unveil the PlayStation 5 live right here
A couple of days after Microsoft unveiled a ton of info about the Xbox Series X, Sony is about to do the exact same thing in a live video. Sony is hosting a live broadcast about the PlayStation 5 today at 9 AM PT, 12 PM ET, 4 PM GMT.
Lead system architect Mark Cerny will unveil the console’s architecture and what it means for both developers and gamers. We already know that the PlayStation 5 will be launched in late 2020. It’ll feature an eight-core AMD CPU, a custom AMD GPU with ray-tracing support and SSD storage.
The controller will support haptic feedback and adaptive triggers depending on what you’re doing in the game. But many details are still missing. Today’s announcement should answer some questions.
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