Sony tweets through the Playstation Twitter account the decision to delay the PlayStation 5 event.
Sony announced Monday that it has canceled its PS5 event due to the ongoing social unrest in the US. The decision came as the country has seen nationwide protests surrounding the death of George Floyd, racial injustice and police brutality.
The Japanese tech giant’s official Twitter account @Playstation tweeted an image stating, “We have decided to postpone the Playstation®5 event scheduled for June 4.”
The company added, “While we understand gamers worldwide are excited to see PS5 games, we do not feel that right now is a time for celebration. And for now, we want to stand back and allow more important voices to be heard.”
Sony PS5 release date event expectations
Jim Ryan, President, and CEO of Sony, recently stated on the PlayStation Blog that the upcoming event will take place this week on June 4 and will run for over 60 minutes.
The online event “The Future of Gaming” was to showcase some of the games that will release alongside the PlayStation 5 later this year. Fans expect to have a first glance at the games playable on the PS5’s release, most notably the console exclusives. Sony confirmed that the PS5 would support backwards compatibility with PS4 titles. As of now, we still have yet to know of any new title releasing alongside the console.
Sony is confident in having a holiday 2020 release date for the next-gen console. They have confirmed that they stand by their original schedule and are looking forward to launching the gaming console later in the year.
Before the announcement was made, there were rumors that an unveiling event was supposed to happen in early June.
Pricing and pre-orders
As with the exact release date, the next-gen console’s release price is still unknown and shrouded in mystery. Without any announcements regarding the cost of the PS5, analyst predictions estimate that the console could list anywhere between $470 to $499 on release. This estimate is significantly higher than the previous console iteration, where the PS4 released at $399.
It is still unclear when the pre-orders for the PS5 will be available, but it is estimated to go live by the end of June.
Sony makes a respectable decision to delay the release date event considering the current situation in the US. It is usually taken as a form of celebration announcements in events as such, but it seems inappropriate to push through with it. We will wait until we get a new announcement when things hopefully settle down in the US.
Image used courtesy of FriendlyMachine/YouTube Screenshot