- Sony responded to leaks and rumors about PS5 preorders this week, explaining that they won’t suddenly appear “with a minute’s notice.”
- Last week, a rumor caught fire on Twitter when an analyst claimed that the PS5 price and release date would be revealed on July 13th, and preorders would open.
- Sony is going to make it clear when PS5 preorders will be available ahead of time.
One of the hottest topics online in 2020 has been speculation about the prices of the new game consoles from Sony and Microsoft. Months ago, a Bloomberg report suggested that Sony was struggling with the price of the PlayStation 5 due to the costly parts needed to produce the hardware, and it seemed likely some of that cost would be passed on to the consumer. Five months later, we still don’t know how much the PS5 is going to cost, but in recent weeks, rumors have been flaring up with regularity, to the point that Sony felt the need to comment.
On Friday, The Game Awards host and creator Geoff Keighley shared the first official hands-on video with the PS5’s DualSense controller, and had a chance to speak with PlayStation’s Head of Marketing Eric Lempel. During their talk, Keighley asked about the timing of the PS5 preorders and the recent rumors.
“I think it’s safe to say […] we’ll let you know when preorder will happen,” Lempel said, possibly making reference to some of the tweets earlier this week suggesting preorders would begin on Tuesday. “It’s not going to happen with a minute’s notice. We’re going to at some point let you know when you can preorder PlayStation 5. So, please, don’t feel like you have to go run out and line up anywhere until you receive official notice on how that will work.”
Spurious leaks aren’t uncommon when a new product is about to be released, but console makers have a far better track record when it comes to protecting their announcements than smartphone makers. We covered a wild leak last week when self-proclaimed analyst Roberto Serrano claimed that the PS5 price and release date would be revealed on July 13th, and preorders would open. July 13th came and went without any news.
“We don’t know what happened there, we had nothing to do with it,” Lempel said of the leaks. “I got a message from someone saying ‘People are lining up at stores’ and we had no idea why.”
At the very least, we now know that PS5 preorders aren’t suddenly going to pop up on Amazon. It sounds like Sony will be making a very clear announcement in the coming weeks about the price and availability of the PS5, so you’ll be able to plan to get online and secure a unit if you plan to update to the next generation ASAP.
You can watch Geoff Keighley’s hands-on with the DualSense controller and his interview below:
