- Sony is reportedly planning to unveil the PS5 at some point in early June, according to several sources.
- There may be a PlayStation 5 event soon, but things are in flux because the novel coronavirus health crisis is far from being resolved.
- A well-connected reporter said that PS5 news is coming in early-to-mid June if everything goes well, while a different leaker keeps saying that June 2nd is the date gamers have been waiting for.
- Visit BGR’s homepage for more stories.
The ongoing coronavirus health crisis changed has changed everything in our lives in the past few months, so we’ll never know whether Sony had planned to show the PS5 design at the rumored February 2020 event. The COVID-19 outbreak prevented Sony from attending trade shows as well, including gaming events. In fact, Sony was one of the first tech companies to pull out of big shows like MWC, so we never expected the company to announce any press conferences of its own. In the months that followed, Sony chose to speak very little about the PS5. We saw the PS5 specs get confirmed during an incredibly dull online event that may have come in response to Microsoft’s aggressive Xbox Series X reveal plans. And then Sony took the wraps off the brand new DualSense controllers, with some rumors saying it only unveiled the new device to get out ahead of leaks.
The PS5 details that fans want most are still a mystery, but they may be unveiled soon. There’s increasing chatter that Sony will host a virtual PlayStation 5 even in early June, assuming COVID-19 doesn’t complicate things even further.
A walk down on memory lane will remind you that Sony had a complex PS4 reveal in place back in 2013. Details about the console were unveiled as early as February that year, but the actual design and pricing information weren’t announced until June at E3 2013.
Seven years later, we already know that Sony won’t be attending E3 2020, but not only because the event is canceled. Sony announced its absence from the show well before coronavirus worries prompted tech companies to pull out of events or for those events to be canceled. That said, it would make sense for Sony to try to replicate its PS4 reveal playbook for the PlayStation 5.
A few days ago, former Kotaku editor Jason Schreier said that Sony will share PS5 news in a few weeks. It wasn’t clear at the time what Schreier meant, as this was all from a Twitter conversation around the Xbox Series X games demo event that was scheduled for May 7th. Then a few days after that, a leaker who has been aggressively pushing PS5 details on Twitter since late 2019 said that Sony will unveil the PlayStation 5 via an online announcement on June 2nd. He later followed with a series of tweets that said the console will go up for preorder after the announcement and will be released on November 20th.
More interestingly, the same @PSErebus user posted this reply to a Twitter thread talking about the rumored June event:
https://twitter.com/PSErebus/status/1258758710807212036
The leaker’s answer came in response to a Twitter user that gamers might be familiar with, @Nibellion, who linked to a Press Start podcast episode from Thursday where Schreier said that Sony’s PS5 event could take place “early to mid-June.”
According to Jason Schreier, Sony's PS5 event could take place "early to mid June"
Keep in mind that due to COVID-19 nothing is set in stonehttps://t.co/cez6D3x9va (at 38:53)
(FWIW, VentureBeat's Jeff Grubb said a few days ago that the Sony event will take place on June 4) pic.twitter.com/Ewn4QuhuzO
— Nibel (@Nibellion) May 8, 2020
He was clear on that podcast that nothing is official because the novel coronavirus threat is still out there, and things might change. Sony plans to do something about the PS5 by early June at the earliest, Schreier said, but the pandemic could force Sony to change its plans at the last minute. In the same tweet, @Nibellion said that VentureBeat’s Jeff Grub noted a few days ago that Sony’s event will take place on June 4th.
As you can see, we’re not yet getting any clear information. There’s a lot of chatter out there that may be based on genuine Sony plans, but the COVID-19 situation could alter those plans. Also, it’s unclear what sort of event Sony would be able to host in the first place. If it’s an event, it’s likely going to be an online press conference just like Google’s Android 11 event or Apple’s WWDC 2020 keynote that are both set to take place in June.
