Sony Doubles Down on 2020 Launch for PS5

The coronavirus pandemic has had a massive impact on the games industry. In-person conventions have been forced to adopt an online-only format, and a variety of games have been delayed due to the complications of having development teams work from home. The timing couldn’t have been worse for Sony and Microsoft, who are planning late-2020 launches for the PS5 and Xbox Series X, respectively. With everything that is going on in the world, it wouldn’t be surprising for one or both companies to delay the launch of their hardware until 2021, but Sony insists that the PS4’s successor is still coming out this year.

In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Sony Senior Vice President Eric Lempel lays out the challenges of launching a new console in the COVID-19 era. Despite the chaos that has ensued since the outbreak began in March, he says that “We will launch this year — that will happen — and from my end we will absolutely make sure that we will bring all of the magic and all of the excitement of launches that we have had in the past.” He also discusses the console’s first TV ad, which draws inspiration from some of the PS5’s key features, including haptic feedback, adaptive triggers, and 3D audio. Lempel mentions that such ads are “going to become the new way of the world for the foreseeable future, and a lot of us had to adapt and shift and get innovative and creative.”

The PS5 is expected to launch in November, but we still don’t have a price or definitive release date. By contrast, those details were revealed for the PS4 at E3 in June 2013, and pre-orders launched before Sony’s press conference ended.