PS5 Release Date UPDATE: Good news and bad for PS4, PlayStation and Xbox ahead of E3 2019 (Pic: PS5 concept image anwse.com)
As the working week came to a close, PlayStation fans learned some rather shocking news; that the company would not be appearing at E3 in 2019.
Whilst it goes without saying that this is an incredibly big deal, the added knowledge that this will be the first E3 in 24 years without Sony really puts the decision into an even sharper focus.
For anyone who missed the news, Sony told Game Informer that the company would not "activate or hold a press conference around E3 [2019]".
But when Sony say they're skipping E3, they're not just talking press conferences. They mean the whole kit and kaboodle, because they're also not planning to exhibit on the show floor.
Following the announcement, as you might expect, there was a flurry of anger, opinions and quite a few suggestions that the decision could have been linked to Sony plotting some sort of vague plan for the potential reveal of the Sony PS5 release date.
At the time, a lot of the discussion was simply conjecture and wild unsubstantiated opinions. But there was however, one piece of news which (understandably) got lost in the noise and of the Sony announcement.
Sony PlayStation 5 Console Concept
Sony PlayStation bosses have confirmed a PS5 is coming – could it look anything like this?
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Joseph Dumary
Just prior to Sony's announcement on Game Informer, a user on Reddit by the name of RuthenicCookie4 was already leaking the information before anyone else in the world.
However, the Reddit leaker didn't just correctly predict – we say predict, who was honestly 'predicting' this before it got revealed – the same source was also revealing a whole lot of info about why Sony was pulling out
Allegedly it had less to do with Sony not having many games to show off, and everything to do with Sony trying to concentrate on their next-gen PlayStation 5 console.
Providing more details the leaker suggested that Sony will return with a new PlayStation Experience (PSX) event in 2019, where Sony will reveal the PS5.
It's possible that before this there could be a "small" reveal to tease the console earlier in the year.
In addition, the Redditor went on to suggest that the PS5 release date (at the time of writing) is still around "1.5 years from now", but developers currently have access to dev kits, which are already being described as "a monster.”
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It's worth noting also that Kotakus news editor Jason Schreier, a man with incredible connections within the industry said this upon writing up the news of Sony's no show at E3 2019:
"Based on conversations with developers across the industry, I expect the PlayStation 5 to be released in 2020, and the publisher skipping E3 2019 certainly points to that."
Assuming this '1.5 years' release date is correct, it would not only explain why Sony are looking to skip E3 2019, but more importantly, such a timeframe would allow for Sony to release their last few big exclusive PS4 games that have been widely teased already.
Currently this lineup of exclusives games includes The Last of Us Part 2, Ghost of Tsushima and Death Stranding.
But even then, we wouldn't be surprised to see all three of the above games also available on the PS5 at launch, either in some form of backwards compatibility, or even as new PS5 releases with even higher graphical fidelity.
Microsoft, by comparison, has already confirmed in response that they will be attending E3 2019.
And it's here that we could see our first official info about Microsoft's next-gen console, currently known as Xbox Scarlett.
Exact information about Xbox Scarlett is a little more sketchy for the time being, with some suggestions that Microsoft could look to leverage the power of the cloud (which certainly makes sense if they're going to go disc-less).
According to a past report from Thurrott, which has leaked accurate Microsoft information before, Xbox Scarlet is a hybrid project that will feature both a cloud-based box that streams content directly from the internet and a more traditional piece of hardware more generally recognisable as a home console.
Either way, we suspect that with Xbox looking to make amends for their poor run this generation and Sony keen not to rest on their laurels amid constant talk of Xbox One X being the most powerful console on the market that we could see and hear an awful lot in the coming 12 months.
Sony might be skipping E3 2019, but we don't think the company, rumours about the PS5 or their competitors at Xbox will be staying silent throughout the year.
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