I don’t know what stage of capitalism we’ve reached to where Sony is opening up pre-orders for the PlayStation 5 to people by what basically appears to be a raffle, but it sucks. In my opinion.
After fans have been asking for information about a price and release date for the new console for several months, Sony’s more or less confirmed that the information is coming pretty soon (probably during Gamescom this week) by putting up a page on its website to…hold on let me make sure I get this right: “register for an opportunity to be one of the first to pre-order your PS5™ console from PlayStation.” That’s one hell of a sentence. Let’s break it down!
We are registering, not to be notified when pre-orders go live, but for the opportunity to be one of the first people to be allowed to pre-order the PlayStation 5 directly from Sony, as opposed to a retailer like GameStop or Wal-Mart or whatever other hellhole of a corporate chain you’ll have to shop from to get these consoles for the first year or so because there’s very little chance of independent shops getting these things in their inventory. But this means that just because you register doesn’t mean you will actually get the chance to pre-order through Sony. On the contrary, this prestigious honor to buy the Spider-Man: Miles Morales box will only be afforded to those “based on previous interests and PlayStation activities,” according to the site’s FAQ on the matter. That’s vague as hell, but you sign up using your PlayStation Network ID, which means it’s probably based on something like play time or your trophy level or some such arbitrary nonsense.
If you are one of the lucky ones to win the chance to be a consumer, you’ll be able to pre-order the following:
- 1 PS5 Console or 1 PS5 Digital Edition
- 2 DualSense wireless controllers
- 2 DualSense charging stations
- 2 Pulse 3D wireless headsets
- 2 Media remotes
- 2 HD Cameras
In other news:
- MHW Announces The Final Stand, Last Dev Diary for Monster Hunter
- Surprise, The Last Campfire, Hello Games’ Next Game is Coming Out Tomorrow
- The Sinking City Delisted from Steam After Long Fought Legal Battle With Licensee
For the rest of us lowly peasants not deemed worthy by Sony to buy its products, this at least probably means information on the PlayStation 5’s release date and price is coming fairly soon. The PlayStation 4’s release date was announced at Gamescom back in 2013, so it’s not out of the realm of possibility the PS5’s could be coming during a presentation later today.
Whatever the case may be, there’s reason to believe the PlayStation 5 will come out sometime after the Xbox Series X, whether that’s in November like its direct competitor or not. This is mostly based on Sega’s Yakuza: Like a Dragon release date announcement, which said the PS5 version of the RPG would come out after the Xbox Series X’s. That could be anywhere from a week to a month, but we’ll hopefully know before day’s end once Gamescom kicks off.
