PS5 leaks reveal Sony may debut next-gen console in "less than four weeks"
Could it finally be time?
Sony might be skipping E3 2020, but evidence is mounting the company will host its own event to reveal the PlayStation 5. Microsoft already unveiled the Xbox Series X at The Game Awards in December. Now, the ball is in Sony’s court, and there’s evidence to suggest it could reveal the next-generation console very soon.
Rumors of an alleged February Sony event have been circulating throughout first few weeks of 2020, and this week brought another big hint. David Jaffe — the game director of many PS exclusives, including the first two God of War titles — tweeted that Sony’s big PS5 reveal is “less than 4 weeks away.”
Jaffe didn’t provide a specific date and alludes that he heard about the PS5 event through the grapevine. But if his timeline is accurate, the event would take place before February 16.
“I want to say it’s the worst kept secret in games right now,” he wrote. “February reveal like they did for the PS4.”
Jaffe’s tweet comes only two days after journalist Mike Futter learned that Sony had delegated planning for its annual Destination PlayStation event to an unnamed retailer. This yearly meeting happens behind close doors, and is typically attended by Sony’s business partners, publishers, and distributors to give them a rundown of the company’s plans for the new year.
Sony typically hosts this event itself, and Futter speculates it isn’t doing so this year because it’s planning something even bigger around the same time. A consumer-facing blowout for the new PlayStation would fit the bill nicely.
“The [Destination PlayStation] event is usually in February, which could mean that Sony wants the spotlight (and doesn’t want to do a second event in the same window) when it does its full reveal for PS5,” tweeted Futter. “Makes sense. PS4 event was in Feb 2013 in NYC for reference.”
Many signs suggest Sony is working from that PS4 playbook. The current-gen console was announced at a showcase hosted in New York City on February 20, 2013 and the console was released in the United States on November 15 that year.
We could hear more about the PS5 very soon.
It’s unclear if Sony will only showcase hardware, or if there will be teasers for launch titles. Sony Santa Monica has been dropping some head-turning hints that the team is hard at work on the next installment of God of War.
Kim Newman, the Narrative Animator for the game, tweeted a picture of herself in a motion capture suit with the comment, “Feels good to be back in the suit.” That was only a week after Creative Director Cory Barlog told his Twitter followers to watch out for his colleague Eric Williams this decade.
Williams was the Lead Combat Designer for God of War, and apparently has more projects planned with Barlog in the future. Will the team have something ready for Sony’s alleged mid-February PS5 announcement?
That remains to be seen, but it’s looking more and more likely that gamers will finally get a look at what the PS5 will look like when it ships and potentially a teaser or two.
The PlayStation 5 is set to launch during the 2020 holiday season.
