Don’t worry about frantically refreshing the PS5 Amazon page or lining up outside your local big box electronics store. Sony confirmed that they will give advanced warning about PS5 preorders, rather than just pushing the button for them to go live randomly and suddenly.
After today’s DualSense controller hands-on with Geoff Keighley, the host brought PlayStation’s Worldwide Head of Marketing Eric Lempel onto the live stream to ask him a few questions about Astro’s Playroom (the game that comes loaded on every PS5), DualSense features, and the overall marketing roll out for the PlayStation 5. During the conversation, Keighley inquired about the rumors that the PS5 price, release date, and preorders would go live earlier this week. Lempel laughed and said he didn’t know where those had started. “We had nothing to do with it.” He said that he received a message Monday that people were lining up at stores getting ready to place preorders for the console, so it wasn’t just all of us online refreshing Amazon and the PlayStation Twitter feed in the hopes that we could guarantee our PS5 preorder.
“It’s safe to say…We’ll let you know when preorder[s] will happen. We will let you know. It’s not going to happen within minute’s notice,” Lempel said. “We’re going to let you know, at some point, when you can preorder PlayStation 5. Please don’t feel like you have to run out and line up anywhere until you receive official notice on how that’ll work.
When will #ps5 pre-orders start? PlayStation worldwide marketing head Eric Lempel says they will give gamers plenty of advance notice. #SummerGameFest pic.twitter.com/ga08j8IvWD
— Geoff Keighley (@geoffkeighley) July 17, 2020
Beyond that, Lempel didn’t give much in terms of hints at what’s next for Sony and the PS5 marketing, but we can at least rest assured that we’ll know PS5 preorders are coming in advance. It’s not going to be another random Tuesday info drop like the DualSense controller or PS5 game case design reveals.
It was recently reported that Sony increased production of PS5 consoles to meet increased demand at launch, aiming to have 10 million produced by the end of the year (for shipping through first quarter of 2021). In a similar timeframe at launch, PS4 production only reached around 7.5 million, so Sony is expecting a surge in demand for its next-gen console offering.
