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Sony rumored to unveil PlayStation 5 in February, in line with PS4 timeline

Aaron Mamiit
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Sony will once again be a no-show in this year’s E3, but it is looking increasingly like it will make a major PlayStation 5 announcement long before the annual video game event.

With Sony skipping E3 2020 in June, there is speculation that the company will follow its traditional schedule of unveiling its next-generation console in February before releasing it later that year. This was the timeline for the PlayStation 4, which was fully revealed in a New York City event in February 2013 before going on sale in November 2013.

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One of the recent hints that support a February reveal event for the PlayStation 5 came from David Jaffe, a game director who worked on Twisted Metal and God of War titles.

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PS5 reveal is less than 4 weeks away. Sony knows hard core gamers are hanging on every scrap of info and know that just cause MSFT dominates the conversation at the moment, that's an easy thing to change when they are ready to reveal (assuming the reveal is good).

— David Scott Jaffe (@davidscottjaffe) January 16, 2020

I want to say it's the worst kept secret in games right now. February reveal like they did for PS4.

— David Scott Jaffe (@davidscottjaffe) January 16, 2020

Jaffe did not provide a specific date for the PlayStation 5 event, but if his information is accurate, it means that the unveiling of the console will happen within the first two weeks of February. No media invites have been sent out yet, but they should arrive soon.

Meanwhile, journalist Mike Futter added to the speculation of a February reveal for the console with information that he acquired on the Destination PlayStation event.

Okie. Here's what I'm hearing from multiple sources. (Just needed to confirm something before sharing.) Sony is not hosting Destination PlayStation, its annual closed event bringing together publishers and retailers. The event will still happen, but hosted by a retailer.

— Mike Futter (V.2020.41) (@Futterish) January 14, 2020

I don't think this is a *bad* thing, to be clear. I just think that it has something to do with the intersection of its PS5 rollout plans.

The Destination PlayStation event has been well received in the past, which is why someone picked up the ball.

— Mike Futter (V.2020.41) (@Futterish) January 14, 2020

Futter later corrected that Destination PlayStation will be handled by a distributor and not a retailer.  It would take something big for Sony to pass on the hosting duties for the closed-door event, and the unveiling of the PlayStation 5 is definitely something that Sony will want to focus on more.

The hype surrounding the PlayStation 5 has trended up since Sony confirmed that it was working on the next-generation console. The excitement was further elevated by recent rumors that a “remastering engine” will power the PlayStation 5’s backward compatibility capabilities, allowing it to run PlayStation, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation 4 games with various improvements.

Most of the important details of the PlayStation 5 are unconfirmed, such as its price and lineup of launch games, but if the rumor about a February event is true, it will not be long before PlayStation fans find out how the new console stacks up against its rival, the Xbox Series X.

The PlayStation 5 will be released in the holiday season of 2020, marking the next stage in the evolution of the video game console wars.

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Aaron Mamiit
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