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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
Aaron Mamiit
Contributor
Aaron received a NES and a copy of Super Mario Bros. for Christmas when he was 4 years old, and he has been fascinated with…
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A notification some users received on PS4 and PS5 confirms that the platforms' integration with X -- the social media platform formally known as Twitter -- will go away next week. That means you'll no longer be able to quickly share screenshots or videos to X from the console. 
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Since the release of the PS4, people have been able to share screenshots and videos taken with the controller's Share button with social media services. Twitter historically was one of those platforms, but API changes following Elon Musk's buying of the platform and rebranding to X have interfered with its integration with many platforms. Now, it seems that Sony has decided that it's best just to rid PlayStation platforms of any X integration whatsoever. PlayStation has not publicly commented on why it's removing this feature yet, but we've contacted them for comment and will update this story when we get a response.
If there are any screenshots or videos on your PS4 or PS5 that you want to get onto X, you have until November 13 to do so. After that, Apple, Discord, Spotify, Twitch, and YouTube will be the only services one can link their PlayStation account to.

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Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 sets an incredibly high bar for future PS5 games
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When Sony set out to highlight the power of the PS5 and its SSD, it did so with a modified version of Marvel's Spider-Man. We were treated to a flythrough of the city from end to end at speeds greater than even our web-slinging hero could hope to match without a hiccup or drop in graphical quality. That makes it fitting that the first game that feels like it fully lives up to the promises the PS5 was sold on is none other than Marvel's Spider-Man 2.

This generation has had a notably more drawn-out separation from the previous. Nearly all of Sony's first-party releases, including God of War Ragnarok and Horizon Forbidden West, have seen dual releases on PS4 and PS5. Having played the technically astounding Spider-Man 2, it now seems clear that developers had been holding back to get their games to run on older hardware. Even Insomniac's own Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart, a PS5 exclusive, now feels like an opening act that was warming us up for the headliner. Spider-Man 2 finally feels like the first game that could not exist on any console other than the PS5.
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Sony consoles have always gotten multiple versions and editions ever since the original PlayStation 1. As technology becomes cheaper and more advanced, refreshed models that are both smaller and less expensive to produce typically come out a couple of years into a console's life cycle, and we have now hit that point for the PS5. The PS5 slim, as it is being referred to, is a smaller version of the launch models, and will eventually become the standard unit available to consumers once the stock of existing PS5s runs out. However, is this version worth getting if you're an existing owner, or is it only for new purchasers? There's also the question about which of the two versions to buy. To answer all these questions, let's compare the PS5 slim to the OG PS5.
Specs

Let's start with the most important part, which is whether or not there's more power under the hood of the PS5 slim compared to the launch models. No, the PS5 slim is not in any way more powerful than an existing PS5. This is not a PS5 Pro, which is currently just a rumor. Games will not look, run, or play any better or worse on either version. The only difference in terms of specs is that the slim versions have slightly more storage space at 1 TB compared to 825GB, which is just a small 175GB upgrade. There's nothing here that makes it worth buying a new system when you can expand the storage of your console yourself.
Size
Obviously, a slim model would mean that this new version would be smaller than the frankly comically large launch version. While that's true, it isn't a huge reduction in size. The PS5 Slim disc version weighs 3.2 kilograms (18% less that the original PS5) while the discless version weighs 2.6kg (24% less), and both are 30% smaller by volume.
Versions
Once again, you will have the option to choose between an all-digital and standard version of the PS5 Slim. However, unlike the original discless PS5, the new version will give you the option to add a disc drive later on if you purchase a separate detachable drive.
Price
The current PS5 models are priced at $400 and $500 for the digital and standard versions, respectively. While the PS5 slim standard version that includes the disc drive will remain at $500, the discless version will get a price increase to $450. This price increase had already been seen in other territories outside the U.S., but will now be introduced here once these new versions launch. It is also worth mentioning that the detachable disc drive you can get to upgrade your discless version will cost $80, meaning you would spend more to buy the digital version and add the drive than you would by simply buying the version with the drive already included.

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