By Sony’s eagerly awaited PlayStation 5 will launch on November, taking on a new offering by console rival Xbox as video gameplay booms during the pandemic.
A streamed event showcasing games tailored for PS5 ended with the word that two versions of the console would be released on November 12 in Australia, North America, New Zealand, Mexico, Japan and South Korea then in the rest of the world a week later.
The premium PS5 will be priced at $500, while a “digital edition” designed for the trend of games being hosted in the cloud will be priced at $400, according to the presentation.
Microsoft last week announced its next-generation Xbox game console will launch on November 10, with an estimated starting price of $499.
The new XBox Series X, Microsoft’s flagship console which competes notably against Sony’s PlayStation devices, will be available for pre-orders from September 22.
Microsoft said it would sell a slimmed-down Xbox S game console priced at $299, also in November.
The new consoles are being launched as more people turn to video games during the coronavirus pandemic and with the industry shifting to cloud-based games that are streamed online.
The current PlayStation 4 has outsold Xbox by more than two to one, but Microsoft hopes to take the battle back to Sony.
