The saga has dragged on and on for months now, but the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S are now fully revealed with prices, release dates, and launch games confirmed.
Last night’s PS5 Showcase was impressive from start to finish. Giving us first proper looks at Final Fantasy XVI, Hogwarts Legacy, Spider-Man: Miles Morales, and Demon’s Souls Remake, as well as the reveal of what is hopefully God of War 2, is a lineup that Microsoft will find it nigh on impossible to match.
Again, Sony showed just how strong they are when it comes to exclusives and the console prices are competitive at the very least.
For the showcase to be so tightly structured, well designed, and concise, it’s baffling how poor the communication has been around pre-orders and the launch line-up.
Closing out the showcase with the reveal of prices and release dates but no pre-order information is all well and good if you make it clear when pre-orders go live before they actually do, as they promised to.
Microsoft was clear on price, launch date, how you can pre-order, and when you can, but Sony’s messaging was the complete opposite.
For whatever reason, and I can’t work out why, the vague news on when PS5 pre-orders would go live was left to Geoff Keighley.
He’s one of the biggest names in the business and I’m sure he’s got his fingers in many pies, but why has he got the exclusive news on PS5 pre-orders 15 minutes after a showcase ABOUT THE PS5.
The pre-order situation has been a mess ever since as well.
PS5 pre-orders began just minutes after the showcase ended, without any warning, and it’s turned into a spiraling scramble ever since. Sites have sold out in minutes, others are still to start offering pre-orders, and others haven’t been clear on their allocation.
There should have been a specific date and time for PlayStation fans to be prepared for. It’s not fair on fans in certain situations or in particular parts of the world that pre-orders were left to a fastest finger first situation.
Sony should have been more organized with its messaging, whether that was part of their showcase or not.
As an example, I secured my pre-order at 11:30 pm last night in the UK and, as far as I can tell, was lucky enough to get one from the first batch that went live. As you’d expect, one perk of this job is that I know plenty of people who can point me in the direction of pre-orders when they find them.
Not everyone is so lucky though. Not many people can stay up until nearly midnight to try and secure a PS5 for launch and not everyone is able to find pre-orders as quickly or as easily.
It’s unfair on a lot of people and it’s solely down to Sony’s communication. They won’t lose out by selling PS5’s this way, but many of their consumers will as panic pre-orders keep others from getting just one.
The poor messaging doesn’t end there either. Geoff Keighley was also the first to reveal that Spider-Man: Miles Morales and Demon’s Souls are PlayStation 5 launch games.
The news was later confirmed by Sony, but why wasn’t the information part of the PS5 Showcase? Unless the studios weren’t able to confirm in time for the stream that they were aiming for the console launch, it doesn’t make any sense that no dates were given as part of each game’s trailer.
Fortnite and Devil May Cry 5 Special Edition’s trailers both included a screen that confirmed they’d be available at launch, so Demon’s Souls and Spidey’s should have done too.
It’s not as if it’s bad news either. Demon’s Souls being a launch title is a huge deal to a lot of PlayStation fans, and is somewhat unexpected.
Including that small piece of information in the showcase would have made a great show even better, so leaving it for Geoff and others to reveal just moments after the show ends is nonsensical.
It’s just another way that Sony has fumbled the messaging around PS5’s launch. It confuses fans and makes it hard for them to prepare for what will be a substantial financial outlay.
PlayStation has relied on games to sell the PlayStation 5 but they quickly need to tighten up the communication in other areas because the pre-order situation has been a farce that hampers the effect of what was actually a phenomenal reveal showcase.
