There’s no doubt that the games industry has had its share of issues this year as a result of COVID-19. Of course, everybody has struggled in their own way, but in terms of the launch of a new console, issues were always going to persist. From the sourcing of components, the shipping and then the manufacturing of them, everything was going to be at a push when it comes to developing something that simply isn’t an essential item. The PlayStation 5 looks like it’s going to be impacted by these issues if a seeming accidental reveal by Activision Blizzard is anything to go by.
One keen-eyed user of Twitter going by the name of Riaan van Wyk spotted a noticed at the end of the Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War trailer that indicates the release date for the US and Canada will be different to that of the rest of the world, seemingly earlier.
Specifically, the end of the trailer states this and the image is below:
On PS4 Nov 13
PS5 Coming Holiday 2020: US and Canada
PS5 Coming Late 2020: Rest of the World
“Holiday 2020” traditionally refers to the time leading up to Christmas, essentially the fourth quarter of the calendar year (Oct-Dec), where “Late 2020” would likely mean within the last month of the year. The fact that the ability to register your interest in pre-ordering a PlayStation 5 was only made available to the North American market makes much more sense, looking at this.
Of course, this could be a mistake from the part of Activision Blizzard, a simple placeholder put in place and not removed from the trailer of Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War. It could also simply be that Activision is perplexingly using different definitions for the same time period. Only time will tell on that, but we know that Activision Blizzard has the same information on the Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War website.
At the same time, knowing the situation with supply, the fact that registering was only available for North America, it wouldn’t surprise me if the rest of the world saw the PlayStation 5 launching a month later than the states. With the exception of Japan, I would have thought they’d launch in their home territory first.
What do you all think, is this a placeholder or just using different words for the same meaning? Or, could it be real, particularly since Sony has been very quiet in regards to a launch period for the PlayStation 5?
