Flying in the face of persistent rumours, Sony today confirmed that the Playstation 4 will launch worldwide in 2013 via an advertisement in this morning’s Metro. The ad itself, which you can check out below, calls the world’s greatest players to entertain on the ultimate, next-generation stage. Leaving the hyperbole aside for a moment, however, and it’s clear that the new console will be on the market in time for Christmas.
Here’s a snippet of Sony’s banner ad:
Though there was no specific release date nailed down, the news will come as a relief for the company’s European audience, bearing in mind that their previous console, the Playstation 3, didn’t come to the E.U. until March 2007, a full five months after its release in other countries – namely Japan and the United States, where it became available in November of 2006. The fact that the Playstation 4 will be obtainable in all territories within a similar timeframe highlights how Sony are pulling out all the stops to dominate different regions around the globe – after all, the Japanese giant did hold their Playstation 4 unveil in New York back in February.
This duly bookends Microsoft’s unveil of the Xbox One from a Sony perspective, considering that the company released a brief teaser clip for their own piece of hardware earlier in the week and now with today’s advertisement coming a few days after May 21st. In effect, the two industry giants are currently sizing each other up – hence the mystery surrounding release dates and definite pricing for each respective console – and unfortunately we’ll just have to wait until E3 in a couple of weeks to get some firm answers.
What do you make of the advertisement? Do you think Sony have what it takes to ‘push the boundaries of play’ with the Playstation 4? Give us your thoughts in the comments below.
