- Xbox 360
- Date Pre-Orders Opened Officially – 8/18/2005
- Date Console Launched – 11/22/2005
- PlayStation 3
- Date Pre-Orders Opened Officially – 10/10/2006
- Date Console Launched – 11/17/2006
- PlayStation 4
- Date Pre-Orders Opened Officially – 6/11/2013
- Date Console Launched – 11/15/2013
- Xbox One
- Date Pre-Orders Opened Officially – 6/10/2013
- Date Console Launched – 11/22/2013
Are We Getting Consoles This Year?
Today we have a press conference scheduled for the Sony Playstation 5, where in theory we are supposed to be getting the price it will be launching at as well as pre-orders opening. I say supposedly, because this is not the first time we have heard rumors through 4Chan sources stating that a price announce and pre-order are coming. Right now it feels like both Microsoft and Sony are playing an intricate bluff, with neither wanting to show their cards before the other. I feel like this is largely pointless given that to me Microsoft and Sony are pursuing two different strategies for this general.
It feels like Sony is very much setting up for the traditional console experience of wanting to push total units sold and with that total volume of software sold. Microsoft on the other hand seems to be rolling out a significantly more service based approach with its multiple tiers of product offerings in the form of the Xbox Series X, the rumored Lockhart, XCloud for those without devices and on all platforms the extremely strong offering that is Xbox Game Pass. Microsoft appears to care more about getting that monthly subscription from you and providing varied entry points to their ecosystem than they really do about “pushing iron”. It makes sense given that Microsoft has been shifting to service based solutions on the business side for years.
While we have played this game of cat and mouse on console reveals and the dates associated with them… I have to admit there have been a few seeds of doubt planted in my head. We know both consoles exist and are preparing to launch, but I do wonder if maybe the delaying tactics are not due to price competition but instead due to the fact that they are about to announce delays in shipping the hardware due to the ever present complications of Covid-19. No one wants to deliver that news to a public that has likely built up some seriously toxic expectations surrounding the ability to have a shiny new console sitting under their tree come Christmas morning.
With that I decided to do a bit of a thought experiment to determine how late we are on this announcement. I decided to mine available data through some careful google searching and figure out the key dates associated with the last two generations of consoles.