Sony
According to Jim Ryan, CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment, there is a "very considerable" demand for its PlayStation 5 (PS5) console via pre-orders. The next-generation console will be launched on November 12.
Sony pre-sold as many PS5 consoles in the first 12 hours in the United States as in the first 12 weeks for its predecessor PlayStation 4 device, said Ryan in an interview Wednesday.
Sony, which went on to sell more than 100 million PS4 units, aims to persuade its user base to upgrade to its new device to play titles like “Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales” with enhanced graphics, sound and feedback via a new controller.
Sony has invested $250 million for a 1.4% stake in Epic Games. With the new investment, the developer behind Fortnite and the Epic Games Store has raised $1.83 billion to date and it is valued at $17.68 billion.
"The investment cements an already close relationship between the two companies and reinforces the shared mission to advance the state of the art in technology, entertainment, and socially-connected online services," stated Sony, in a press release.
Epic Games has removed all police cars from Fortnite after the game's latest update, and according to a report on the Wall Street Journal that was a response to Black Lives Matter protests over police violence.
The company was not the first one to acknowledge the movement. Activision delayed the launch of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Warzone‘s fourth season release date as well as adding in a Black Lives Matter loading screen. At the same time, Sony postponed the unveiling event for its highly-anticipated PlayStation 5.
At its PlayStation 5 gameplay even, Sony announced the release of "Spider-Man: Miles Morales, the sequel of 2018's Spider-Man.
The game, expected to be launched alongside the PlayStation 5, will be released in "holiday 2020", so approximately between October and December 2020.
The production on the sequel of the critically acclaimed animated movie Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse has started. Sony Imageworks lead animator Nick Kondo share a short announcement animation on his Twitter account, writing: "First day on the job!" The movie release date has recently been pushed to spring of 2022.
In an interview with CNET in which he announced the postponement of the PS5 games event, Jim Ryan, CEO of Sony's PlayStation, also announced that Sony would pledge $1 million to the black community.
"There are moments in life when something happens around you and you realize that what you've been doing is either not big enough, not good enough, or just wrong. This is such a moment," Ryan told CNET via email and added: "We are going to take a good hard look at how we behave as a company, and how we behave towards our community."
Sony's event to show off new games for its PlayStation 5, launching in the fall, will be on June 11 20:00 (UTC). The event had been delayed to allow more focus on George Floyd protests.
The broadcast will be streamed at 1080p and 30 FPS, instead of 4K and 60 FPS that may be required to showcase what the console has to offer. About this "downgrade" Sony stated: "This eased the show’s production process during a time when many of our team and developers are working from home. The games you'll see on Thursday will look even better when you play them on PS5 with a 4K TV, as you'd expect.".