With new lockdowns looming across the UK and many parts of Europe, gamers have started to ask how these fresh restrictions might affect the incoming next-gen console launches.
Here in the UK, nationwide lockdown measures are to be put in place from Thursday (November 5th). The Xbox Series X and PS5 launch on November 10th and November 19th respectively, meaning they're fairly well timed for a month in which we'll be unable to leave our houses for everything but the essentials. While retailers across the country are already working out how customers can pick up their orders, there've been rumblings that Sony might opt to move the release date of the PS5 up in Europe so that it falls in line with the US release date of November 12th.
Take this with a massive pinch of salt, but there have been several rumours over the past day or so that point to this happening. As reported by PlayStation Universe, one Reddit user claimed they'd been contacted by GAME, who informed them Sony were considering moving the release date of the PS5 in the UK, France, and Germany.
While this post has since been deleted - and was met with a healthy degree of scepticism before leaving - there have been other reports. It seems that German retailer Media Markt has started getting in touch with customers to let them know they'll start shipping consoles from November 12th - a full week earlier than the currently planned European release date, and the same day the console launches in the US and Japan.
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It would obviously be a fantastic surprise if the PS5 did arrive a week earlier than expected for a lot of us, but I wouldn't get too excited at this stage. It really wouldn't make a ton of sense for the PS5 release date to be moved up from a lockdown perspective, as the UK lockdown will already be in full swing by November 12th. I'm just not sure how this would help retailers any more than going with the currently-planned November 19th release. If anything, it could give shops less time to find efficient ways to hook customers up with their orders, which is the opposite of helpful.
With just over one week until the PS5 launches in the US and Japan, we won't have too long to wait to find out whether or not the UK and the rest of Europe has been bumped up the list. And if not? Well, it's only an extra week. Easy.
Featured Image Credit: SonyTopics: PlayStation 5