Sony’s PlayStation 5 may not have an official launch date or price, but at least some would-be owners are getting an express pass to pre-order the tech giant’s next-generation console.
Sony is sending PlayStation 5 pre-order invitations on Thursday to players based on their “previous interests and PlayStation activities.” Those who are selected for the program will receive an email invitation to pre-order the console. Those who don’t receive an email will not be able to participate in the program, and there’s no sign-up page where people can apply for the invite.
In an FAQ page Sony published to its PlayStation page on Thursday, the company said the pre-order opportunity will provide players with the option to buy one PlayStation 5 or one PlayStation 5 Digital Edition. They can also pre-order up to two DualSense controllers, two DualSense charging stations, and two Pulse 3D wireless headsets. Two media remotes and two HD cameras can also be pre-ordered through the offer.
Sony said that players won’t be required to pre-order all of that equipment. And they’ll need to make their selections within a set amount of time, as dictated in the email. Quantities are limited for the offer, so Sony said players who receive invites will want to move quickly. The hardware must be shipped to a U.S. address: The offer isn’t available to anyone living internationally.
While Sony’s program appears to be an attempt to ensure loyal PlayStation gamers have access to its new console, plenty of questions abound. The invites won’t share PlayStation 5 pricing or availability information, and it’s unclear how much of a head start (if any) those who receive the invites may have. Ultimately, it appears Sony is simply reserving a number of consoles and hardware for the group to maximize their chances of getting a console on day one.
Sony has yet to share its PlayStation 5 launch date and has so far stuck to a holiday 2020 time frame. Whenever the PlayStation 5 launches, look for it to be a bit more expensive than the discless Digital Edition. An exact price point is still unknown.
For its part, Microsoft has said that its Xbox Series X will be available this November.
The Call of Duty franchise has held a special place in my heart ever since I played my first Black Ops game back in 2010. That game's campaign was something else, with twists and turns that culminated in a mind-blowing finale. We can all admit that compared to those older campaigns, the recent CODs have been lackluster at best, and a complete and utter disappointment at worst. The reboot of Modern Warfare did give me some hope, as the first two installments were actually quite good, but the third game left such a bad taste in my mouth that I wasn’t exactly expecting much from Modern Warfare 4.
After recently finishing the campaign, I can say that this installment is nothing like the recent releases and instead feels closer to the franchise’s roots. For the first time in a long while, the campaign comes across as well-crafted rather than rushed to hit a release date. It arrives three years after MW3, and you can see exactly where all that time went. It seems the studio finally made listening to player feedback a priority.
Epic Games has just announced the 2026 Epic AI MegaJam, which is looking to see how much game development can be squeezed into a very short window. This is running from November 12 through November 15.
Participants can work alone or in teams of up to five people, build in Unreal Engine or Unreal Editor for Fortnite, and bring along “as many AI agents as you want.” Epic explicitly encourages coding agents, AI-generated assets, audio tools, writing tools, and other AI systems. The official event page literally says "Vibe your way to $50k.”
It’s turning into a pretty good time to be a Monster Hunter fan who plays on a phone. Capcom has confirmed that Monster Hunter Outlanders will launch on Android and iOS on October 29, giving the series a new mobile-first game just as Monster Hunter Rise is also preparing to make the jump to smartphones through Netflix.
Outlanders is being developed by Tencent subsidiary TiMi Studio Group under license and supervision from Capcom. Unlike Rise, which appears to be the full console and PC game adapted for mobile, Outlanders is a free-to-play survival hunting game made specifically for phones.