Does A October 21st PlayStation 4 Release Make Sense?

“Coming Holiday Season” were Sony’s words this year at E3, but a NeoGaf source says Sony might be telling…a SMALL fib. 

A new rumor that states the PlayStation 4 will release on October 21st has the internet speculating a much earlier release than previously expected. The rumor stems from a NeoGaf member that goes by the name “Nealand Liquor”. Regularly, you would take a rumor like this with a grain of salt, but it seems as though this member is “Mod-Verified“. If you don’t understand what that means, here is the term explained more in depth. (Source: NeoGaf)

“Mod-verified means that this particular gaffer is indeed in the position to receive such knowledge, as has been checked by Bishoptl himself. 
This means it’s still a rumor, but it does have a verified source. Nothing more.“

Below is what the NeoGaf member posted in the thread “TALES FROM MY ASS”. (Source: NeoGaf)

“Rumor: Our internal product release schedule from head office dropped yesterday and on Oct 21st an unnamed Sony console will be launched. FYI all console revisions like the ps360 slims and Wii Mini were listed as ps360 & wii mini. Previously the wiiu, 3ds and vita were also only listed as Nintendo/Sony Console in the product name column.

Disclaimer: I just work at a very large retailer, managing the electronics sales force and nothing more. I have nothing to do with purchasing, nation wide merchandising or shipping. I am not trying to play this off as I have connections at Sony, or I am some sort of insider. It’s that just yesterday we received a product release schedule from our head office and I thought this is OT itt. These schedules btw, are for internal use only, designed to allow us time to create our instore merch plans. If the launch date for a product is unknown, it’s simply marked TBA. The only time a date is ever included is when we have received confirmation of said date from the product company.”

With that being said, this rumor could very well become a reality next week at Gamescom for all we know. The real question at hand is…..does a October release make sense? Is it too early? Is it too late? Is it right on time? Lets talk about a few key factors before answering these questions.

 1. Releases 

Lets say, hypothetically speaking, that the PlayStation 4 does release on the 21st of October. Lets rewind back to the question “is it too early?”. Two major titles release earlier in October for current-gen and next gen PlayStation Consoles. The first is NBA 2k14, which releases on the 1st of October. We all know howBIG 2K releases are. The PlayStation 4 missing this game on launch is going to hurt, but as I stated before, this game will see a PlayStation 3 launch release so it’s not all bad. The next title is the much anticipated PlayStation 3 exclusive, Beyond: Two Souls, which will be releasing on the 8th of October. Once again, hypothetically speaking, if the PlayStation 4 does release later on in October, then Beyond: Two souls will be totally out the way. Remember, just because Sony is releasing a new console on the market DOES NOT mean they will forget about your exclusives on your current-gen platform. Sony has been doing a great job of remembering that this year, and this is why the PlayStation 3 is still dominating the market. Now lets talk about another major key factor “The Competition”.

2. The Competition 

While pondering upon this rumor, I asked myself a very self-explanatory question. “Why wouldn’t they just release the Playstation 4 on the 28th, so that it can meet battlefield 4 right at launch?”…and then it hit me. Stupid me, I had to remember that the Playstation 4 would be launching exclusives as well, duh! Yes, it would be very nice to launch a day before Battlefield drops, but lets be realistic here, PlayStation 4′s exclusives would be crushed and forgotten about. Between Battlefield 4′s release on the 29th of October, and Call of Duty:Ghosts’s release on the 5th of November, that is WAY to close to the battle zone. Sony has to give their first party titles some time to shine. This is not to say that Killzone and Knack won’t do good, It’s just better for business to stay out of the way of the heavy hitter battle of First Person Shooters. Now lets talk about the last key factor in this whole equation of release dates, “The History”.

3. The History

While speaking on release dates, we must not forget the release of two of Sony’s BIGGEST consoles, The PlayStation and the PlayStation 2. If you’re old enough, you’ll remember that the playstation released on the date of September 9, 1995. 5 years later, we have the release of the PlayStation 2 on the date of October 26, 2000. That information should tell you that Sony is not scared to step out of the box and release a console before the “norm” these days. As the saying goes, “numbers don’t lie” and neither does history in this case.

So I bring you back to the main question at hand…is October 21st too early? Eh, it could be for some of those that were not expecting a release this early. Is it too late? Too late would be in December, and that would be a foolish mistake on Sony’s part. Just right? With all the facts we’ve lined up, I think a October 21st release would be just fine. Remember, this is just a rumor so far, so don’t go running around like a chicken with it’s head cut off. This is just some justifiable facts to why a late October release would be good for Sony’s upcoming pride and joy.