PS4 launch in October: retailer leaks info

New leaks have revealed that Sony may be waiting to pull another win at Gamescom even bigger than the one they had at E3.

In just under a week from now, Gamescom will kick off and will showcase all the new games, hardware and announcements from developers and publishers attending the conference. Sony and Microsoft will be there, hopefully to announce more new games and exclusive new IP as well as show off more of their next-generation consoles.

A poster on the NeoGAF forums, identified as “Nealand Liquor”, started a rumor that a large American electronics retailer that he/she works for had been updated by Sony on a product release for “an unnamed Sony console.”

The date is listed as 21 October 2013 and the poster cautioned that although this could be something else entirely, it was presented in the same pattern as the previous launch notes for the revamped PS3 and Xbox 360 Slim, as well as the Wii U.

The dates are for internal use only to allow the retailer to prepare in-store merchandising plans. The date is also not final, and could indicate the day that stock arrives, with a launch in the following week. Wrote Nealand Liquor:

“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.

Just so everyone knows all I have is our internal release schedule and nothing more. Nothing is cast in stone and things can change (though they rarely do). To clarify the 21st date means the week of. It could launch on the Monday though.

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.”

If true, Sony could be gearing up to announce the console’s launch date as late October 2013. They would also possibly ask retailers to simply prepare their stores by that date for a 26 October launch.

The Playstation 2, Sony’s most successful gaming console, was launched on 26 October and releasing the PS4 on the same date would be paying homage to the product that gave Sony its position in the industry today.

The NeoGAF poster has been verified by NeoGAF moderators. A 21 October launch date would allow Sony nearly a full month of sales ahead of the Xbox One launch pegged for November (which has just been shrunk to 13 countries worldwide as part of their first launch wave).