With the PS5 release date of November 12 onwards the world over, little has been said of Sony’s PS5 launch plans for India. At the time the company had told The Mako Reactor that its India plans were “yet to be confirmed”. However this has not stopped Amazon India from promising would be customers that the PS5 would be available from pre-order during its Great Indian Festival sale. Neither has it stopped Sony Centers — Sony’s own franchised stores — from taking pre-orders with a cash deposit.
We had speculated that it was unlikely for Sony to give two retailers an advantage over the rest. It’s simply not in line with how it has operated in the past. We reached out to Sony for comment, asking if it has authorised Sony Centers and Amazon India to start taking PS5 pre-orders.
“The answer is no,” says a spokesperson for Sony responding to our request for comment over email.
While this should put to bed rumours regarding PS5 India pre-orders for now, we also asked if the ongoing trade mark proceedings has had any impact the India delay for the PS5.
“There is no change from our previous comment on this subject,” read the statement from Sony’s spokesperson to The Mako Reactor over email.
As a refresher, at the time Sony had said: “Thank you for bringing this to our attention, however we have no comments at this stage.”
Finally, we had to ask that when Sony does plan to make the PS5 available in India, would be restricted to the six key retail partners that had the PS5 listed or would it be expanded to a wider number of outlets?
“We cannot comment on our channel strategy for PS5,” reads the email from Sony’s spokesperson.
While some may construe this as a whole lot of nothing, there is one important takeaway — don’t believe what a retailer tells you about PS5 pre-orders for India unless Sony has announced it.
In fact, this isn’t the first time the company has had to clarify this.
Back in June, The Mako Reactor was tipped off by several readers that brick and mortar stores across Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Delhi had been taking pre-orders for the PS5.
“At this point in time, pre-orders are neither encouraged nor allowed from Sony,” confirmed a spokesperson for Sony India to The Mako Reactor via email at the time.
Throw in the fact that Sony is keeping the PS4 Slim price the same for the rest of the year possibly means that either there are no plans to release the PS5 in India this year or that if the PS5 releases in India this year, there will be enough of a price difference between the PS4 and the PS5 to warrant keeping the PS4’s price the same. Usually Sony tends to discount last-generation consoles when new ones are out. We saw this with the PS2 and PS3, both receiving deep discounts when their successors were launched in the country.
One thing is for certain right now though, no PS5 pre-order from any Indian retailer is official at this point in time.
