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Gaming: Sony hits pause on PS5 reveal; Pokémon catches board game fever & more
Buzz was building fast for Sony’s hugely anticipated PlayStation 5 reveal event this week, but the timing’s just not right to go forward with the company’s planned June 4 presentation, Sony has announced via Twitter.
Eager PlayStation fans who caught the event’s short but slick TV teasers over the weekend were buzzing as recently as Sunday about Sony’s evidently ambitious intentions for the PS5 reveal. But with widespread civil unrest spurring a public discourse far weightier than the celebratory atmosphere the event’s aiming for, Sony said it makes sense to stage its presentation at a later time, when it seems more appropriate to invite fans to feel free to indulge their more lighthearted sides.
“[W]e do not feel that right now is a time for celebration,” Sony said in announcing the delay:
Originally scheduled for June 4, the event was reportedly intended as the first in a staggered series of information drops about the PS4’s souped-up console successor leading up to its release this holiday season. Gaming media has spent the better part of the past week speculating whether fans would finally catch their first glimpse of Sony’s redesigned console on June 4, or whether the company would instead keep the focus only on games (and the previously shared new PS5 controller) for now — to let the anticipation build even further.
Deferring to the gravity of all that’s happening in the world, Sony is holding off on announcing a new PS5 event date for now. “[W]e want to stand back and allow more important voices to be heard,” the company explained in its social post.
It’s not quite a card game, but it’s a game based on a card game that’s based on a video game: Pokémon is catching board-game fever with the announcement of Pokémon Trading Card Game Battle Academy, a board game aimed at easing players both experienced and new into its deep card trading battle systems.
Remarkably, Battle Academy marks the first official crossover for Pikachu and pals from their trading-card world and onto the tabletop, but it looks like a well-evolved way to come together over a colorful setup to pit your creatures against the competition. Designed for two players, the board game comes with three 6-card decks in the box, as well as illustrated tutorial guides for beginners, and a rulebook for more advanced players.
As in its trading-card cousin, matches can happen fast. Each game can be completed in about 30 minutes, and all the included cards and accessories are designed to be “fully compatible with all standard Pokémon trading card game products,” according to The Pokémon Company’s website. Pricing hasn't been announced yet, but expect to catch Pokémon Trading Card Game Battle Academy on store shelves and online storefronts on July 31.
Game consoles are about to get Goosebumps — and we mean the R.L. Stine kind. A new multi-platform Goosebumps adventure is creeping its way onto consoles and PC this summer with Goosebumps Dead of Night, a spooky adaptation from the book series from Scholastic and developer Cosmic Forces.
A puzzle-solving mystery that tasks players with filling in the pages that’ve gone missing from R.L. Stine’s hypothetical next book, Dead of Night will have players dodging monsters “summoned from classic Goosebumps tales.” The first-person horror tale unfolds inside a “twisted and overgrown conservatory,” where it’s a race to stop Slappy the Dummy, who’s escaped from the book and set the monsters loose, from hatching a “dastardly plan to unleash the Goosebumps monsters into our world.”
Running around a dark abandoned haunt with Goosebumps frights like Murder the Clown sounds like a cat-and-mouse game made in horror heaven, and it’s heading our way this summer. No firm release date has been announced, but you’ll be able to conjure Goosebumps Dead of Night for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC (via Steam).
