Tokyo (AFP)

Sony is advancing its pawns in the duel of new consoles which is looming for the holiday season with Microsoft: the Japanese group has unveiled the launch dates and prices of its future PlayStation 5, eagerly awaited.

Both versions of the PS5 will go on sale from November 12 in Australia, North America, New Zealand, South Korea, Japan and Mexico, and a week later in the rest of the world, Sony announced on Wednesday. an online presentation.

Microsoft, for its part, revealed last week that its new Xbox console would be released on November 10.

Like its American rival, Sony is planning two versions of its new machine: a premium model at around $ 500, and a "digital edition" without a disk drive, intended for games stored in the cloud (remote computing), which will be sold at 400 dollars.

Microsoft's Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S will launch at $ 499 and $ 299 respectively.

The Japanese group also revealed a selection of games that will accompany the launch of the PS5, such as "Final Fantasy XVI", the latest installment in the famous role-playing series, "Hogwarts Legacy", a role-playing game in the universe of Harry Potter, or the action game "Spider-Man: Miles Morales".

Some of these games will be exclusives, available only on the PS5.

Sony's strong point against Microsoft, said Amir Anvarzadeh, strategist at Asymmetric Advisors interviewed by AFP.

"Sony will also have a big advantage over Microsoft, because the PlayStation traditionally dominates the Xbox on the European and Japanese markets," he recalls.

Globally, Sony's PlayStation 4 has sold twice as much as Microsoft's Xbox One.

- "Market distortion" -

"But for PS5 games to sell, the consoles must first sell," also warns Mr. Anvarzadeh.

However, the Bloomberg agency said earlier this week that Sony had downgraded its production targets for the PS5 for its current fiscal year (ended March 31, 2021) because of technical difficulties.

The group, however, subsequently denied.

Mr Anvarzadeh also warns of potentially exaggerated market expectations, fueled by spectacular sales by the global video game industry since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, as containment measures have encouraged the playfulness of many idle people .

"The pandemic has caused a distortion of the market", which will probably not be repeated, believes the strategist, citing the example of Nintendo which will experience the equivalent of "three quarters of Christmas in a year, which is unheard of" .

Companies in the sector "will face great challenges next year, at least from a growth point of view," he adds.

Sony's sales grew 32.5% in the first quarter of 2020/21 in its video games division, according to results released in early August.

This division alone accounted for nearly a third of Sony's total turnover over the period, even though the group is very diversified (household appliances, financial services, image sensors for smartphones, music, cinema ...).

The Japanese technological flagship is also betting on a 26.4% jump in sales in its video games and associated network services division over its entire 2020/21 fiscal year, to 2.5 trillion yen (20 billion euros as of current price), thanks in particular to the arrival of the PlayStation 5.

The video games business should therefore represent 30% of the group's annual sales and 39% of its 2020/21 operating profit: an exceptional weight.

© 2020 AFP