Last week, Sony postponed a planned event to show off new games for its upcoming PlayStation 5 video game console, due later this year. At the time, the company said it wanted to “allow more important voices to be heard” as people around the world protested police misconduct and the killing of George Floyd.
Now Sony has a new date for its event: June 11, at 1 p.m. PT/4 p.m. ET. Sony’s pretaped event will focus on games, but the company plans to make more announcements ahead of the PS5’s launch sometime in the fall.
The company recommends viewers wear headphones while watching the video, because it did “some cool audio work” that’s harder to notice on a laptop or phone. Sony also said the event will stream at 1080p and 30 frames per second, much lower than the 4K quality the device is capable of showing. Sony said the video was reduced to ease the production process, since many staff and developers are working from home.
In an exclusive interview with CNET, Sony’s PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan said last week was “no time to celebrate” amid international turmoil and racial strife. But for him and for Sony, the past couple of weeks since graphic videos of Floyd’s death while in police custody spread around the globe, have meant introspection about business practices, approach and diversity among his staff.
“There are moments in life when something happens around you and you realize that what you’ve been doing is either not big enough, not good enough, or just wrong. This is such a moment,” he said in an email exchange. “We are going to take a good hard look at how we behave as a company, and how we behave towards our community.”