Late last week, rumors started flying that Sony would start taking pre-orders for the PS5 on Monday. Don't worry: You didn't blink and miss it, nor were you pulled in at the last minute. According to Eric Rempel, PlayStation's head of marketing, the company has no idea where the rumor came from, nor was it part of Sony's plans.

"We don't know what happened. We didn't do anything," Rempel told Geoff Keighley, curator of the Summer Games Festival. "We got a message from someone saying, 'There are people in the storefront,' and we had no idea why!"

"So I went to .......

"So I think it's safe to say we'll let you know when pre-orders will happen, we won't let you know a minute in advance, we'll let you know when you'll get your pre-order, we'll let you know when you'll get your pre-order, we'll let you know when you'll get your pre-order. At some point we will let you know when the PlayStation 5 will be available for pre-order, so don't expect to have to go somewhere and wait in line until you receive the official notice."

That may mean.

While that may sound reassuring on one level, the clock is ticking, and we know that both the PS5 and Xbox Series X will be available by the end of the year, which is only 167 days at the most. Realistically, both companies will want to have their consoles on the shelves by Christmas, so that could be reduced to 136 days.

For comparison, Sony revealed the PlayStation 4's price at E3 2013 on June 11, a day after Microsoft announced the Xbox One. The console went on sale 157 days later, on November 15, so even if Sony reveals the price tomorrow, it will give eager early adopters more time to save than last time.

Why the secrecy? Simply because both Sony and Microsoft are releasing their next generation consoles this year, and no one wants to be the first to announce it and risk being priced out by a competitor. The only time Sony failed to significantly outpace Microsoft in hardware was when the Xbox 360 was $400 while the PlayStation 3 was $500.

It is also possible that Sony has not yet decided on a price for the PlayStation 5. This may sound a little unprepared, but these are unprecedented times when the full economic impact of the coronavirus is not fully known. Are people tightening their belts and therefore unwilling to buy expensive hardware? Or are people willing to accept that they will spend more time in their homes and pay extra for home entertainment?

The answers to these questions will ultimately come down to how much Sony is willing to subsidize its new machines.