The price of the PS5 has apparently been leaked by a game store.

According to Notebookcheck, Canadian retailer Play N Trade Vancouver Island has opened preorders for the PS5 for $559.99 CAD. That translates to roughly US$396 or £318, making the PS5 only slightly cheaper than the PS4 at launch ($399 or £349). However, there are several possibilities as to why the store has set such a low price.

It is possible that Play N Trade does not yet know the exact price of the PS5 and requires payment later to balance costs. Similarly, Sony may be intentionally keeping the retail price low to undercut the more expensive Xbox Series X due to its more powerful processing power.

Sony did this at the launch of its previous generation consoles, offering the PS4 for $100 less than the Xbox One; the Xbox One's high price, coupled with some questionable DRM policies and a focus on entertainment applications, gave Sony an early lead with the PS4 enabled Sony to take an early lead with the PS4.

Microsoft appears to have learned from its mistakes with the launch of the thoroughly game-focused Xbox Series X. However, Microsoft's decision to once again charge a premium for its hardware may prove its undoing in a market where PlayStation users currently outnumber Xbox users.

Both Sony and Microsoft have declared that the coronavirus outbreak will not delay the launch of their game consoles, with both expected around November of this year. However, games scheduled to be released along with the new consoles may be affected.