Sony has decided to postpone its planned PS5 event, which was originally set to take place on June 4.
The news was shared in a tweet from the PlayStation account, which read: "While we understand gamers worldwide are excited to see PS5 games, we do not feel that right now is a time for celebration and for now, we want to stand back and allow more important voices to be heard."
The decision comes in response to the death of George Floyd, an un-armed black man who died in police custody on Monday, May 25 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. A police officer, who was videoed kneeling on Mr Floyd's neck for several minutes has since been charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter.
Sony also tweeted a statement denouncing systemic racism and said it is supporting the Black Lives Matter movement, a sentiment echoed by Xbox, EA and other gaming companies.
This event was originally announced last week to show off new games the company and other third-party developers are making for the next-generation console.
As of yet, Sony has not said when the event will take place instead and it remains unclear if other planned game reveals might follow suit.
The presentation was set to last an hour and it would've been part of an ongoing series of PS5 updates containing up until the console launches this holiday season
“We remain absolutely on track,” PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan said in an interview. “We're going to launch this holiday, we will have a global launch. And where we're greatly looking forward to it. And we very much want the gaming world to look forward to it, too.”
Sony's PS5 and Microsoft's Xbox Series X are both promising to deliver sharper and more intricate visuals, faster gameplay and new titles such as Assassin's Creed and Halo games.
There is currently no price tag on either of these powerful new consoles, but there might be limited PlayStation consoles available at launch due to how expensive it will be.
It seems unlikely we'll be getting a look at the console itself, but there is always a possibility.
At the moment, Sony has only revealed what the controller – the DualSense – will look like and it is a sizeable deviation from previous controller models.
More recently, we were all treated to an extended look at Epic Games' new Unreal Engine 5 running live on a PS5 console, showing off some stunning visuals.
The PS4, Sony's current console, has two more exclusive titles left to release and these are thought to be the last exclusive titles to come out on the console before the PS5 launches.
The Last of Us Part II, which continues Naughty Dog's epic, outstanding journey and story from the first game will be releasing June 19.
Ghost of Tsushima, an open-world adventure game set in Japan will be the next release and comes out in July.
