I'm going to be positive and say tonight. This event has been advertised and trailed a HUGE amount over the past few days, which suggests Sony want all eyes on it. There's an expectation of pre-orders, and I can see them fulfiling that expectation.
The current trend of pre-anouncements is pretty stupid so I hope they open it up right away. I'll be curious if MS responds or if the're wedded to their current plan (such as it is).
I would hope that you could after the showcase with some communication beforehand to say so. But they dont need to worry they have their own plans and probably havent changed them (apart from maybe price). So im going with after 22nd Sept. But you know im prob wrong.
By this weekend. Retailers are the ones who have to hit the gas pedal on taking orders, so unless Sony has yet to communicate allocations, retailers are going to go as soon as they can.
Keeping it orderly will be a mess, so brace for it.
Who knows but my credit cards ready in the event it does go live today and the all digital is decently priced enough to make it worthwhile to jump in early.
Sony usually say at the show that you can already pre-order in their site or the retailer partners.
That is why the marketing material is already being put at stores.
EB Games Australia sent out an email guide today on how to prepare and pre-order the new consoles as quickly as possible, and we're still a week out from Xbox pre-orders...