A live-streamed event showing games designed for the PS5 ended with the announcement that two new versions of the console would be released on November 12 in Australia, North America, New Zealand, Mexico, Japan and South Korea, and a week later in the rest of the world.

The PS5 Premium will be priced at $500, while a "digital edition" designed to use video games hosted in the cloud will be priced at $400, according to the presentation.

Microsoft announced last week that its latest generation of Xbox console will hit the market on November 10, with an estimated price of $499.

The new XBox Series X, Microsoft's workhorse in its competition with Sony's Playstation devices, will be available to order from September 22.

Microsoft said it will sell a smaller version of the Xbox S console for $299, also in November.

New consoles hit the market as more and more people dive into video games during the Covid-19 pandemic and as the industry focuses more on cloud-hosted games.

The PlayStation 4 has sold more than twice as much as its Xbox rival, but Microsoft hopes to level its battle against Sony.