Earlier this week, many prospective PS5 purchasers started champing at the bit when rumors began circulating that the next-gen console was slated to soon become available for pre-order. While this still hasn't happened just yet, a representative from PlayStation has now commented on the matter and has told fans not to worry.

Speaking to Geoff Keighley during today's Summer Game Fest live stream, Sony Interactive Entertainment's head of global marketing Eric Lempel was asked about the recent rumors regarding pre-orders and if he happened to know how those even began circling in the first place. Lempel said he had no idea how fans caught wind of such a thing that wasn't based in reality, but he did say that those looking to snag the console shouldn't worry too much.

"I think it's safe to say for your viewers, we'll let you know when pre-order will happen," Lempel said plainly. "It's not going to happen with a minute's notice. We're going to at some point let you know when you can pre-order PlayStation 5, so please don't feel like you need to go run out and line up anywhere until you receive official notice on how that'll work."

Lempel also said that when these pre-order rumors started going around earlier this week, he had heard stories of consumers rushing out to retail stores to stand in line and put in their own purchase. Apparently, everyone at PlayStation was extremely puzzled as to why this was happening in the first place, which Keighley himself seemed to find entertaining.

All in all, this isn't too shocking to hear from Lempel and PlayStation in the first place. The fact that many found it plausible that Sony would push live pre-orders across retailers around the world without giving fans a heads up in advance seems a bit silly in retrospect. Then again, that just goes to show how out of hand internet rumors can get sometimes.

While we still don't know exactly when PS5 pre-orders will be going live, the fact that the console is slated to launch at some point within the next 5 months means we should be hearing more very, very soon. Whenever an official release date and price point for the PS5 is revealed, we'll obviously let you know.