PS5 - What We Know So Far

It has been 25 years since the original PlayStation launched in Japan, and Sony's gaming line continues to be a roaring success to this day. The PlayStation family of consoles has done outrageously well for Sony, with the PlayStation 4 being no exception. However, the PlayStation 4 is getting on in age, and gamers expect their games to take advantage of developments like 4K resolution and HDR while continuing to hit solid framerates.

To extend their dominance in the gaming marketplace through the next console generation, Sony has been hard at work on the PlayStation 5 and details on the much-awaited console have started to come out. According to Sony's Playstation CEO Jim Ryan, the PlayStation 5 is geared towards providing a seamless transition for gamers. Contrary to what industry rivals Microsoft and Nintendo are doing with their respective gaming brands, Sony seems content on upgrading as opposed to innovating. As the old saying goes, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. So what exactly is in the new console? Here's everything you need to know about the PlayStation 5.

Following months of speculation, Sony has finally shared the name and release window for their next-generation console. The company's president & CEO Jim Ryan confirmed that the successor to the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 4 Pro would continue the naming legacy, officially bearing the moniker "PlayStation 5." Unlike many other console families that have elected to use new words or letters to distinguish a new generation, PlayStation has kept their naming scheme consistent, making it simple for users to understand where each system falls in the lineup.

The PS5 will launch at some point during the 2020 holiday season, positioning the console to compete with the the Xbox Scarlett, the next-gen offering from long-term rival Microsoft. This window spans three months, and the release of either system could fall anywhere between October and December, just in time for Christmas. The PlayStation 4 launched on Nov. 15, 2013, with the Xbox One following on Nov. 22. Both companies may shoot for a similar target in 2020.

According to Mark Cerny, the PlayStation 5 is not just an upgraded version of the PS4 Pro. The PS5 will be an entirely refreshed, brand-new hardware build. The console will feature an octo-core CPU and a custom GPU, based on AMD's Ryzen and Radeon Navi hardware, respectively. Those upgrades will give game developers lots of new superpowers when coming up with software for the PS5. That means console gamers will finally see visuals relying on "ray-tracing" — called the "next level" in gaming graphics – and 8K resolution, too. Cerny is also very excited about 3D audio: "With the next console the dream is to show how dramatically different the audio experience can be when we apply significant amounts of hardware horsepower to it." 

All of the computing power of the PS5 sounds great, but technology can get expensive quickly. And nothing can kill console sales faster than the sticker shock of an overpriced system, something Sony found out the hard way with their rocky launch of the PlayStation 3 back in 2006. Learning from that mistake, Sony undercut Microsoft in 2013 when they announced the PS4 would start at $100 less than the Xbox One. Nothing concrete has been revealed from Sony about the PS5's pricing, but Ace Research Institute's Sony analyst Hideki Yasuda revealed in May 2019 that he expects the console to launch at $499.

Considering the PlayStation 4 has sold nearly 100 million units, it makes sense that Sony would want to incentivize players to stay in the PlayStation ecosystem by including backwards compatibility in the upcoming PS5. In his conversation with CNET, Jim Ryan said, "Whether it's backwards compatibility or the possibility of cross-generational play, we'll be able to transition that community to next-gen. It won't be a binary choice about whether you have to be either on PlayStation 4 or next-gen to continue your friendship."

In a move that is reminiscent of how Apple treats iOS applications on their App Store and what Microsoft did with the Xbox One after launch, Sony wants their fans and customers to be able to continue playing the PlayStation 4 games they have bought even after they've upgraded to the new console. This is sure to delight gamers, but it opens up questions about the performance of older games on the PS5. Will games like Uncharted 4: A Thief's End and God of War run in higher resolutions and at higher framerates? It is an exciting possibility, to be sure.

With a holiday 2020 release for the PlayStation 5 looming large, it is not surprising to hear that game makers have had development kits for some time now. In March 2018, rumors started flying that some third-party developers already had them. Next-gen job listings have been popping up on job boards and, knowing Sony wants to position the next PlayStation as the go-to machine for hardcore gamers, it is safe to say production companies are hard at work. 

It's reasonable to assume that early PS5 games will also be available on the PS4. Developing "cross-gen" games is commonplace when a new generation gets introduced. In an interview with Eurogamer about Bethesda's new IP Starfield, Todd Howard said: "We're pushing it; we're thinking very, very far in future so we're building something that will handle next-generation hardware. That's what we're building on right now, that's where our mind is, but that doesn't mean it wouldn't exist on the current systems as well." 

When asked what the power of the next PlayStation console brings to development, Gran Turismo series creator Kazunori Yamauchi mentioned VR: "VR is something that really depends on the evolution of GPU power, and the hardware for it, like display devices even. It's something where you can never have enough computing power." 

After an Investor Relations event in 2019, Sony uploaded a PDF of the slides from Sony Interactive Entertainment's presentation and provided a thorough preview of their goals for the future of the PlayStation brand. In the segment labelled "Role of Streaming in Next Gen," Sony seems to be highlighting streaming as an avenue for growth. Their vision for PlayStation-based streaming is "a massively enhanced PlayStation community where enriched and shared PlayStation experiences can be seamlessly enjoyed independent of time and place –- with or without a console."

It is that last line — with or without a console — that is particularly striking. With Google attacking the gaming scene with Stadia and Sony announcing a partnership with Microsoft to explore cloud-based streaming, perhaps the future of PlayStation lies outside the console space. Sony may be producing a powerhouse of a console in the PS5, but it is interesting to see them hedging their bets with streaming as well. 

As video games become bigger and bigger — including vast open worlds, branching storylines, and outrageously large file sizes — load times have become a nuisance. For example, Days Gone, an action-adventure game set in a zombie-infested Oregon, was released in early 2019 to mediocre reviews. One of the majors issues was its unbelievably long loading times. In an article for Paste Magazine, writer Garrett Martin claimed his PS4 Pro took over three minutes to launch the game. With the PlayStation 5, Sony is looking to not only address the issue of long loading times, but to obliterate it entirely.

Sony is including a solid-state drive (SSD) in the PlayStation 5 in order to get gamers playing more quickly. In his sit-down with Wired, Mark Cerny wanted to highlight just how quickly the new PlayStation can load large files. To do so, he launched Marvel's Spider-Man on a PS4 Pro and initiated the game's fast-travel feature. When Spider-Man reappeared in a totally different spot, 15 seconds had elapsed. After this, Cerny did the exact same thing on a PlayStation 5 dev kit connected to a different TV, and what had taken 15 seconds now took a whopping 0.8 seconds. What is really incredible is the fact that the dev kit was apparently an early "low-speed" version. Imagine a "high-speed" version!

The gaming division of the Sony Corporation is its big money-maker, so rocking the most successful boat in the harbor doesn't seem to be in the cards. However, according to the New York Times, Sony's three separately run entertainment businesses — music, gaming, and motion pictures — have been told by company higher-ups to collaborate more consistently and cohesively. The report also stated that PlayStation Network managers have been hesitant to team up with Sony's movie and music divisions, worrying that gamers would get angry if things like family films were pushed in front of their faces in the PlayStation Store. 

Does this mean that Sony higher-ups want to push the PS5 as an "all-in-one" type of box? Just ask Microsoft how that worked with them one the Xbox One. It is true that we live in a different media landscape than back in 2013, with cord-cutting and streaming becoming more and more common, but it is still a risk. PlayStation is the steadiest gaming brand in the world; if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

In April 2020, Sony's Hideaki Nishino took the world by surprise when he unveiled the PlayStation 5's DualSense controller on the PlayStation Blog. According to Nishino, The DualSense pad will include new haptic feedback technology that "adds a variety of powerful sensations you'll feel when you play, such as the slow grittiness of driving a car through mud." The DualSense also features adaptive triggers so you can "truly feel the tension of your actions."

Simply put, the new controller introduces tactile sensations we've never experienced before in the gaming world.

The DualSense will not have a "Share" button anymore. It has been replaced with a "Create" button, which will allow players to create their own gameplay content. Nishino says that the company will release more information about this feature at a later date. The controller also has a built-in microphone for in-game chat. The light bar has been repositioned to make it "pop" more, as Sony puts it. Longer battery life will be a priority. And the pad features an interesting black and white two-tone design, which has become the inspiration for countless memes.

There's no word yet on how much the DualSense will cost by itself.

According to Cerny, the PlayStation 5 will take a different approach to game installation thanks to the system's SSD, which allows for more simplified game data: "Rather than treating games like a big block of data, we're allowing finer-grained access to the data." This "finer-grained access" means a much more configurable installation and removal process. For example, you could choose to install just a game's multiplayer component. Conversely, you could install the full game the delete the solo campaign after completing it.

The SSD will also increase the raw speed of the system while drastically increasing space, a feature developers may choose to take advantage of by building larger and even more grand settings. Cerny confirmed the PlayStation 5's physical games will use 100 GB optical discs. The optical drive also functions as a 4K Blu-ray player, a feature many users have been hoping for.

The PlayStation 5 will come with a revamped user interface, trading the PlayStation 4's bare-bones setup for a layout that highlights the player's choices right from the home screen. Though you can view a friend's recent actions or the game they're playing in the current iteration, you have to launch a title to see what missions or multiplayer matches are open to you. The new UI aims to change that, displaying the available experiences right at startup.

"Even though it will be fairly fast to boot games, we don't want the player to have to boot the game, see what's up, boot the game, see what's up," explained Cerny. On the PlayStation 5, multiplayer games will share joinable activities in real-time. Single-player games will also provide information about the missions you have available to complete and the rewards you could collect. All of this will display in the UI, allowing you to jump right in to whatever catches your eye.