Sony PlayStation 5: Release Date, Pricing, Tech, Design and More
The next-gen console will literally be a game changer.
After seven years of the PlayStation 4, Sony is gearing up to release its aptly-titled successor: the PlayStation 5.
The first verified information about the next-generation console came earlier this year from a Wired interview with system architect Mark Cerny, who spoke of enhanced imagery, speed, sound and backwards compatibility with the PS4.
More recently, a new image of a prototype that’s reportedly already in the hands of developers offered a very early view of what the PS5 could look like, although Business Insider notes that these kits rarely look the similar to the finished product:
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Using the latest interviews and articles gathered by Hi Snobiety about what’s poised to quite literally be a game-changer in the virtual world, here’s everything we know about the PlayStation 5.
The PS5 will arrive in late 2020
Cerny confirmed in a new Wired article that the PS5 is set a release during the 2020 holidays, and an unconfirmed rumor from anonymous source told BGR that an unveiling is scheduled for February 12 of the same year.
Technology will be top-notch
In the same Wired article, Cerny revealed that the PS5’s CPU will be based on AMD’s Ryzen line, its GPU will run a new ray-tracing graphics rendering process, physical games will be contained on 100-GB optical discs, and it will boast a high-tech solid-state drive (SSD) that eliminates the need for data duplication, thus substantially lowering graphics load time. Wired has further details on the SSD:
Think about the hard drive in a game console, spinning like a 5,400-rpm vinyl record. For the console to read a piece of information off the drive, it first has to send out the disk head—like a turntable needle—to find it. Each “seek,” as it’s known, may entail only a scant handful of milliseconds, but seeks add up. To minimize them, developers will often duplicate certain game assets in order to form contiguous data blocks, which the drive can read faster. We’re talking common stuff here: lampposts, anonymous passersby.
The SSD sweeps away the need for all that duping—so not only is its raw read speed dramatically faster than a hard drive, but it saves crucial space. How developers will take advantage of that space will likely differ; some may opt to build a larger or more detailed game world, others may be content to shrink the size of the games or patches.
It could be expensive
Based on known hardware specifications as well as rumors, one expert cited by CCN has priced the PS5 out at an astronomical $800—a significant hike over the PS4’s original $400 debut price. Hopefully they’re wrong.
The controller will provide unprecedented tactility
Cerny says that the controller, which Wired predicts will be called adjusting resistance based on whether the user is shooting a bow and arrow, machine, gun or shotgun. A haptic feedback motor provides different sensations when moving a character through grass and mud, or driving a vehicle on different surfaces. The controller will also include a USB-C port, a larger battery and a speaker.
The User Interface will be better
An improved User Interface (UI) won’t require gamers to load individual titles to see who’s on and what’s happening in real time.
“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,” Cerny told Wired. “Multiplayer game servers will provide the console with the set of joinable activities in real time. Single-player games will provide information like what missions you could do and what rewards you might receive for completing them—and all of those choices will be visible in the UI. As a player you just jump right into whatever you like.”
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