Everything You Need to Know About the Sony PlayStation 5

Sony continues to slowly release information about the impending PlayStation 5, meaning it can be difficult to find all the relevant details in one place. Sony first confirmed the existence of a new PlayStation back in October 2018, although it didn’t reveal the console’s name until October 8, 2019. Eagle-eyed fans went as far as to track down the dev kit, which was codenamed Prospero.

For those who just want a quick rundown of the upcoming system, HYPEBEAST has collected all the information available about the next-gen console into one piece. Read on to see everything there is to know about the Sony PlayStation 5 before its release in the Holiday 2020 season.

Specs

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CPU: The PlayStation 5’s system consists of an AMD chip based on Ryzen. It has 8x cores and 7nm Zen 2 processors. The Zen 2 chip was unveiled in June 2019 and is notable for separating the CPU and I/O parts into smaller modules.

GPU: The graphics processing unit (GPU) is a custom AMD Navi unit that supports ray tracing at a hardware level. Ray tracing is important because it’s a rendering technique that helps lighting effects become far more realistic than other attempts seen in gaming.

Audio: The PS5 will use 3D audio, which Sony’s system architect Mark Cerny believes will be “dramatically different” to PS4’s sound.

Storage: The system will use a Solid State Drive (SSD), alongside a PCLe 4.0 connection. The result of this new drive is that loading times in games will dramatically decrease, reducing the wait from 15 to 0.8 seconds.

Resolution: The new console will support full 8K resolution, and it can be safely assumed that this will include full 4K support also.

Disc Reader: The disc reader will be able to read 4K Blu Ray discs, while the new optical game discs will have a capacity of 100GB. Despite this, Sony will attempt at a push for digital titles and streaming with the improvement of its PlayStation Now service.

Console Features

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Backward Compatibility: Jim Ryan, CEO of PlayStation, revealed in June 2019 that the system will support backwards compatibility with the PS4. He also mentioned “cross-generational play,” meaning players will be able to play a compatible game on their PS4, switch over to PS5 and continue from where they left off.

Portable element: This is something that has been hinted at but not confirmed, with head of Sony’s gaming division John Kodera stating that “it’s necessary to continue thinking of [portable gaming] as one method to deliver more gaming experiences and exploring what our customers want from portable.”

Improved home screen: The PS5 home screen is expected to receive a dramatic overhaul, considering what Mark Cerny told Wired, saying that the launch page will see multiplayer games provide users with a list of joinable activities while single player games will showcase the missions you’ll receive and the rewards for doing them.

Game Installation Changes: Installation times for digital games were the bane of many a PS4 user’s experience, often taking days to download. To combat this, the PS5 will allow configurable installation for ease of use. For example, if you want to play just the single player campaign of a game, you’ll be able to download that alone, leaving the multiplayer to be downloaded at a later date.

Reduced energy consumption: Speaking in a blog post on the PlayStation website, president and CEO Jim Ryan said that the PS5 would come with the option to suspend gameplay while using much less power than the PS4. Ryan added that “if just one million users enable this feature, it would save equivalent to the average electricity use of 1,000 U.S. homes.”

Controllers

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Haptic feedback: One of the key features from the new PS5 controllers is haptic feedback, which allows developers to differentiate rumble feedback to a higher degree than ever before, saying that “crashing into a wall in a race car feels much different than making a tackle on the football field. You can even get a sense for a variety of textures when running through fields of grass or plodding through mud.”

Adaptive Triggers: The other key addition to the controllers is trigger usage, which allows developers to configure the feeling of the R2/L2 buttons “so that you feel the tactile sensation of drawing a bow and arrow or accelerating an off-road vehicle through rocky terrain.”

Games

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No games have been confirmed as of yet, but Sony’s blog post confirming the name of the PS5 made a reference to three games in particular: Death Stranding, The Last of Us Part II, and Ghost of Tsushima. This somewhat random reference lead those to assume that these games will be made for the console at launch, although that remains only speculation at this point.

Release Date & Pricing

Sony has only announced the PlayStation 5 as launching during the Holiday 2020 season, with no firm date as of yet. The pricing was rumored to be around $500 USD according to leaks, but no official price has been confirmed yet.