Sony’s next console finally revealed, Playstation 5

12/6/2020

Sony has finally lifted the lid on the PS5, providing us with a close up look at some its upcoming next-gen games, including Horizon: Forbidden West, Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales and most importantly our first look at the console – or should that be consoles?

The PS5 looks to have an incredible library of games already, with many seeing upgraded visuals thanks to new technology such as ray tracing. Sony also emphasised once again that the new advanced SSD speeds could make a huge difference to exclusives games, seeing more densely packed in-game worlds as well as cutting down loading times.

Launch dates and pricing?
The PS5 will be launching in the latter months of 2020, Sony has confirmed. We imagine this will land in November, ensuring the console is comfortably in the homes of players ahead of the Christmas period. Pricing will be confirmed later in Q4.

What does the PS5 and PS5 Digital Edition look like?
We finally know what the PS5 will look like – and it’s certainly unique. This is unlike any console we’ve seen before, with futuristic curves and a general look that’s very different to the subtle PS4.

We also know there’s going to be a digital-only version of the console which will have no disc drive at all. This is another first for Sony and it’ll be interesting to see the price differences between the two models.

Playstation 5 Specs
The PS5’s GPU features 10.28 TFLOPs, 26 Compute Units and a 2.23GHz variable frequency. The CPU, meanwhile, uses Zen 2 architecture and has eight cores. PlayStation claims this processor sees a 3.5GHz variable frequency.

The PS5 will also see a custom 825GB SSD, although storage will be upgradable with M.2 SSDs from the open market since the console features an NVMe SSD Slot.

One of the most noticeable difference for visuals are the new dynamic global illumination effects, which helps to create more authentic lighting and shadows. The video below shows how beneficial such tricks can be on the overall visual quality.

The move to Unreal Engine 5 will apparently be pretty seamless, allowing developers to easily give games these next-gen visual upgrades. Fortnite will be one the very first Unreal Engine 5 titles to make the jump to next-generation consoles in 2021, and it’s likely plenty more games will follow.

It’s previously been emphasised that the new SSD speeds will also see dramatic upgrades to the PS5 performance, helping to ditch loading screens and allow developers to create more complex scenes without worries of the console baulking.

The PS5 is confirmed to be capable of 4K resolutions too, although it’s not clear whether games will be capable of a 60fps performance.An sample video is as shown below.

Playstation 5 DualSense Controllers
Aside from the overall design, there’s a lot to dig into when it comes to the little tweaks across the new DualSense (RIP DualShock 5). Elsewhere on the front of the device is the new Create and Options button. Options keeps its name but gets a new logo – replacing the text. While Share has become Create, represented by three fanned out lines. We don’t yet know what the change from Share to Create means but Sony has said it will allow for new ways to “create epic gameplay content to share with the world.”

On the black area of the face of the controller, we have the signature analog sticks and a new button added for DualSense. The analog sticks do look extremely similar to the DualShock 4 however there seems to be a slight differentiation in the pattern. Whether this difference means a new texture for the sticks, we don’t yet know. The new button in between the analog sticks is for muting the microphone inside the controller. Sony says you can use the DualSense’s mic array for chatting with friends – however, it still recommends headsets for prolonged gaming sessions.

Moving to the top of the controller (we are still yet to see the back), the first thing to note is the absence of the light bar. Instead, this has been moved to a more subtle lighting effect behind the touchpad – suggesting PS VR support could be out for the DualSense.
The most interesting part here is the redesigned shoulder buttons. Sony is touting new adaptive haptic feedback tech for these new DualSense buttons and they’ve got a bit of a new look too – particularly the bumpers. The PS5 controller also appears to be joining modern smartphones in ditching USB-A, opting for a standard that’s slowly becoming universal – USB-C.