PlayStation 5: Release Date, Price, Specs, and News

Sony is preparing to unveil its next-generation console, a piece of hardware the world is currently calling the PlayStation 5. Will the PS5 be the console's final name? That remains to be seen (but it's likely).

The real question is how the new console will perform against its immediate competitor, Xbox Scarlett, Microsoft's own next-gen machine, which boasts powerful specs and a few interesting features. And let's not forget Google Stadia, which could be a big step into a future where players no longer need consoles at all. 

But that future seems to still be a while off. Until then, we still get to obsess over the upcoming console war. Here's everything we know about the PlayStation 5:

A Wall Street Journal reporter has noted that Sony doesn't plan on releasing the PS5 anytime in the next 12 months. As this report is from April 2019, and because Sony representatives are specifically using the phrase "12 months," that means that the PS5 will not be available by April 2020. However, nobody from Sony is saying that the PS5 will not be released in 2020.

This information lines up with an older report from Kotaku in which "dozens" of developers and industry insiders - who are not identified by name - state that they have firsthand knowledge of Sony's console plans and don't believe that the PlayStation 5 will be released in 2019. However, one of these insiders did note that Sony's plans are always subject to change. 

"At some point, Sony’s probably looked at every possible date," one source told Kotaku. "It’s all about what they think is the best sweet spot in terms of hardware." As such, Sony is willing to change its plans based on what the competition does and other industry factors.

Of course, Kotaku's report also points to the most important takeaway from this information: anything can change. At the moment, you shouldn't expect the PlayStation 5 to be released in the immediate future. However, the current state of the console industry - in which Microsoft and Google are already laying the foundation for the future - means that you can't really take anything for granted concerning the likely release date of an upcoming console. 

It'll be a while before there's anything concrete to share regarding the PS5's price point. We likely won't hear anything about that until the console is officially unveiled.

While Sony hasn't confirmed the specific hardware components that will be used in its next console, we have learned a few things on the road to the big announcement:

For starters: the PS5 will have a disc drive, according to Wired, which demoed the new hardware in April 2019. The console will also have an SSD drive, which could reduce loading times dramatically. More on that last bit in a second.

As for output types, Sony confirmed that 8K visuals and 3D audio will both be supported by the PS5. And, as for graphics, the PS5 will have ray-tracing technology that should allow light and reflections to be rendered more realistically in PlayStation games than they ever have been before.

Just how fast are the PlayStation 5's load times? During the aforementioned Wired demo, Sony exec Mark Cerny, who served as lead architect on the PS4, showed the outlet the same loading screen on a PS4 and a PS5 version of Insomniac's Spider-Man title. On PS4, completing a "fast-travel" load between two in-game New York locations took 15 seconds; but on PS5, the same loading process took just 0.8 seconds. That's sure to be music to many a gamer's ears.

In May 2019, Sony showcased some footage of "next-generation" technology during a presentation in Japan. Sony did not refer to the technology as being directly related to the PS5 or whatever their next-gen console may be called. However, it'd be a surprise to learn that this demo isn't related to existing PS5 technology. 

The demo itself compared the loading times for a series of images running on the PS4 Pro to the same series of images running on next-generation technology. As is the case with many tech demos, you've got to take this demonstration with a grain of salt. It was a limited demonstration that didn't include real-time game technology. The next-generation technology was also listed as being "under development," which means this might not even be its final form. 

Sony has confirmed that the upcoming PS5 console will indeed have backward compatibility, following rumors to that effect that have been floating around for months. This will be music to the ears of anyone that's been building a nice library of games on their PS4 for years now.

Speaking at a totally exciting corporate strategy get-together, the same one at which Sony showed off the PS5 console's amazing loading times, the company took the time to talk about its plans for backward compatibility.

GamesRadar quotes PlayStation boss Jim Ryan as saying, "Backwards compatibility, in a networked era, becomes something that is incredibly powerful. Because the gaming community is somewhat tribal in its nature, backwards compatibility gives us the opportunity to migrate that community from PlayStation 4 to next-gen using the ability to play the PS4 games they have on their next generation console - groups of 10, 20, 50 gamers. So we see this, given the size of the community that we've been able to accumulate over all these years and hard work on PlayStation 4 as a really critical success factor for us. We think it's incredibly important."

And deputy president John Kodera added this: "Cross-generation the community can enjoy the games together." This seems to mean that you'll be able to connect online, across the generation gap, with PS5 owners and PS4 owners playing together.

Taking backward compatibility to a whole new level, Sony is imbuing the PS5 with the capability to carry over save files from the PS4. So if you've started a game on PS4, you'll be able to transfer that progress over to the PS5 (when it comes out) and pick up from where you left off.

This exciting functionality for the upcoming PS5 console was revealed by Ryan in an interview with CNET. 

"Whether it's backwards compatibility or the possibility of cross-generational play, we'll be able to transition that community to next-gen," Ryan told CNET. "It won't be a binary choice about whether you have to be either on PlayStation 4 or next-gen to continue your friendship."

Ryan also notes, "This transition is probably gonna be more interesting than any other we've seen in the past. We obviously have one recently announced new entrant into the gaming space [Google Stadia] and the possibility of more to come. So the landscape is changing fast. If we simply kinda lean back on the world that we've known for the past 25 years, we're at grave risk of having events around us overtake us. So we have to show an open-mindedness and a desire to do things to an extent that we haven't had to in the past."

One way in which Sony is showing its open-mindedness is by letting players take their games and their progress with them from PS4 over to PS5, saving users from paying twice for the same game and having to play it through again in order to catch up. 

Matthew Byrd is a staff writer for Den of Geek. He spends most of his days trying to pitch deep-dive analytical pieces about Killer Klowns From Outer Space to an increasingly perturbed series of editors. You can read more of his work here or find him on Twitter at . 

Source: Denofgeek.com

Powered by NewsAPI.org

Keywords:

PlayStation • Sony • Video game console • Computer hardware • PlayStation • Video game console • Video game console • Xbox (console) • Microsoft • Seventh generation of video game consoles • Google • Future plc • Video game console • Future plc • Video game console • PlayStation • The Wall Street Journal • Sony • Sony • Sony • Kotaku • Sony • Video game console • PlayStation • Sony • Sony • Kotaku • Sony • Kotaku • PlayStation • Video game console • Microsoft • Google • Sony • Disk storage • Wired (magazine) • Computer hardware • Video game console • Solid-state drive • Bit • Input/output • Sony • Video game graphics • 3D audio effect • Computer graphics • Ray tracing (graphics) • PlayStation • Video game • PlayStation • Wired (magazine) • Game demo • Sony • Mark Cerny • PlayStation 4 • Loading screen • PlayStation 4 • Insomniac Games • Spider-Man • PlayStation 4 • Video game • Sony • Next Generation (magazine) • Japan • Sony • Seventh generation of video game consoles • Video game console • Game demo • Game demo • Loading screen • PlayStation 4 • Next Generation (magazine) • Technology • Technology • Game demo • Technology demonstration • Technology demonstration • Turns, rounds and time-keeping systems in games • Next Generation (magazine) • Sony • Backward compatibility • PlayStation 4 • Sony • Backward compatibility • GamesRadar • PlayStation • Backward compatibility • Backward compatibility • PlayStation 4 • Seventh generation of video game consoles • PlayStation 4 • Video game • Next Generation (magazine) • Video game console • Gamer • PlayStation 4 • Critical success factor • Kōdera, Hyōgo • Generation gap • PlayStation 4 • Backward compatibility • Sony • Saved game • PlayStation 4 • PlayStation 4 • Video game console • CNET • Seventh generation of video game consoles • CNET • PlayStation 4 • Google • Construction Time Again • Lean Back • Sony • Video game • PlayStation 4 • Video game • Dennis Publishing • Killer Klowns from Outer Space • Twitter •