This is Sony’s new Generation 9 console, which will be replacing the PS4, PS4 Slim and PS4 Pro. It will be released in the fourth quarter of the year in 2020 with no specific date as of yet. Also unconfirmed is the price – however both the PS4 and Pro were both £349 at launch.
The PS5 will be backward compatible with a large portion of PS4 and PSVR games. These games will also benefit with a boost to frame rates, and the potential for higher resolutions. At this time of writing, games are being evaluated to spot any issues for backwards compatibility, but it is likely that at least the 100 most popular games on the PS4 will be backwards compatible with this new console. There have also been rumours that a PSVR2 will be released along with the console in the coming years.
There will be more control in the installation of a game. For example, should you just want to use the multiplayer mode, you can choose to only install that specific mode rather than the entire game. The same will be true for the opposite scenario, as you may have the ability to install the single player mode rather than multi- and single player modes for certain games. This will allow players to play the part of the game that interests them without having to install, in some cases, up to 60 gb of game data.
The PS5 will run on an 8-core, x86 AMD ZEN 2. The console will have an SSD memory of 825 GB. The graphics rate will be 16GB with a 44GB/s bandwidth. Disk enthusiasts will be pleased to know there will be an ultra HD Blu-ray™ disk slot. The audio will work on a “Tempest” 3D audio tech. Meanwhile, the video output will support 4K and will be 8K ready with specific TVs. According to Sony, they designed the PS5 to be as developer friendly as possible.
We have yet to see the design of the PS5 at the time of writing. However, we have seen the new controller, which has been named the dualsense. This controller has been completely redesigned, even losing the iconic PS controller’s shape. The shape now appears to resemble that of a Nintendo Pro Controller or Xbox controller. The colour has also been updated, becoming primarily white and with black accents. The light bar has been moved, and now can be seen from the front of the controller, partitioning off the touchpad from the rest of the controller. There are now adaptive triggers where the L2 and R2 buttons are so that players can feel the difference when, for example, pulling a bowstring back in-game. The Share button has been renamed the “Create” button. Finally, there is now a built-in microphone which allows players to chat without the need for a headset.