Sony’s PlayStation 5 is on its way this year as the follow up to the PlayStation 4, the highest selling console since the Game Boy and Game Boy color. The PS5 planned on releasing more information on June 4 at a Sony event, but that was canceled over solidarity with the current Black Lives Matter protests in the United States.
This leaves gaming fans still in the dark about a few key things like official release date, price and physical design. Regardless, there are some things that we currently know about Sony’s next console.
Release timeframe
The PlayStation 5 is expected to release during the 2020 holiday season along with the Xbox Series X. The COVID-19 pandemic hasn’t forced a release date change. A Bloomberg report came out saying that supply could be limited, but not due to the virus.
It is possible that there will be a higher price at launch than anticipated due to the “PS5’s ambitious specs” according to Bloomberg. Bloomberg reported that Sony will make 5 to 6 million PS5 units by March 2021.
For right now, keep eyes on a mid-late November release to keep up precedent set by the PS4 (Nov. 15, 2014) and PS3 (Nov. 11, 2006).
Price
Of course, price is one of the most important factors in speculating on a new console. A lower price than the Xbox One allowed the PS4 to soar ahead in sales from the jump. A Bloomberg report saw market analysts and game developers speculate a price of around $470.
Tech and Specs
The PS5 sees brand new tech increasing performance across the board.
CPU: AMD Zen 2-based CPU clocked at 3.5GHz (variable frequency)
GPU: 10.28 TFLOPs w/ 36 compute units clocked at 2.23 GHz (variable frequency)
The console will upgrade from the HDD on the PS4 to an 825GB SSD, which will be a heck of a lot faster. The SSD speeds load 2GB in .27 seconds compared to 1GB in 20 seconds, resulting in much faster load times for games.
Memory: 16GB GDDR6 / 256-bit
Memory bandwidth: 448GB/s
Expandable storage: SSD slot
Optical drive: 4k UHD Blu-ray drive.
The idea of having the SSD is one of the most promising. The console will experience astronomically quicker loading times and be faster overall. As a result, the time between levels will be quicker than ever on a console. Also, system patches will be quicker, often a large problem with the PS4.
Controller
The look for the PlayStation 5 “DualSense” controller is here already. It is noticeably different in shape from the PS4 DualShock controller. From there, it appears to be thicker, with different angles at the base. Some new features are partially responsible for a cosmetic change.
Haptic feedback and adaptive triggers are notable additions. The controller design is for an overall more immersive experience. A Sony blog post noted that adaptive triggers make it so “you can truly feel the tension of your actions, like when drawing a bow to shoot an arrow.”
There will be a USB-C port, a built-in microphone and a “create” button, similar to the current share button.
Virtual Reality
One thing that sets the PlayStation 4 ahead of the Xbox Series X is the opportunity for VR. Sony confirmed that the PS5 will work with the PlayStation VR headset, released in 2016. This will be the first time on a console that higher PC power will operate VR.
Backwards Compatibility
Almost all PlayStation 4 games will have backwards compatibility from launch. System updates will grant more games backwards compatibility.
