Sony has today confirmed that its next console will be called PlayStation 5 when it launches in "time for Holiday 2020". PS5 will feature a "next-gen" haptic controller and UHD Blu-ray.
Sony PlayStation 5
Sony PlayStation 5 will be available in late 2020. The company confirmed the news in a press release today. Pricing details have yet to be announced.
- "Today I’m proud to share that our next-generation console will be called PlayStation 5, and we’ll be launching in time for Holiday 2020," said Jim Ryan, President of Sony Interactive Entertainment.
In a new interview. Wired also managed to pull some additional details. Sony confirmed that PlayStation 5 will be equipped with an UHD Blu-ray drive and that games will come on 100GB discs, besides the download option. As such the console will also spin UHD Blu-ray movies - something that Sony omitted in PlayStation 4 Pro.
Also read: 5 reasons why the PS4 Pro should have an Ultra HD Blu-ray drive
Sony confirmed that "there is ray-tracing acceleration in the GPU hardware" - it is not a software-level fix. This will allow the console to render highly realistic light effects, which will benefit the HDR game experience.
Users will be able to install games in segments, meaning you can install the single-player segment without the multi-player segment. This will make game downloads as well as installation much faster, also helped by the much faster SSD storage.
Next-gen haptic game controller
PlayStation 5 will launch with a "next generation" game controller that, according to Wired, looks a lot like the current DualShock 4 controller for PS4. However, there are several new features inside.
Haptic feedback will replace the "rumble" technology inside the current version and the L2/R2 trigger buttons will have programmable resistance.
- "With haptics, you truly feel a broader range of feedback, so 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," said Sony. "The second innovation is something we call adaptive triggers, which have been incorporated into the trigger buttons (L2/R2). Developers can program the resistance of the triggers so that you feel the tactile sensation of drawing a bow and arrow or accelerating an off-road vehicle through rocky terrain. In combination with the haptics, this can produce a powerful experience that better simulates various actions. Game creators have started to receive early versions of the new controller, and we can’t wait to see where their imagination goes with these new features at their disposal."
Lastly, the new controller with have an improved speaker, a larger battery, and a USB-C port. It has been rumored that Sony is working on a voice assistant for PlayStation but the company had nothing to share at this time.
Sony has previously confirmed that PlayStation 5 will support 4K120 and 8K, which requires HDMI 2.1. It has also said that it will feature SSD storage, 3D audio, backwards compatibility, AMD Ryzen (7nm Zen 2), and Radeon Navi graphics. You can learn more about those other details here.
That lines up with Microsoft's next Xbox that will launch in late 2020 with many of the same features.
Additional details will be announced closer to launch. Sony is rumored to have an event planned for February 2020.
- Source: Sony PlayStation, Wired
