INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
PS5 (or PlayStation 5) is the next-generation PlayStation, releasing in late 2020
Sony has remained pretty tight-lipped about its next-gen console but the company recently gave us our first official look behind the curtain
during its first PS5 reveal event.PS5 lead system architect Mark Cerny provided us with a deep dive into the PS5's system architecture,
revealing the technical inner workings of the PS5.And while we're still waiting to find out what the console will look like, and which games
we'll be playing on it, at least we now know (almost) precisely how the console's innards will work, and how powerful they'll be.So what
else do we know about the PS5 so far? News began trickling out about the console in early 2019, when Mark Cerny, confirmed that the company
was working on the successor to the PS4 Slim and PS4 Pro.Since then, Sony has been feeding us tidbits such as an official PS5 release
Read on to find out more.]PS5: key factsWhat is it? The Sony PS5 is the next-gen PlayStation console, replacing the PS4 Slim and PS4
titles have been confirmed, but expect all of Sony's big franchises, as well as in-development exclusives like Ghost of Tsushima.Will PS5
The next-gen console will be compatible with current PSVR hardware, and there are also rumors of PSVR 2.What will the PS5 cost? The PS4 and
Leaks have suggested around the $499 mark.Can I play PS4 games on the PS5? The PS5 will definitely be backwards compatible with "almost all"
PS4 games - earlier generations are still to be confirmed
It will launch with support for the majority of the top 100 PS4 games, according to Sony's Mark Cerny.Will coronavirus delay the PS5
release? Sony has confirmed the PS5 release date is not currently delayed by coronavirus.PS5 release dateGod of War (Image Credit: SIE)
(Image credit: SIE Santa Monica Studio)Sony has officially confirmed that the PS5 will release "in time for Holiday 2020" in the US, so
PlayStation 5 in direct competition with Microsoft's Xbox Series X (formerly Xbox Project Scarlett), which is releasing during the same
5's official release date in the coming months, having not been revealed at the March 18 technical talk.PS5 priceDeath Stranding (Image
credit: Kojima Productions)Sony hasn't officially confirmed a PS5 price yet and, according to the company, that's because it hasn't
Hiroki Totoki revealed the company still hasn't nailed down the PS5 price."What is not very clear or visible is because we are competing in
absolutely control the labour cost, the personnel cost, it must be controlled, and the initial ramp up, how much can we prepare initially,
But we do know that Sony is aiming for "the best balance so that we will be profitable in the life, during the life of this product."While
Sony may not have a price nailed down, there have been rumors about how much the PS5 could cost
skepticism, but it would be welcome news if the console did launch at this price, as it's only $100 more than the launch price of the PS4
makes balancing the books for the PS5 retail price difficult, and that Sony may even be putting off its pricing decision to figure out what
hardware at a slight loss to stay competitive with the other console
the console's price will be in line with the technology it uses, but Sony will also have to be aware of its competition
It's unlikely, with the Xbox Series X, that Microsoft will repeat the mistake it made by launching the Xbox One at a prohibitively high
price point, so Sony will have to ensure that it doesn't make a similar mistake by making the PS5 too expensive.When it comes to
Boon asked Twitter users what the most important thing was for them when it comes to next-gen consoles.The poll received a total of 50,295
responses, with a 37.5% majority of users saying 'affordable price' was the most important factor
'Plays last-gen games' (AKA backwards compatibility) came second with 30%, 'better graphics' received 19.2% of votes, while 'exclusive
player base, especially as it's unlikely younger players will be on the platform
So, while this poll can be useful as a steer, the reality is likely to be a lot more complex
Regardless, we expect price to be a key factor in whether players pick up a PS5 or Xbox Series X - even if it's not the most important.PS5
specsGhost of Tsushima (Image Credit: SuckerPunch) CPU: AMD Zen 2-based CPU with 8 cores at 3.5GHz (variable frequency)GPU: 10.28 TFLOPs, 36
CUs at 2.23GHz (variable frequency)GPU architecture: Custom RDNA 2Memory interface: 16GB GDDR6 / 256-bitMemory bandwidth: 448GB/sInternal
storage: Custom 825GB SSDIO throughput: 5.5GB/s (raw), typical 8-9GB/s (compressed)Expandable storage: NVMe SSD slotExternal storage: USB
HDD support (PS4 games only)Optical drive: 4K UHD Blu-ray driveSony finally lifted the hood on the PlayStation 5 during its first official
PS5 reveal event, giving us a better idea of the specs the next-gen console will offer
But what do we think?What's interesting so far is Sony's commitment to custom silicon, with a full focus on raising gaming capabilities
to the next level, without alienating developers now comfortable with developing on the PS4
Custom hardware in the PS3 proved to be a difficult element for devs to get their heads around, but the PS5 aims to be as developer-friendly
as possible.(Image credit: Sony)The importance of the SSDAs has already been explored, the SSD is key to the PlayStation 5 experience
potentially needless data being loaded into RAM
In pure gameplay terms that means that games will suffer less from texture pop-in, while load times will be hugely reduced when using a
game's fast-travel option
Booting up from standby should be generally much faster, too.As for expandable storage, Sony appears to be allowing for off-the-shelf NVMe
PC drives, rather than proprietary storage systems that Xbox will primarily be relying on
5.5GB/s transfer speed."NVMe PC drives will work in PlayStation 5," said Cerny
"The only problem is that PC technology is significantly behind PS5
on the PS5 will work just fine if saved to a regular HDD, however, so you won't need to tap into that precious SSD space
will be using AMD's Zen 2 CPU processor tech, with eight cores and 16 threads
2 Cores at 3.5GHz (at variable frequencies) over the PS4's 8x Jaguar Cores at 1.6GHz
That's a huge jump in performance.Move over to the GPU, and you're looking at the AMD RDNA 2 GPU, itself customized
It makes use of 36 compute units capped at 2.23GHz
A compute performance peak of 10.28TF was stated.(Image credit: Sony)What's smart is that the combination makes it simple for the PS5 to
Almost all of the top 100 PS4 games will be fully compatible at launch
PS4 games will be supported natively on the GPU silicon, but here the GPU seems to be emulating PS4 and PS4 Pro graphics chips, which is a
strange solution, and not as interesting as Xbox Series X's method, which will also be capable of upscaling previous Xbox generation games
and adding HDR to previously HDR-less titles.Tempest 3D audio techPerhaps the biggest reveal of the day was the 3D audio support, thanks to
hundreds.The example Cerny used described it in terms of rainfall
Today, the sound of rain in a game is a single audio track, but the PS5 would theoretically be capable of letting you hear individual
raindrops, in relation to where the player character is."Where we ended up is a unit with roughly the same SIMD (single instruction,
lowly pair of headphones at launch will be able to take advantage of the sense of presence and directionality Sony is promising here, with
the company also committing to later support multi-speaker surround systems with the tech.(Image credit: Sony)But this is an ongoing project
To accurately model surround data positioning, Sony needs to create a Head-related Transfer Function, or HRFT, map
Essentially, that's a distinct algorithm that works best if the system knows the precise shape of your ears."Maybe you'll be sending us a
photo of your ear, and we'll use a neural network to pick the closest HRTF in our library," Cerny teased
"Maybe you'll be sending us a video of your ears and your head, and we'll make a 3D model of them and synthesize the HRTF
Maybe you'll play an audio game to tune your HRTF, we'll be subtly changing it as you play, and home in on the HRTF that gives you the
highest score, meaning that it matches you the best."This is a journey we'll all be taking together over the next few years
Ultimately, we're committed to enabling everyone to experience that next level of realism."PS5 design(Image credit: Lets Go Digital)There's
still no official reveal of what the PS5 will look like
So for now, we're dealing with speculation
We've seen several leaked images of the PS5 dev kit, with each showing the same console design, along with the above render based on one of
(for the double-layer 100GB-reading Blu-ray drive), system initialization and network initialization, all on the front-left
There are also a number of status lights, numbered '0' to '7', which likely relate to CPU cores engaged, but which could also be status
A small circle above could well be a camera built into the console, according to earlier patent filings.Interestingly, rubber feet appear to
be on the top side of the console, suggesting that devs are being encouraged to either flip the console for stress testing and convenience,
or to stack them when working on demanding games.However, these images should only really be used to speculate on what the final design of
the final product rarely resembles the dev kit.Dev kits are specially designed to be robust, and to support a console working under extreme
load so as to allow the developers to push their creations to the maximum without frying the hardware they're working on
the launch of the PlayStation 5, there's plenty of time for its team to create something a little less alien-looking.(Image credit:
TheIndianSubcontinent)While we may not know exactly what the PS5 will look like, Sony did reveal the PS5's official logo at CES 2020
It's essentially just the PlayStation 4 logo with a '5' replacing the '4'.But Sony PlayStation president, Jim Ryan, did tease during
Sony to host another PS5 reveal around June or July to reveal the console's price and design - similarly to how it did with the PS4.PS5
controller(Image credit: Japanese Patent Office/Sony)The PS5 will come with a new controller, according to Sony
The PS5 controller (we don't know the official name yet, though DualShock 5 is a good guess) will include haptic feedback to replace the
also feature adaptive triggers, which Sony says have "been incorporated into the trigger buttons (L2/R2)"
These adaptive triggers will allow developers to program the resistance of the triggers to simulate actions more accurately.In an interview
also things that, when you try them, you will be surprised at how big a change they are
Even just playing the racing game Gran Turismo Sport with a PlayStation 5 controller is a completely different experience
While it runs well with the previous controller, there is no going back after you experience the detailed road surface via haptic control
and play using the adaptive triggers."PS5: what will I be playing?(Image credit: Naughty Dog)The majority of the PS4 library, including PSVR
games, will be supported by the PS5; that much is known
Tsushima to The Last of Us 2, would be prime candidates for PS5 cross-gen upgrades
We've also heard enough chatter around a Horizon Zero Dawn sequel and new God of War game to assume we'll be seeing both land on the PS5
single-player games" with the PS5.But what about third-party titles? We've had confirmation that Gearbox's new IP Godfall is coming
exclusively to PS5, as is a title from Bluepoint Studios that's rumored to be a Demon's Souls remake
We will also see a remake of THQ Nordic's cult classic Gothic, Gollum, WRC 9, Dying Light 2 and Outriders land on PS5
and PlayStation 5 - with a new Assassin's Creed and Far Cry also rumored to be coming to the platforms
and The Elder Scrolls 6 coming to PS5 and Xbox Series X, too.In addition, not only has EA has said that Battlefield 6 will be coming to Xbox
Series X and PS5, but the company has sung the praises of the incoming next-generation machines during an investor call."The power of the
new consoles is gonna be substantially greater than existing consoles," said EA CFO Blake Jorgensen."We can do a lot more [with PS5 and Xbox
of industry topics ahead of GDC 2020 in March
And, of course, the next-gen consoles were top of the agenda.When asked which platform they planned to launch their next project on, 23% of
those surveyed said the PlayStation 5, while 17% said the Xbox Series X and 19% said the Nintendo Switch .When it comes to the platform devs
are most intrigued by, the PS5 once again leads the pack when it comes to consoles, with 38%, but the Switch only just behind on 37%
developers are currently working on a game for the next-gen consoles.However, while we know of a few third-party games in the pipeline for
the PS5, there's still no confirmation on what the PS5's launch titles will be, but we're expecting first-party games to take the
lead.In addition, Sony has confirmed that the PS5 will prioritize AAA games over indie games in an effort to focus on "serious gamers".What
about a PS5 Pro?(Image credit: Shutterstock)Rumors have cropped up suggesting that Sony will double down by launching the PlayStation 5 Pro
The report states that Sony is taking this approach because it has "acknowledged the interest in a high-end model and wants to give players
what they want right from the beginning of the generation".NeoGaf user FXVeteran (via TweakTown) has since added fuel to the fire by
claiming Sony plans to release two PlayStation 5 models at the same time: a PS5 Pro and a PS5, with the PS5 Pro being "top of the line" to
think it'll release at the same time as the regular PS5
In our opinion, it's more likely that Sony will wait around three years (2023) before giving the console an upgrade - usually this happens
