Here’s everything we know so far about the PS5
The PS5 (or PlayStation 5) is the next-generation PlayStation, with a release date planned for late 2020. While Sony hasn’t said much about its new console so far, it has released a few key details on its upcoming console, and a PS5 games reveal event now looks set for June 11 after an initial delay.
We’ve already had our first look at the DualSense PS5 controller, which boasts some impressive-sounding features such as haptic feedback, adaptive triggers and a built-in mic. But what is arguably most interesting about the DualSense controller is its radically different look and space-age black-and-white color scheme, which suggests the PS5 design will look something similar – and will be a big departure from its predecessors.
Just as important as the DualSense Controller are the PS5 specs discussed at Sony’s March reveal event. 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. We’ll cover them in more detail down below, but for now know that the PS5 is rocking an AMD Zen 2-based CPU with 8 cores at 3.5GHz, 16GB of GDDR6 memory and a custom RDNA 2 AMD GPU that puts out 10.28 TFLOPs of processing power.
In terms of features, we know the next-gen console will have ray-tracing, a super-fast SSD, a built-in 4K Blu-ray player and will be backwards compatible with a huge swathe of the PS4’s game catalogue. Heck, it might even have voice assistant capabilities to tell you how long it will take to beat levels. So far, the PS5 is living up to the hype.
Want all the juicy details? Here’s everything we know about the PS5 so far – and what we hope will be revealed the closer we get to launch.
[Update: According to a Twitch ad, the PS5 gameplay reveal event is taking place on June 11 at 9PM BST/ 4PM ET / 1PM PT, so this could be a huge week for PS5.]
After much rumor and speculation, Sony announced that it would host a PS5 games reveal event on June 4. However, the company then indefinitely postponed the event to “allow more important voices to be heard” amid the Black Lives Matter protests in the US.
The PS5 game reveal event was supposed to be an hour-long presentation, called the ‘Future of Gaming’, giving us our first look at the PlayStation 5’s game line-up.
Unfortunately that will no longer happen on June 4. But now a Twitch ad suggests the event will take place on Thursday, June 11 instead.
In a corporate strategy meeting earlier this month, Sony president and CEO Kenichiro Yoshida called Sony’s PS5 games line-up “compelling”. So we can’t wait to see what will be on offer.
We’re expecting the rescheduled PS5 games reveal event to include announcements and gameplay of both first-party titles and third-party titles. But don’t expect any hardware.
Sony has officially confirmed that the PS5 will release globally “in time for Holiday 2020”, so likely some time between October and December 2020 – putting it in direct competition with the Xbox Series X, which is releasing in the same window. A leak has suggested that the release date will be November 20,2020 but that’s yet to be confirmed.
However, this date would be in the right window, as we’re predicting the PS5 will release in November, 2020. November is historically when we’ve seen PlayStation’s launch and it would leave time before Christmas to get those orders in.
AMD, the tech giant that’s been commissioned to make the processor and graphics chips in both the PS5 and Xbox Series X next-gen consoles, is “ramping up production” to prepare for their respective launches, AMD CEO Dr Lisa Su confirmed in early May 2020. This timing too is also suggestive of a November launch window.
Sony has frustrated some fans with the way it’s drip fed information regarding the PS5. Sony CFO Hiroki Totoki seemingly isn’t worried about the competition, though, and is confident the PS5 will beat the Xbox Series X in sales.
Despite rumors, a Sony has confirmed the PS5’s release date has not been delayed by Covid-19 so we should still see the next-gen console release in late 2020 – even if we’re not sure exactly when that will be.
We’re expecting to find out the PlayStation 5’s official release date in the coming months, having not been revealed at the March 18 technical talk.
Sony hasn’t officially confirmed a PS5 price yet and, last we heard, that’s because it hasn’t actually decided how much the next-gen console will cost.
In a quarterly earnings call (via Spiel Times) back in February, Sony’s chief financial officer 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 the space, so it’s very difficult to discuss anything about the price at this point of time, and depending upon the price level, we may have to determine the promotion that we are going to deploy and how much costs we are prepared to pay,” Totoki explained.
“It’s a balancing act it’s very difficult to say anything concrete at this point of time,” Totoki said. 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.”
However, Sony Interactive Entertainment’s president and CEO Jim Ryan has hinted that a PS5 price tag may be closer to being decided and that the PS5 might not have the ‘lowest price’ in battle against Xbox Series X
In a wide-ranging interview with GamesIndustryBiz, Ryan addressed speculation around the PS5 cost. While not revealing the price, Ryan suggested the PS5 price could be a significant hit on gamers’ savings, and certainly not committing to beating the Xbox Series X on price.
Speaking on whether the potential for a Covid-19-related recession will affect sales of the PS5, a high-value gadget, Ryan said:
“I think the best way that we can address this is by providing the best possible value proposition that we can. I don’t necessarily mean lowest price. Value is a combination of many things. In our area it means games, it means number of games, depth of games, breadth of games, quality of games, price of games… all of these things and how they avail themselves of the feature set of the platform.”
While Sony may not have confirmed a price yet, there have been rumors about how much the PS5 could cost. While the latest PS5 price leaks are wild – and can’t be trusted – some predictions seem a bit more feasible (even if they’re not reliable).
One rumor has suggested that the console will cost $499 in North America when it launches. Naturally this should be treated with 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 and PS4 Pro.
We think this could be the most likely price for the console, however, that could be wishful thinking. A recent report by Bloomberg claims that Sony will not be making as many PlayStation 5 consoles for launch as it did for the PS4’s launch back in 2013, despite no delay to production or on sale date being expected.
According to the report, Sony is simply anticipating less demand. This is likely due to what is expected to be a higher asking price for the PS5 than the PS4 launched with. The PS5 is expected to really push the boat out in terms of high-end components, and as such will be met with a higher price tag.
Microsoft’s plans for the Xbox Series X are key here, and Sony could well decide to sell the hardware at a slight loss to stay competitive with the other console. The PS4 benefited from a lower cost than the Xbox One, and Sony likely won’t be keen to reverse that for this generation. We hope.
However, speaking on an episode of Geoff Keighley’s Bonus Round (via PushSquare), industry analyst Michael Pachter suggested that it could be Microsoft that considers taking a significant loss on the Xbox Series X to undercut the PS5’s price.
We can only speculate about whether this will happen. But, while we can expect that the PS5’s price will be in line with the technology it uses, 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.
It could be a while before we get confirmation of the PS5 price – possibly months. Historically we’ve seen both companies reveal their console pricing around June or July, but this time things are a bit different.
