Games journalists, rejoice! We can stop referring to it as “the next-generation PlayStation” and can start calling it what we knew all along – the PlayStation 5, or PS5 for short.
As is becoming customary for these things, Wired is now the go-to publication for the biggest gaming stories, like info on new consoles. Earlier in the year, we got our first information about the next PlayStation console. Then today, we’ve received big information dump on the upcoming PlayStation console, following an in-depth piece on Google’s Stadia streaming service. Just like buses, two come along at once.
PS. If anybody wants to release any big information via Thumbsticks, we’re very nice, we’ll bring biscuits to the interview, and we don’t have a paywall. We love Wired. It’s great. But paywalls aren’t, and if you’ve clicked on all three of those stories we linked above? You’ve got none left in your free allocation for the month. Sorry!
And on the off-chance you’ve already read three articles on Wired this month, here’s the important details from their feature on the next PlayStation.
What’s the next PlayStation console called?
It’s the PlayStation 5. Obviously. It was never going to be called anything else.
This is good news for, above everyone else, games journalists. We’ve been dancing around it for years, trying to come up with different euphemistic ways of saying “the next PlayStation console” without calling it what we all knew it would be – the PlayStation 5. Or the PS5, if you’re short on space in a headline.
“It’s nice to be able to say it,” says Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan, to Wired. “Like a giant burden has been lifted from my shoulders.”
We’d argue it’s a bigger weight lifted off our shoulders, thanks.
When will the PlayStation 5 release?
Again, surprising precisely nobody, the PlayStation 5 will release around the holiday period next year, Christmas 2020. It sort of has to.
Microsoft broke cover with the next Xbox console – still infuriatingly called Project Scarlett – during this year’s E3, confirming its release during the 2020 holiday period. If Sony didn’t push the PS5 to release in the same window, then it would risk the neXtbox stealing a march on the PlayStation 5.
It’s a little counter-intuitive. You could reasonably argue that the Xbox One X is superior to the PS4 Pro, in part because it released second. Microsoft got a look at Sony’s hand, then had the opportunity to beef up the Xbox One X to make sure it was the more powerful console.
But with a new generation? Being first to market – or at least, not being late to market – and taking advantage of the Christmas gift-giving window is vital.
Did we learn anything else interesting about the PlayStation 5?
Not really. Or at least, nothing that we weren’t expecting.
The Wired article confirms that the PS5 will feature a CPU based on AMD’s Zen architecture – presumably Zen 2 – while the GPU will be AMD’s Navi architecture, and will feature ray tracing. Yes, just like the Xbox Project Scarlett.
It also confirms that the PlayStation 5 will be targetting installation and load times by using a solid-state drive (SSD) instead of a mechanical or hybrid drive. Also just like the next Xbox.
The PS5’s controller – the DualShock 5, presumably, but that wasn’t confirmed – will feature “adaptive triggers” that allow for variable resistance, combined with improved motors and speakers to produce a level of haptic feedback. The new PlayStation 5 controller will feature USB-C charging, which is great, but will also be heavier than the DualShock 4.
What did we really not learn about the PlayStation 5?
Release games. We still know nothing about any of the games that will be available with the PS5 on launch.
Expect to see the final games of the PS4 generation – including The Last of Us Part II and Death Stranding – get a run-out on the PlayStation 5, probably with a resolution and framerate bump from the PlayStation 4. Whether that’s through backwards compatibility or re-releases remains to be seen.
But now, Sony, we really need to hear about the PlayStation 5’s games. Knack 3, maybe?
