PlayStation 5: Price, Specs, Launch Games, Release
Date, And Everything Else You Need To Know
Sony
has been slowly sharing details about the PlayStation 5--here's everything we
know so far ahead of its Holiday 2020 launch
The November release of the PlayStation 5 is fast
approaching. At its recent PS5 showcase event, Sony finally confirmed the
console's release date,
price, and launch lineup--and
you can finally preorder the machine, although players attempting to do so have
been met with mixed results. But there's a lot of information to keep straight
about Sony's next-generation offering, including PS5 specs, so we're keeping
tabs on all of it below.
The latest development is the opening of PS5 preorders. Going against its previously announced pre-register rollout process, preorders for Sony's latest next-generation consoles are available now at select retailers, including Walmart (who's now sold out, and whose preorders are doing weird things) and GameStop (you guessed it: also sold out). Other retailers like Best Buy, Target, and Amazon are slowly following. So far, the process hasn't been smooth, with Sony announcing the opening of preorders about an hour before it happened, and lots of technical issues marring players' attempt to secure their PS5s along the way. Allotments of consoles at some of these retailers are being made over time to allow for people to preorder who may have missed the first wave.
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Everything You Need To Know In Under 3 Minutes
Over the months, we've learned about PS5's technical specs, as
well as its new DualSense controller and certain
games. We've even seen Unreal Engine 5 gameplay running on the system, and
though it was not of a full game, the technical specifications of the system
mean we would be approaching photorealism in some games.
Sony plans to launch PS5 on November 12--only two days after the
release of Microsoft's Xbox Series X. Despite ongoing preorders for PS5,
a Bloomberg report indicates we may need to
prepare for supply shortages at launch, as well as possibly reduced or altered
promotion compared to Sony's typical product releases. However, those supply
shortages will not directly be due to COVID-19. Sony also outright denied this
would be happening, calling the report false. Regardless, you definitely need
to work fast in preordering the console if you want to have it on day one.
During 2019, it was revealed that the PS5 will also have PS4 backwards compatibility and SSD storage, and it will support PSVR.
This backward compatibility will not be as robust as Xbox Series X's, and won't
support all PS4 games out of the gate. The majority of the most popular PS4
games will be supported, but you won't be able to play older PlayStation games.
During the June 11 reveal, Sony also outlined a bunch of new accessories for the console,
including an HD camera, wireless headset, and controller charging station. An
adapter will be needed to connect certain PS4 accessories to the PS5, as well,
such as the PlayStation Camera. Concerning software backwards compatibility on PS5, it seems only
PS4 will be supported--PS3, PS2, and PS1 games may not be included. This is
more than the PS4, had, of course, as it only supported its own games outside
of PS Now.
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o Will PS5 Be Backwards Compatible With PS4 games?
o PS5 UI
o Can I Use Expandable Storage With PS5?
o The Logo
o PS5 Games: Launch Lineup and Everything Else Coming
o PS5 UI
PS5 Design And Box Design
During its June 11 reveal event, Sony finally showed off exactly what the new console looks like. Similar to the DualSense controller, it sports a two-tone white-and-black design, with glowing lights embedded between the two.
PlayStation 5's disc-drive version, standing vertically. The console can also lay on its side using its base stand, and comes in a digital-only version that doesn't include the Blu-Ray disc drive.
Sony outlined additional details about the console, which will
come in two different versions at launch. The version above includes a 4K
Blu-ray disc drive, but you'll also see a PS5 Digital Edition of the console, which
leaves off the Blu-Ray drive and is slimmer overall. The console can stand
either vertically or on its side, in both cases using the black base stand seen
in the photo.
The PS5 will be one of the largest game consoles ever, and according to
PlayStation's VP of UX design Matt MacLaurin, this is due to the amount of heat
the console generates. A leaked patent filing suggests there could also be some
sort of SSD accessory coming to the console that would also necessitate such a
large size, though the proprietary add-on storage for Xbox Series X is
relatively small.
With PS5 preorders out in the wild, images of the box designs for both the standard and digital editions are starting to circulate. You can see them in the gallery below.
PS5 Release Date
Both the standard and digital editions of the PS5 are launching on
November 12--a mere two days after the release of Microsoft's Xbox Series X.
Preorders are already live at select retailers, so be sure to use our PS5 preorder guide to track down a place
to secure a console for yourself. In the case of Walmart, all preorders are
being handled online after it opted to cancel in-person preorders to better
limit infection.
PS5 Price
The two primary PS5 models are priced differently: the standard
PS5 will cost $499 while the digital version will cost $399. The value comes
quite competitively to Microsoft's pricing model for Xbox Series X.
In the past, Sony has said the PS5's price will be attractive to gamers.
"I believe that we will be able to release it at an SRP [suggested retail
price] that will be appealing to gamers in light of its advanced feature
set," said Mark Cerny, the lead architect of the PS4 who's currently
working on its successor. So take the recent news as you will.
Of course, you wouldn't expect Sony to say anything different, but
one gets the feeling the company has learned from the PS3's exorbitant price
tag--and the console's subsequent struggles--and the PS4's more reasonable cost
and subsequent successes. This is especially likely considering Microsoft's own
struggles early in the Xbox One's lifespan, as it priced the system a full $100
above the PS4 and was forced to make cuts to address this later. Neither
console is shipping with a large camera, however, with the PS5's completely
optional.
PS5 And PS4 News And Announcements
Will PS5 Be Backwards Compatible With PS4 games?
Cerny confirmed the PS5 will be backwards compatible with PS4 games,
as the two consoles are built upon similar internal architectures. According to
the PS5 Showcase on September 16, PS5's backward compatibility will come in the
form of PlayStation Plus Collection as an added
perk to existing PS Plus subscribers. This will provide PS5 players access to a
library of PS4's best games, including God of War, The Last of Us Remastered,
Persona 5, Monster Hunter World, and more. Currently, a full list hasn't be
provided, but you can find a list of everything confirmed so far below:
PlayStation Plus Collection should be somewhat welcome news for
those who were disappointed by the PS4's lack of backwards compatibility with
PS3, PS2, and PS1 games. However, Cerny noted that PS4's 100 most played games will be playable on PS5 at
launch and all will run even better than before. "Running PS4 and PS4
titles at boosted frequencies has also added complexity," Cerny said.
"The boost is truly massive this time around and some game code just can't
handle it. Testing has to be done on a title by title basis. Results are excellent
though. We recently took a look at the top 100 PlayStation 4 titles as ranked
by playtime and we're expecting almost all of them to be playable at launch on
PlayStation 5."
He also discussed how backwards compatibility will be approached
in the PS5 internally, and how the functionality will not be removed upon
subsequent console iterations given the nature of their approach to designing
the feature. "One way you can achieve backwards compatibility is to put
the previous console's chip set into the new console, like we did with some
PlayStation 3s," he said."But that's, of course, extremely expensive.
A better way is to incorporate any differences in the previous console's logic
into the new console's custom chip. Meaning that, even as the technology evolves,
the logic and feature set that the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 4 Pro titles
rely on is still available in backwards compatibility mode. One advantage of
this strategy is that, once backwards compatibility is in the console, it's in.
It's not as if a cost down will remove backwards compatibility like it did on
PlayStation 3."
SIE president Jim Ryan told GameSpot sister site CNET backwards compatibility and
cross-gen are important for the PS5 to help players have a seamless transition.
"Whether it's backwards compatibility or the possibility of
cross-generational play, we'll be able to transition that community to
next-gen," he said. "It won't be a binary choice about whether you
have to be either on PlayStation 4 or next-gen to continue your
friendship."
In yet more welcome news, PS4 games will even run faster than they
do on your current console, in part because the PS5 will contain a solid state
drive, as opposed to hard drives that current consoles ship with. Cerny has
demonstrated a load screen from Insomniac's Spider-Man taking less than a
second on a PS5 development kit, compared with 15 seconds on a PS4 Pro.
Sony showed off the faster loading times during an investor
presentation in May. You can see the video below, which was captured by Wall
Street Journal reporter Takashi Mochizuki.
Sony's official video comparing performance of PS4 Pro vs next-gen
PlayStation pic.twitter.com/2eUROxKFLq
— Takashi Mochizuki (@mochi_wsj) May 21, 2019
Sony has not yet explicitly discussed the subject of backwards
compatibility for PS3, PS2, or PS1 games on PS5. However, a Ubisoft support site page says those
systems' games will not be supported.
In an interview with The Washington Post, Ryan followed up on the subject of backwards
compatibility and said it has been tested with
"thousands" of games, and that most of them work. In fact, he affirms
that "99 percent" of the library is compatible, which leaves very few
games from being able to play on PS5.
PS5 Specs And Disc Drive
The company has confirmed the PlayStation 5 will contain an AMD
chip that has a CPU based on the third-generation Ryzen. It'll have eight cores
of the seven-nanometer Zen 2 microchip. The console will also support 8K
gameplay, but this will of course be dependent upon TVs catching up.
Graphics will be driven by a custom version of Radeon's Navi line.
This graphics chip will support ray-tracing, something which is starting to
become popular in movies and video games. Although it is traditionally thought
of as a lighting technique, Cerny says this technique could also improve game
audio. In fact, PS5 will fully support 3D audio.
The aforementioned SSD is a big detail too, as it means games will
load faster and be able to handle more objects on-screen at once than current
HDD-driven consoles. Characters and cameras could move faster through game
worlds, as environments could be loaded in much faster than they are at
present. It will also lead to faster install times for games and patches.
The PS5 will have two options available--one has a disc drive and
the other does not. Apart from a small form factor difference, these consoles
are exactly the same in terms of power and other features. PS5 discs will have
a capacity of 100 GB, and the console will also support 4K Blu-Rays.
Sony has also confirmed that the PS5 is capable of
supporting 4K visuals at 120Hz for those who have
TVs that can support that. 120Hz is a refresh rate around double the rate of
standard TVs. You can check the full specs below:
PlayStation 5 Specs
|
Component |
Spec |
|
CPU |
8x Zen 2 Cores at 3.5GHz (variable
frequency) |
|
GPU |
10.28 TFLOPs, 36 CUs at 2.23GHz
(variable frequency) |
|
GPU Architecture |
Custom RDNA 2 |
|
Memory/Interface |
16GB GDDR6/256-bit |
|
Memory Bandwidth |
448GB/s |
|
Internal Storage |
Custom 825GB SSD |
|
IO Throughput |
5.5GB/s (Raw), Typical 8-9GB/s
(Compressed) |
|
Expandable Storage |
NVMe SSD Slot |
|
External Storage |
USB HDD Support |
|
Optical Drive |
4K UHD Blu-ray Drive |
PS5 Controller
Sony has opened up on its vision for the PlayStation 5's controller by saying:
"One of our goals with the next generation is to deepen the feeling of
immersion when you play games, and we had the opportunity with our new
controller to reimagine how the sense of touch can add to that immersion.
"To that end, there are two key innovations with the PlayStation 5's new controller. First, we're adopting haptic feedback to replace the 'rumble' technology found in controllers since the 5th generation of consoles. 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.
PS5's DualSense
controller
"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."
On April 7, Sony shared additional details, reconfirming that the
controller uses a rechargeable battery. It also revealed the design, which you
can see above--it has a tone-tone look and features a built-in microphone, so
you don't need to wear a headset for online voice chat. Furthermore, the Share
button from the PS4's DualShock has been replaced with what Sony has now dubbed
the Create button. Details on what that change means have not been shared, with
Sony explaining in a PlayStation Blog post, "With Create,
we're once again pioneering new ways for players to create epic gameplay
content to share with the world, or just to enjoy for themselves."
SIE boss Jim Ryan added, "DualSense marks a radical departure
from our previous controller offerings and captures just how strongly we feel
about making a generational leap with PS5. The new controller, along with the
many innovative features in PS5, will be transformative for games--continuing
our mission at PlayStation to push the boundaries of play, now and in the
future. To the PlayStation community, I truly want to thank you for sharing
this exciting journey with us as we head toward PS5's launch in Holiday 2020.
We look forward to sharing more information about PS5, including the console
design, in the coming months."
PS5 Accessories
Along with the reveal of the console's look, Sony detailed several accessories that
it'll make available alongside the console. Here's the rundown so far:
- PULSE 3D™ wireless headset –
offering 3D audio support and dual noise-canceling microphones
- HD Camera – featuring dual
1080p lenses for gamers to broadcast themselves along with their epic
gameplay moments
- Media Remote – a remote
control with built-in microphone to navigate movies and streaming
services with ease
- DualSense™ Charging Station –
for convenient charging of two DualSense™ Wireless Controllers
You can preorder these accessories in our PS5 preorder guide.
PS5 UI
Unlike the Xbox Series X, which will essentially be running the
same user interface as the Xbox One when it launches in late 2020, the PS5 will be getting a complete overhaul. It
will be a mix of things that worked on PS4 as well as entirely new concepts.
Thus far, we've only really seen the startup screen for the
system, which isn't overly flashy, but we'll likely see more of the user
interface as we get closer to launch.
Unreal Engine 5 Gameplay
On May 13 as part of Geoff Keighley's Summer Games Fest, Epic
Games showcased the Unreal Engine 5 for the
first time with a gameplay demonstration running on PS5. This demo was not for
a full game, but rather a slice of what the PS5 can do while
using Epic Games' new technology. It featured extremely realistic visuals, no
texture pop-in, a smooth framerate, and the ability to transfer assets from
films directly into games rather than have to considerably rework them. Unreal
Engine 5 will power Fortnite on PS5 by mid-2021.
This technology will not be limited to the PS5, however. Epic
Games CEO Tim Sweeney clarified a few days after the event that the Xbox Series X will support the demo's
technology, as well, including its Lumen lightning systems and Nanite geometry.
Can I Use Expandable Storage With PS5?
The PS5 allows users to install non-Sony proprietary expandable
storage, giving you the option to purchase off-the-shelf parts to
slot into the system. According to a Digital Foundry report,
"NVMe PC drives will work in PlayStation 5, [but] the only problem is that
PC technology is significantly behind PS5 [and] Sony needs to validate them to
ensure that they will work properly."
In Cerny's talk discussing the PS5, he noted that Sony was testing
expandable storage devices to ensure that they can physically fit into the PS5
and also deliver the required performance. The company has advised people not
to purchase drives ahead of it revealing its recommendations, so don't jump the
gun just yet in your efforts to prepare yourself for the incoming launch.
PS5-compatible SSD storage is expected to come "a bit past" launch,
though.
Sony's approach is far different from Xbox Series X, which will
support external storage devices but only for Xbox One games and other media.
For Xbox Series X games, they will require proprietary cards.
Will PS5 Support PSVR?
The current PSVR will indeed be supported by PS5, as well the
PlayStation Move controllers. "I won't go into the details of our VR strategy,"
Cerny has stated, "beyond saying that VR is very important to us and that
the current PSVR headset is compatible with the new console." The system
architect stopped short of saying whether a new PSVR device will ever come out,
however. For the current PSVR, you will be able to purchase an adapter that
allows your PS4 Camera to work on the PS5.
The Logo
It was believed that Sony's briefing at CES 2020 could bring with it some PlayStation 5 news, but that only barely turned out to be the case. Sony's Jim Ryan appeared on stage to share some impressive stats regarding the PS4 and to reveal the PlayStation 5 logo, which you can see below. It's hardly surprising, maintaining the same style used for recent generations. Beyond that, Sony had nothing new to discuss about PS5 during the tech-focused event.
Game Cases
Sony isn't shifting drastically from the PS4's game box design for
the PS5, but it is changing a few colors. PS5 game cases feature a white banner at
the top with black lettering instead of the blue banner with white lettering
they featured before.
A sneak peek at what PS5 games will look like when you see them on
store shelves starting this holiday: https://t.co/i2ByEdWYRS pic.twitter.com/TmB4FzFMJZ
— PlayStation (@PlayStation) July 9, 2020
Energy Efficiency
Though Sony has been generally quiet about the PS5 since its
announcement, it came forward to reveal just slightly more information in conjunction
with the announcement of a United Nations initiative. The Playing for the
Planet alliance aims to make the video game industry more environmentally
friendly. To that end, Sony announced that the next generation of its
hardware will use dramatically less power when
placed into suspend/sleep mode. Just one million PS5 users turning on the
energy-efficient feature would save enough electricity to power 1,000 US homes.
The company is also conducting a carbon footprint assessment and looking into
more energy-efficient data centers.
PS5 Games: Launch Lineup and Everything Else Coming
At its September 16 PS5 reveal event, we finally got a
confirmation of the current launch lineup so far, which includes the following
games:
PS5 versions of cross-gen games from Sony will be free upgrades
for those who have the PS4 version. This applies to both digital and physical
games on the PS5 standard, but only to digital versions on the Digital Edition.
You will not be able to exchange your game for a voucher or code.
