On June 11, over the course of a 75-minute presentation, Sony revealed its next-generation console, the PlayStation 5. What Sony is promising--near non-existent load times combined with 8k graphics--places it in direct competition with Microsoft and its Xbox Series X.
The console wars have begun, again. But putting aside tribalistic brand loyalty, the victor will ultimately be determined by one thing: the quality of the games themselves. Which console has more games you want to play, and can offer varied, interesting experiences? A powerful, well-made game engine is secondary to the quality of the game that it's running.
We know we're getting a new Resident Evil, a Horizon Zero Dawn sequel, and a Demon Souls remake. We know we're getting a new PlayStation controller and a 'digital' console that doesn't accept Blu-Ray discs. But there's also a lot that we don't know. Here are 6 questions that we still have about the PlayStation 5, which will hopefully be answered in the next couple of weeks.
7. What's the story on 'Spider-Man: Miles Morales'?
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The biggest PS5 exclusive announcement was for Spider-Man: Miles Morales. Developed by Insomniac Games, the same studio that brought us the critically acclaimed Spider-Man on PS4 in 2018, the sequel has unfortunately become a victim of poor messaging. Its first trailer made it seem like it was a full-length, standalone game, on par with its predecessor. But then, a Sony rep stated that this was an "expansion and enhancement" of the original game, which made it seem like Miles Morales would be bundled into a smaller DLC episode of a larger port.
Finally, Insomniac released a clarifying statement. It said, in part, that Miles Morales is a "standalone game," while promising to offer more details as a later date.
If you really think about it, this doesn't clarify much of anything. By that logic, it could still be a DLC episode of a larger port. It could be a completely separate, but adjacent experience like Uncharted: The Lost Legacy—the most likely option. But whatever it is, it doesn't seem like the true, full-length sequel that the original announcement implied. And it doesn't seem like it will be available on PS4, even if it uses the same architecture as its predecessor.
6. What is the 'Create' button for?
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The new DualSense controller is a sensory enhancement over the DualShock 4. It had haptic feedback (the controller will vibrate differently depending upon the context--are you traveling over paved or unpaved road?) and "adaptive" L2 and R2 triggers. These can give you more or less resistance to pressure, depending on whether your action is pulling or pushing something and how heavy that something is.
The "Share" button has been replaced by a "Create" button--it will accomplish the same function as "Share," but also allow players to "create epic gameplay content to share with the world, or just to enjoy for themselves." It's unclear, but perhaps this means that the customizations of many individual games' photo modes have been incorporated into a single, Instagram-like app, with filters, zooming, and captioning. One can dream.
5. What is the PlayStation 5's backwards compatibility?
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Sony has not focused on making their consoles backwards compatible for the past two generations. The PlayStation 3 was originally backwards compatible, but the feature was removed in later versions of the console. The PlayStation 4 was not backwards compatible at all, and required players to re-buy a port of the game digitally or subscribe to the PlayStation Now service.
In March 2020, Sony confirmed that nearly all the top 100 PS4 games, as designated by amount of play time, would be compatible with the PlayStation 5 at launch. Sony further expressed hopes that the vast majority of PS4 titles, numbering in the thousands, would eventually be compatible too. There is no master list of titles, designating what will or won't be, but these early reports sound hopeful.
4. What release dates do we know about?
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The PlayStation 5 is due out for the 2020 holiday season; there is no specific launch date beyond that. Astro's Playroom will come preinstalled in the console. Also due out during the holiday season are titles such as NBA 2K21 and the aforementioned Spider-Man game.
2021 games will include Resident Evil Village, Hitman 3, and Grand Theft Auto V. That means GTA V will straddle three console generations; they will also be releasing a standalone-version of GTA Online, which will be free for all PlayStation 5 owners for the first three months.
3. How well will it run?
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First, let's look at the specs:
- 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 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 (PS4 games only)
- Optical drive: 4K UHD Blu-ray drive
What does that all translate to? The PlayStation % has less teraflops, a smaller SSD storage, and less raw power than an Xbox Series X. But it's important to remember that the difference is negligible in real-world terms; both consoles will be able to load massive open worlds in significantly decreased time than either the PlayStation 4 or Xbox One. It's ultimately going to depend on how the software developers leverage that power into something real. And, as always, the quality of the games themselves—particularly the exclusives—is the top priority.
2. What's the cost?
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We don't know the cost yet.
In 2013, Sony managed to embarrass Microsoft at the annual E3 conference. Microsoft presented their price point first and Sony responded by pricing their console $100 less. The war was nearly over before it began.
Certainly, Microsoft will want to avoid a similar humiliation this time around. But it's likely that both competitors will have a fairly high price point, given the hardware specs. Techradar, citing industry analysts, estimated a standard, 'bare bones' price of $499 USD for the PlayStation 5. The digital version of the console, which will have no Blu-Ray drive, will obviously cost less.
