PlayStation 5 Official Topic - Coming November 2020

[TheOcelot]

Okay, it's time an official topic was created. Sony announced via their blog today that their next generation console will indeed be called...PlayStation 5 and has a 2020 holiday release window. The blog post also goes into a bit of detail about the design of the PS5 contoller which is getting "haptic feedback" to replace the rumble technology and "adaptive" triggers incorporated into the trigger buttons L2/R2.

https://blog.eu.playstation.com/2019/10/08/an-update-on-next-gen-playstation-5-launches-holiday-2020/

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Since we originally unveiled our next-generation console in April, we know that there’s been a lot of excitement and interest in hearing more about what the future of games will bring. Today I’m proud to share that our next-generation console will be called PlayStation 5, and we’ll be launching in time for holiday 2020.

These updates may not be a huge surprise, but we wanted to confirm them for our PlayStation fans, as we start to reveal additional details about our vision for the next generation. WIRED magazine covered these updates and more in a story that posted this morning.

The “more” refers to something I’m quite excited about – a preview of the new controller that will ship with PlayStation 5. 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 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.

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.

While there’s much more to share about PlayStation 5 in the year ahead, we have plenty of blockbuster experiences coming your way on PS4, including Death Stranding, The Last of Us Part II, and Ghost of Tsushima. I’d like to thank all PlayStation fans for continuing the journey with us, as we embark on the future of games.

Wired posted an article with more detailed information earlier today:

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Sony hasn't said too much about the console since April, when WIRED broke the story about development efforts on what was then known only as the "next-gen console." In fact, the company hasn't said anything. Sony skipped games show E3 this year, a void during which Microsoft unveiled details about its own next-gen console, a successor to the Xbox One referred to only as Project Scarlett. Like the PS5, Scarlett will boast a CPU based on AMD’s Ryzen line and a GPU based on its Navi family; like the PS5, it will ditch the spinning hard drive for a solid-state drive. Now, though, in a conference room at Sony’s US headquarters, Ryan and system architect Mark Cerny are eager to share specifics.

Before they do, Cerny wants to clarify something. When we last discussed the forthcoming console, he spoke about its ability to support ray-tracing, a technique that can enable complex lighting and sound effects in 3D environments. Given the many questions he’s received since, he fears he may have been ambiguous about how the PS5 would accomplish this—and confirms that it’s not a software-level fix, which some had feared. “There is ray-tracing acceleration in the GPU hardware,” he says, “which I believe is the statement that people were looking for.” (A belief born out by my own Twitter mentions, which for a couple of weeks in April made a graphics-rendering technique seem like the only thing the internet had ever cared about.)

With that in hand, back to the PS5's solid-state drive, which Cerny first extolled for the way it can turn loading time from a hassle to a blink. It’s not just the speed that makes the SSD formidable, he says, but the efficiency it offers. Think about the hard drive in a game console, spinning like a 5400-rpm vinyl record. For the console to read a piece of information off the drive, it first has to send out the disk head—like a turntable needle—to find it. Each “seek,” as it’s known, may only entail a scant handful of milliseconds, but seeks add up. To minimize them, developers will often duplicate certain game assets in order to form contiguous data blocks, which the drive can read faster. We’re talking common stuff here: lampposts, anonymous passersby.

But data adds up too. "If you look at a game like Marvel's Spider-Man," Cerny says, "there are some pieces of data duplicated 400 times on the hard drive." The SSD sweeps away the need for all that duping—so not only is its raw read speed dramatically faster than a hard drive, but it saves crucial space. How developers will take advantage of that space will likely differ; some may opt to build a larger or more detailed game world, others may be content to shrink the size of the games or patches. Either way, physical games for the PS5 will use 100GB optical disks, inserted into an optical drive that doubles as a 4K Bluray player.

However, game installation (which is mandatory, given the speed difference between the SSD and the optical drive) will be a bit different than in the PS4. This time around, aided in part by the simplified game data possible with the SSD, Sony is changing its approach to storage, making for a more configurable installation—and removal—process. "Rather than treating games like a big block of data," Cerny says, "we're allowing finer-grained access to the data." That could mean the ability to install just a game's multiplayer campaign, leaving the single-player campaign for another time, or just installing the whole thing and then deleting the single-player campaign once you've finished it.

Regardless of what parts of a game you choose to install and play, you'll be able to stay abreast of it via a completely revamped user interface. The PS4's bare-bones home screen at times feels frozen in amber; you can see what your friends have recently done, or even what game title they might be playing at the moment, but without launching an individual title, there's no way to tell what single-player missions you could do or what multiplayer matches you can join. The PS5 will change that. "Even though it will be fairly fast to boot games, we don't want the player to have to boot the game, see what's up, boot the game, see what's up," Cerny says. "Multiplayer game servers will provide the console with the set of joinable activities in real time. Single-player games will provide information like what missions you could do and what rewards you might receive for completing them—and all of those choices will be visible in the UI. As a player you just jump right into whatever you like."

He says this like he says many other things: knowing he'll fend off any follow-up question that ventures beyond what he wants to talk about. Like, What does the UI actually look like? Or, How big will the SSD be? Or even, Is that a microphone? Which is exactly what I ask when Cerny hands me a prototype of the next-generation controller, an unlabeled matte-black doohickey that looks an awful lot like the PS4's DualShock 4. After all, there's a little hole on it, and a recently published patent points to Sony developing a voice-driven AI assistant for the PlayStation. But all I get from Cerny is, "We'll talk more about it another time." ("We file patents on a regular basis," a spokesperson tells me later, "and like many companies, some of those patents end up in our products, and some don’t.")

The controller (which history suggests will one day be called the DualShock 5, though Cerny just says "it doesn't have a name yet") does have some features Cerny's more interested in acknowledging. One is "adaptive triggers" that can offer varying levels of resistance to make shooting a bow and arrow feel like the real thing—the tension increasing as you pull the arrow back—or make a machine gun feel far different from a shotgun. It also boasts haptic feedback far more capable than the rumble motor console gamers are used to, with highly programmable voice-coil actuators located in the left and right grips of the controller.

Combined with an improved speaker on the controller, the haptics can enable some astonishing effects. First, I play through a series of short demos, courtesy of the same Japan Studio team that designed PlayStation VR's Astro Bot Rescue Mission. In the most impressive, I ran a character through a platform level featuring a number of different surfaces, all of which gave distinct—and surprisingly immersive—tactile experiences. Sand felt slow and sloggy; mud felt slow and soggy. On ice, a high-frequency response made the thumbsticks really feel like my character was gliding. Jumping into a pool, I got a sense of the resistance of the water; on a wooden bridge, a bouncy sensation.

Next, a version of Gran Turismo Sport that Sony had ported over to a PS5 devkit—a devkit that on quick glance looks a lot like the one Gizmodo reported on last week. (The company refused to comment on questions about how the devkit's form factor might compare to what's being considered for the consumer product.) Driving on the border between the track and the dirt, I could feel both surfaces. Doing the same thing on the same track using a DualShock 4 on a PS4, that sensation disappeared entirely. It wasn't that the old style rumble feedback paled in comparison, it was that there was no feedback at all. User tests found that rumble feedback was too tiring to use continuously, so the released version of GT Sport simply didn't use it.

That difference has been a long time coming. Product manager Toshi Aoki says the controller team has been working on haptic feedback since the DualShock 4 was in development. They even could have included it in PS4 Pro, the mid-cycle refresh—though doing so would have created a "split experience" for gamers, so the feature suite was held for the next generation. There are some other small improvements over the DualShock 4. The next-gen controller uses a USB Type-C connector for charging (and you can play through the cable as well). Its larger-capacity battery and haptics motors make the new controller a bit heavier than the DualShock 4, but Aoki says it will still come in a bit lighter than the current Xbox controller "with batteries in it."

How game studios will use all these new features—from previously known ones like the SSD and ray-tracing acceleration to newer ones like the controller and real-time UI—is still a matter of some speculation. While a number of studios already had their PS5 devkits, the controller prototypes began rolling out much more recently, and no one is ready to name specific titles they're developing for the PS5. "We're working on a big one right now," says Marco Thrush, president of Bluepoint Games, which most recently worked on last year's PS4 remake of Shadow of the Colossus. "I'll let you figure out the rest."

That doesn't mean they're not exploring. "The SSD has me really excited," Thrush says. "You don't need to do gameplay hacks anymore to artificially slow players down—lock them behind doors, anything like that. Back in the cartridge days, games used to load instantly; we're kind of going back to what consoles used to be."

"I could be really specific and talk about experimenting with ambient occlusion techniques, or the examination of ray-traced shadows," says Laura Miele, chief studio officer for EA. "More generally, we’re seeing the GPU be able to power machine learning for all sorts of really interesting advancements in the gameplay and other tools." Above all, Miele adds, it's the speed of everything that will define the next crop of consoles. "We're stepping into the generation of immediacy. In mobile games, we expect a game to download in moments, and to be just a few taps from jumping right in. Now we’re able to tackle that in a big way."

That sort of tackle gets a lot easier, Jim Ryan knows, when a burden has been lifted from your shoulders. So say hello to the PlayStation 5, officially. Maybe one of these days we'll all learn what the thing actually looks like.

 

[Big Panda]

I hope the backwards compatibility is actually disc-based this time.

[Ryannumber1gamer]

PS4 backwards compatibility is their biggest selling point easily right now. I got the PS4 on launch night as an early Christmas present, and attended the midnight launch at my nearest store. So with that, I say with absolute certainty that the PS4 had fuck all to play til at least March of the following year. Off the top of my head, the biggest titles was Resogun and Killzone. Nothing really great came til The Last of Us Remastered and Infamous Second Son, and even then it took awhile before I stopped using my PS3 less and less.

So with that, I can easily say this is the smartest decision Sony has made in awhile. It gives the PS5 a full library out of the gate for use, incentivises trading your PS4 for an upgrade, and also returns to PlayStation 2’s original selling point. A big reason for buying a PS2 and PS3 is the home media functions. PS2 had two consoles worth of games, plus a DVD player. PS3 has (originally) three consoles worth of games, plus a Blu-Ray. It was just ungodly overpriced.

PS5 including a 4K Blu-Ray player, plus two consoles worth of games, as well as rumours that they might be aiming for PS1-3 compatibility as well just gives it a lot of selling points. I am actually really excited about the console now for the upgrades and PS4 functionality alone, but if they somehow include PS2/PS3 compatibility, I’ll be even more sold.

[Tracker_TD]

I'm very doubtful of the "all systems backwards-compat" dream.

This makes it sound like it'll be trouble to get even full compatibility with PS4, let alone everything else. 

[Menace2Society]

I was fairly disappointed by the PS4, after being a fan of the PS3 and PS2 (didn’t grew up on the PS1) so I’m hoping the PS5 is a step up from that. 

Seems they’re really prioritizing the specs here. I’m curious on how they’re gonna use it exactly. I atleast know Bluepoint Games is working on something for it, which I’ll be looking forward to. 

[blueblur98]

so... they're basically putting HD rumble in the dualshock 5?

[Jango]

Can we talk about games? What could be the launch titles? Perhaps Horizon Zero Dawn 2 could make the cut? A new Crash and/or Spyro are somewhat likely too, Activision will most certainly double dip and release in on PS4 as well. Obviously The Last of Us Part 2 and Ghost of Tsushima will be ported right way, even with the PS5 being backwards compatible. New Gran Turismo?

I don't think God of War 2 or Spider-man 2 can make the cut, but they're likely games to look for in the consoles' first year.

[Ryannumber1gamer]

49 minutes ago, Jango said:

Can we talk about games? What could be the launch titles? Perhaps Horizon Zero Dawn 2 could make the cut? A new Crash and/or Spyro are somewhat likely too, Activision will most certainly double dip and release in on PS4 as well. Obviously The Last of Us Part 2 and Ghost of Tsushima will be ported right way, even with the PS5 being backwards compatible. New Gran Turismo?

I don't think God of War 2 or Spider-man 2 can make the cut, but they're likely games to look for in the consoles' first year.

There's a rumour floating around that we will have a PSASBR2 with Capcom developing, and it taking an arena fighter style, instead of a Smash style. Granted, there's been rumours of a PSASBR2 for years, so who knows if that's true or not.

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

9 hours ago, Jango said:

Obviously The Last of Us Part 2 and Ghost of Tsushima will be ported right way, even with the PS5 being backwards compatible.

Why even bother doing that? Unless they add new content to such a port, that's not going to sell as well as it would've without backwards compatibility. 

[Jango]

They did it with Part 1, didn't they?

[Ryannumber1gamer]

12 minutes ago, Jango said:

They did it with Part 1, didn't they?

PS4 didn’t have PS3 backwards compatibility, did it?

Sony would have a hard time convincing people to buy a game they already bought previously to play it on PS5 when said game already runs on PS5. If Spider-Man PS4 was their benchmark for testing PS4 compatibility, you can be sure that TLoU2 and any remaining exclusives were developed with PS5 compatibility in mind.

[Jango]

What about PS Now? I bet they're gonna pull this even with backwards compatibility. I smell it. 

But anyways. Horizon 2 anyone?

[Ryannumber1gamer]

19 minutes ago, Jango said:

What about PS Now? I bet they're gonna pull this even with backwards compatibility. I smell it. 

But anyways. Horizon 2 anyone?

PS Now isn’t a good solution, it’s incredibly laggy, and overpriced, hence why Sony are now backtracking to try restructure it. It works, but isn’t a true solution, nor is it even really a good way to play.

They got away with it this generation because there was no proper solution for backwards compatibility and the only option doesn’t work for a lot of people, and even still lags in the best case scenario. If true backwards compatibility happens, it becomes a non issue and it becomes difficult to sell a port to anyone when you can buy it cheaper for a previous console, and then play it via backwards compatibility.

[Conando]

Neat. Unfortunately we probably still won’t be getting real 4K at high frame rates, but if the checkerboarding is fine, it’s fine. More interested in backwards compatibility than anything.

[TheOcelot]

4 hours ago, Jango said:

 But anyways. Horizon 2 anyone?

The first game was released in 2017 and had a loooooooooooong development cycle. So I wouldn't expect the sequel until 2022 at the earliest. 

Not expecting any amazing launch titles for PS5, but if they do provide full PS4 backwards compatibility, then at least you could buy the PS5 when it launches and still play all your favorite PS4 games until the PS5 starts releasing decent titles. 

Horizon Zero Dawn is a great game (my favorite PS4 game) and I'm looking forward to seeing how it plays/performs on PS5, assuming PS4 backwards compatibility is excellent. Shouldn't take much effort to beat the rubbish PS3 compatibility we got this-gen via PS Now.

Backwards compatibility is probably the one thing Microsoft did a better job than Sony this-gen, and if Sony gets it right this time; i.e. full PS4 compatibilty and a good chunk of PS1, PS2 (and fingers crossed PS3) games, then Sony will very likely come out on top in the console war for next-gen. 

[Jango]

2 hours ago, TheOcelot said:

The first game was released in 2017 and had a loooooooooooong development cycle. So I wouldn't expect the sequel until 2022 at the earliest. 

Not expecting any amazing launch titles for PS5, but if they do provide full PS4 backwards compatibility, then at least you could buy the PS5 when it launches and still play all your favorite PS4 games until the PS5 starts releasing decent titles. 

Horizon Zero Dawn is a great game (my favorite PS4 game) and I'm looking forward to seeing how it plays/performs on PS5, assuming PS4 backwards compatibility is excellent. Shouldn't take much effort to beat the rubbish PS3 compatibility we got this-gen via PS Now.

Backwards compatibility is probably the one thing Microsoft did a better job than Sony this-gen, and if Sony gets it right this time; i.e. full PS4 compatibilty and a good chunk of PS1, PS2 (and fingers crossed PS3) games, then Sony will very likely come out on top in the console war for next-gen. 

Thing is, I only have 2 games in physical media, one being Sonic Mania and the other Uncharted 4, you see... Will Sony allow users to re-download or transfer digital games bought on PSN? Backwards compatibility won't mean shit for me...

[Ryannumber1gamer]

39 minutes ago, Jango said:

Thing is, I only have 2 games in physical media, one being Sonic Mania and the other Uncharted 4, you see... Will Sony allow users to re-download or transfer digital games bought on PSN? Backwards compatibility won't mean shit for me...

Yes. They did that with PSP games on the Vita. Any PSP/PS1 game bought for PSP transferred to Vita.

The only exception to this rule has been PS2 Classics on PS4, because they received multiple upgrades compared to the PS3 versions, including trophy support, and proper upscaling.

[The Tenth Doctor]

Curious how this would work. Say I have a PS4 game I want to play on a PS5. I had DLC for it on the PS4. Would I be able to get that downloaded to it on a PS5?

[Ryannumber1gamer]

18 minutes ago, The Tenth Doctor said:

Curious how this would work. Say I have a PS4 game I want to play on a PS5. I had DLC for it on the PS4. Would I be able to get that downloaded to it on a PS5?

Yes.

If it works how the Vita store worked, you'll have access to all of your downloads on it, which would be games, DLC, movies, TV shows, avatars, etc. As long as it's playable on PS5, you should be able to just download it directly from the PS Store on PS5.

[Jango]

God Ryan, I really hope this is true, because a-fucking-men. I didn't sold my PS3 up untill now because I had like 50 digital games installed on it that sometimes I feel the eager to come back to. If the PS5 works like that, amazing! I bet it can also transfer save files and such, right?

[Rabid-Coot]

Save files shouldn't be a problem, they're moving between systems and even companies regularly now.

[TheOcelot]

PlayStation 5 logo has been revealed:

#mindblown

There's also been more rumours about PS5 having PS1, 2, 3 & 4 backwards compatibility. #Fingerscrossed

[Jango]

3 hours ago, TheOcelot said:

PlayStation 5 logo has been revealed:

#mindblown

There's also been more rumours about PS5 having PS1, 2, 3 & 4 backwards compatibility. #Fingerscrossed

Backwards compatibility with ALL generations? They can't. Can they? This would be a game changer. 

As for the logo, I'm just glad they didn't tried anything crazy with the font, I mean, you guys remember the PlayStation 3 logo with the Spider-man font? lol

I hope the console looks cool. The new Xbox looks nice.

[Ryannumber1gamer]

God, please. I've still got the majority of my PS2 and PS3 games, if I was able to play them on the PS5, I would be absolutely over the moon.

[Almar]

That's nice. Backwards compatibility?