Everything We Know About The PlayStation 5


As the year reaches its end it’s time to take a look back at all the thing we’re grateful for this year. Things like Red Dead Redemption 2, God of War and Marvel’s Spider-Man. But you know what we’re not grateful for? The lack of a PlayStation 5. Because that sucks.

However, the PlayStation 5 is on the horizon, and at least we got confirmation that it’s definitely in the works. Here’s everything we know about the next-gen console so far.

Credit: Sony

The PS5 Will “Share Architecture” With The PS4

In an interview with the Financial Times earlier this year, Sony boss Kenichiro Yoshida confirmed about the new console: “At this point, what I can say is it’s necessary to have a next-generation hardware.”

Although details are – naturally – very thin on the ground right now, the interview goes on to state that “early indications were that it might not represent a major departure from the PS4, and that the fundamental architecture would be similar,” – at least according to the Financial Times’ sources…

Holographic tech cannot be ruled out either and the consoles might look a lot more futuristic than the PS4 or Xbox One for the matter. You might also have access to an assistant similar to SIRI or Samsung Voice on the devices which will respond to your commands.

It Could Have Backwards Compatibility

A patent – titled ‘Remastering by emulation’ seems to suggest the PlayStation 5, will have backwards compatibility…

The patent reads: “Each asset such as a texture called for by legacy software such as a legacy computer game software has a unique identifier associated with it.

“The unique identifier can be rendered by imposing a hash on the asset, and then the asset stored with its identifier in a data structure. An artist remasters the textures for presentation on a higher resolution display than envisioned in the original software, and stores them back in the data structure with their identifiers.

“The original software is then played on the higher resolution display, with asset (such as texture) calls being intercepted, identified, and the data structure entered to retrieve the remastered asset having a matching identifier. The remastered asset is then inserted on the fly into the game presentation.”

As reported by GearNuke, the patent sounds like it’s hinting at backwards compatibility for the PS5 as opposed to the ‘Remastered’ edition.

It’s about time that Sony considered the backwards compatibility route for its consoles, because yeah – buying a Remastered edition of your favourite game just takes up room on your shelf and money out of your pocket…

Credit: Sony

Graphics Should Be Flawless

With each new generation of consoles, gamers always expect nicer looking graphics, but more powerful consoles allow devs to create a lot more than just prettier looking games. Ultimately, it’s up to the artists working on games to create more detailed looking worlds to push the graphics power to the limit, but more processing power also allows for a much more dynamic world.
In an interview with EDGE, the former technology director from Criterion, Paul Ross, had some interesting insights about the future of console gaming. This is a topic he’s spent a lot of time thinking about since leaving Criterion Games (Burnout Paradise, Need for Speed Most Wanted…) in 2014 to co-found Three Fields Entertainment.

He said: “So what does a PS5 game look like? With PS4 we’ve seen some fidelity put into the worlds, but PS5’s going to be about more dynamic worlds, far more interactive worlds that are more believable in the way they behave.”

At the present time, a graphics card that’s capable of running smoothly at 4k resolution is roughly the same price as buying a PS4 and an Xbox One, so GPU prices will have to drop significantly if we’re to see 4K resolution games on the next generation of consoles.

Virtual Reality Could Be A Part Of The Console

Virtual reality could play a role as well, we will have to see how the current breed of VR headsets performs to see if it’s really a game changer or just the next “3D”.

Credit: Sony

Digital Downloads Might Be Emphasized

By the time the next generation of consoles drop, home download speeds will likely be a lot higher with the spread of fiber internet, and we’re expecting to see a much bigger emphasis on digital downloads. It may not be the nail in the coffin for physical media, but it’ll be close.

Expect a lot more big budget free-to-play games as a result of better high-speed internet accessibility and online experiences that have so far been out of reach due to bottlenecks and risk factors such as not enough high-speed internet connections in gaming households.

Data Storage Should Increase

Data storage technology will definitely become more advanced by the time both these consoles release and expect storage capacities that will dwarf the ones right now.

Expect much better cloud storage features as well as a much larger physical storage drive although perhaps at the fraction of the size of the current disk drives used in consoles.

Credit: Sony

The DualShocks Sound Like They’re Getting A Reboot

According to another Sony patent, which you can check out in full here, the company hopes to create a controller with “a touchscreen defined along the top surface of the main body,” which sounds like pretty interesting stuff.

The images included in the patent look pretty much identical to the PS4 controller in its current form, and it looks as though a new touchscreen could be replacing the touch-pad on the current version.

It’s important to note that these recently-release patent documents were first filed over a year ago, back in 2017.

Our Most Anticipated Games Could Be Launching On PS5

Right now Sony is set to release some of the most exciting-looking games of all time, including Hideo Kojima’s Death Stranding and the highly-anticipated sequel to The Last Of Us.

With no release dates for either title, people are speculating that they could end up being launch titles for the PS5.

Both games are expected to launch from anywhere between one and three years’ time – exactly the timeframe we’re expecting the PS5 in.

What would you like to see in the PlayStation 5?