Sony's new console will be officially called the PS5, and will be arriving with some nifty new features
Sony's next game console will be officially called the PS5, and will come out in time for the busy holiday shopping period next year.
Announcing these important details in a blog post, Sony also used the occasion to provide some more juicy details about next-gen console.
Missing from the first batch of information released in April was the state of the PS5's optical drive, and whether it would support 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray playback. The PS4, unlike it's direct rival the Xbox One, has never had support for 4K disc playback and many had wondered if Sony might carry the lack of support to its next console.
Fortunately for movie lovers, the PS5 will be supporting 4K UHD disc playback. And as a bonus, the enhanced capacity of 4K UHD discs (double that of standard Blu-ray) will give game developers more room to store their games.
That's not to say that the PS5 will not be moving towards game streaming and downloads, with Sony announcing a new feature where gamers can choose to download sections of a game at a time to save both bandwidth and storage space.
"Rather than treating games like a big block of data, we're allowing finer-grained access to the data," explained Mark Cerny, the PS5's lead architect.
Some new features are also coming to the updated DualShock controller, which while maintaining a look a feel that's similar to the current version of the controller, the DualShock 4, it will be adding haptic feedback support and adaptive triggers. Similar to the haptic home engine on the iPhone 7/8 phones, haptic feedback will replace the old vibration/rumble to provide a more customizable feel. The haptic based adaptive triggers, like the iPhone's haptic home "button", will also allow varying degrees of resistance. An improved built-in speaker will also help improve the gaming experience.
Most importantly perhaps, the new controller will be using a USB-C connector for charging, making it compatible with many existing chargers and charging ports. The new controller will be heavier than the DualShock 4, but lighter than the Xbox One X controller.
Ray-tracing support is something that both Sony and Microsoft's new consoles will be supporting, but Sony has confirmed that the support will be in hardware, not software, which will allow for more realistic lighting effects, but not at the expense of game performance.
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