Although it still isn’t referring to it as the PlayStation 5, Sony has unveiled the next-generation features coming to the PS4 successor in the wake of the Google Stadia and Microsoft All Digital Xbox One S reveals.
Sony has backed out of numerous conventions — including its own — citing no major announcements as the reason for its absence.
Back in October 2018, Sony President Kenichiro Yoshida confirmed the successor to the PS4 was in development, stating “At this point, what I can say is it’s necessary to have a next-generation hardware”.
In an exclusive interview with Wired, Lead System Architect Mark Cerny shared details on the upcoming next-gen console.
The PS4 successor will reportedly be powered by a third-gen AMD Ryzen CPU with eight cores built on Sony’s 7nm Zen 2 structures.
Its custom GPU will support ray-tracing — usually reserved by high-end gaming PCs — as well as graphics up to an 8K resolution, and a “dramatically different” audio experience.
The console will support 8K graphics and will ship with an SSD to accelerate rendering and reduce load times.
Overall, the system is similar structure to the PS4 and will, therefore, be backwards compatible with PS4 titles and will support PlayStation VR — however, Cerny didn’t go into too many details regarding PlayStation’s VR plans.
Cerny confirmed the console will retain the use of physical game discs, meaning the PlayStation isn’t going down the disc-less path like Microsoft’s All-Digital Xbox One S. anytime soon.
This isn’t too surprising, given that Microsoft’s Xbox has the architecture already built to support cloud gaming or streaming via its Azure network, whereas Sony’s PlayStation Now service is not as extensive and is only available in select countries — it hasn’t reached Australia yet.
Given how successful the PS4 has been for Sony, it isn’t surprising that this console as laid out by Cerny is more of an upgrade as opposed to a grand leap forward.
The PS4 continues to remain the top-selling gaming console in Australia, and it will be interesting to see if Microsoft’s cheaper disc-free console can knock it off its pedestal.
Cerny gave no indication when the device would reach the market, but many speculate we will have to wait until at least 2020 to see the next-gen console.
When it finally reaches the market, it will have many more contenders vying for gaming champion including Microsoft, Google’s Stadia, and numerous other game streaming services that promise high-quality gaming without an expensive console.
