A recent Wired’s interview that was held in a conference room at Sony’s headquarters (Foster City, California) with lead architect Mark Cerny shed new light into the expectations and revealed new information relating to Sony‘s next PlayStation. Although it’s referred by many as PlayStation 5 or PS5, it is not a confirmed name at this moment. Here are some key highlights on what I understand from the interview piece and some opinions on it. And no, it wont be ready in 2019.
Its not going to be an overhaul but aims to redefine what next gen is
At first glance, the focus is on what more can be achieved when it comes to graphics and bringing audio design to a higher tier. (WT4 to WT5, PS4 to PS5, Ubisoft knew! Also random shoutout to Division 2 players). But there’s more!
The following have been revealed by Mark Cerny himself however do note that the actual clockspeeds and teraflops (for you teraflops maniacs) was not revealed:
- CPU: 8 core 7nm Zen 2 based on third Generation AMD Ryzen line
- 3D Audio
- Higher GPU (custom variant of Radeon’s Navi family) with ray tracing
- Specialized SSD drive for faster speed loading and performance (no more loading train scenes to accommodate Spiderman)
- Specialized SSD drive for faster rendering, faster movement
- Supports 8K graphics
- Still accepting both physical and digital media
- Backwards Compatible with PS4
*Ray Tracing means more advanced realistic lighting and shadow captured in a scene, which may dazzle your game world even more with a sense of realism.
Ray tracing sounds like it will bring a whole new level of graphical immersion for players and I do applaud Sony’s effort for including it. Even the audio (with headphones looking like the main focus) will have depth and surround sound like never before like being outside for the first time.
Back for the future
Backwards compatibility has always been somewhat of an issue with Sony. However it looks like it will be one if the guiding principles for the next PlayStation which gives me a chills on imagining how enhanced editions will either differ or breathe new life into old PS4 games such as a loadless Spiderman, a more realistic Horizon Zero Dawn, scarier Last Of Us, and even more immersion from Red Dead Redemption 2. A spokesperson also mentioned that Death Stranding is still on track to release on the PS4 but left it up in the air on whether it will also be coming to the next-gen console.
2020 can’t come soon enough
To me this looks promising but I can’t help feeling a little sceptical until Sony fully provides all the promised specs and functions upon release. The gaming industry is plagued by over promises and under delivering them and I would hate that all this goodwill and excitement that Sony is generating ended up disappointing fans in the end. The PlayStation 4 Pro (even though it’s a solid console) felt like a let down for not being able to deliver true 4K and only achieved the resolution with some supersampling magic. One of the biggest questions that is lingering on our minds is how much will the next-gen PlayStation cost with all these amazing tech powering it. Will it be priced competitively or will it result in a premium price that will put off early adopters. As much of a surprise the reveal was I guess time will tell if the answers to our questions will be answered sooner rather than later.
What about you?
What are your feelings on Sony’s next-gen strategy and will they stand against the futuristic streaming Stadia announced by Google or the next Xbox console? Would you sell your current PS4 due to the backward compatibility? Tell us more in the comments.
