In an interview with Wired, Sony confirmed that their upcoming PS5 console will be released in “holiday 2020.”
The name of the system is confirmed as well. As expected, Sony’s next-generation console will be called PlayStation 5 – PS5 for short – continuing the company’s tradition of sticking to numerical order. It keeps the respected brand consistent.
“It’s nice to be able to say it,” says Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan. “[It is] like a giant burden has been lifted from my shoulders.”
We already know that the PS5 will come with an SSD. We also know now that the system will support a high-capacity Blu-ray. Physical games on PS5 will use Blu-ray discs up to 100GB in size. The system’s optical drive will double as a Blu-ray player capable of playing movies in 4K.
In addition, Sony made two separate announcements regarding the DualShock 5 controller. The first is that the controller will support haptic feedback instead of rumble technology. Haptic technology provides a broader range of feedback.
The second change is adaptive triggers. Developers will be able to adjust 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,” Sony says.
Wired‘s Peter Rubin demoed the new technology and provided this description of his experience:
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.
Pretty neat, I must say. If you want to learn more about haptic feedback technology, check out the video below.
We don’t yet know a lot of crucial details about the PS5, like the console’s launch lineup and price. Still, today’s announcements are a decent piece of the overall puzzle.
