PlayStation 5 Details Have Been Announced By Sony

Sony has announced details about their up-and-coming PlayStation 5, a report from GameSpot has revealed. In an interview with Wired, lead system architect Mark Cerny spoke about the next-generation console. Cerny — who worked on the PlayStation 4 — has revealed that the new system will be based on the architecture of its predecessor.

Details confirm that the PlayStation 5 will likely be backward-compatible and will not be all-digital — which means it will still use discs. Inside the machine will be a new AMD processor based on the third-generation Ryzen, while the graphics chip will be from the Radeon Navi family.

In terms of audio specifics, Cerny has said that “ray tracing” — a method which mimics how light bounces around objects or reflects off surfaces — can be useful in video game sounds.

“If you wanted to run tests to see if the player can hear certain audio sources or if the enemies can hear the players’ footsteps, ray tracing is useful for that…it’s all the same thing as taking a ray through the environment.”

While Cerny has said that a solid-state drive (SSD) will likely be the storage choice for the new PlayStation, Sony themselves have yet to give further information about who will be manufacturing it. However, Cerny states that the new hard drive will have greater bandwidth than what is currently available on PCs, adding that “raw read speed is important.”

Details about the PlayStation VR have also yet to be confirmed, but Cerny has said in the interview that virtual reality “is very important to us,” and that the current PSVR headset “is compatible with the new console.”

Much of the information provided by Cerny has been about the new console’s hardware. Not much has been said about what services will be available, or the price, or even when Sony is likely to launch it. Current reports indicate that it will not be developed in time for a 2019 release.

However, in May 2018, John Kodera, Sony’s head of PlayStation, said that a new console was three years away. This puts a potential release date at around 2021.

“We will use the next three years to prepare the next step… to crouch down so that we can jump higher in the future.”

The graphical and audio details being discussed indicate that the PlayStation 5 — which has been in development for the past four years — will not be a “mere upgrade” to the current generation, but will more likely be a whole new console altogether.