Confirmed specs, backward compatibility, and more!
Updated 4/18: We’ve updated our comprehensive guide to everything confirmed and rumored about the PS5 so far with additional details about the potential PS5 price point, the PS5 specs and what 8K gaming will actually need to work, and much more.
Read on for all the details, analysis, and more, and stay tuned for more updates on the PS5 as they develop.
With the beginning of every game console generation comes an implicit question: when will we see the next generation of consoles? With this in mind, we at IGN want to compile all the official information and rumors we know about the next PlayStation, which we’re naturally calling the PS5.
Especially in light of Wired’s interview with Mark Cerny about the next-gen PlayStation console. Read on for the information we know to be true about the PS4 successor, as well as the many rumors floating around it, and be sure to come back for updates as more PS5 updates arrive. (And note, while Sony hasn’t officially called the next-gen console by name and confirmed a title, we’ll be going by PlayStation 5 or PS5 for simplicity’s sake.)
PlayStation 5 Price and Release Date
As of right now, we don’t know how much the next PlayStation console will cost. But Peter Rubin, the writer behind the Wired PS5 piece, tweeted out some information following his article regarding a potential PS5 price point.
Cerny told Wired that he believes “we will be able to release [the system] at an SRP that will be appealing to gamers in light of its advanced feature set.” That doesn’t necessarily give us a firm price point but could suggest, depending on the price and availability of the tech used to power the PS5, we could see a more expensive console than this generation, but perhaps not hugely outside the norm.
Cerny’s latest interview also does at least offer us an idea of when we won’t expect the PS5’s release date to be.
According to Wired, the PS5’s release date will not be in 2019. That doesn’t lead us to an exact release window, but plenty of conjecture has pointed to 2020 as the likely release year for new consoles, both from PlayStation and Xbox. This would put new systems seven years after the launch of the PS4 and Xbox One, roughly equivalent to the generation before that’s lifespan.
A Kotaku report from April 2018 indicated the console was a ways off, certainly not before a vague 2020 release timeframe. (And, as that report notes, with something as big as a console launch, and one so far out, things could change quite easily.) That window is what Kotaku has continued to hear up until as recently as GDC 2019.
PlayStation 5 Specs
Mark Cerny actually divulged quite a bit about what will be under the hood of the PS5 in terms of specs. With an AMD chip at its core, the CPU is created from AMD’s Ryzen line, third generation, with eight cores of 7nm Zen 2 microarchitecture. The chip also “includes a custom unit for 3D audio,” according to Wired and Cerny, which should work through TV speaks and surround sound, with headphone audio being the best option. (A report by SemiAccurate from a while back stated that the PS5 would use an 8-core Zen CPU and a Navi-based GPU.)
The GPU, according to Wired, is “a custom variant of Radeon’s Navi family.” This GPU will allow for ray tracing (IGN wrote about what ray tracing is and why you should care).
The system also won’t abandon physical media, and so it won’t be a download-only console according to Wired.
The biggest inclusion, according to Cerny’s description, will be the inclusion of a specialized solid-state drive, one that Cerny told Wired “has a raw bandwidth higher than any SSD available for PCs,” according to the publication. SSDs are, of course, available in desktop and laptop computers, and can even be used as external hard drives for the PS4 and PS4 Pro. But Cerny is aiming to demonstrate that the PS5’s SSD will allow for a new level of speed and performance.
Cerny highlighted these capabilities to Wired by playing Marvel’s Spider-Man on a PS4 Pro, which had a 15 second load time for fast travel. Cerny then demonstrated that same load on a devkit, which reportedly was a “low-speed” version, and it only took 0.8 seconds.
Cerny did highlight that the load time speeds are not the only benefit of the SSD — it can reportedly render worlds at a quicker pace and allow for quicker movement in-game.
The PS5 will also support 8K gaming, but the demonstrations Wired saw were on a 4K TV. Following this reveal, IGN broke down why a lot of pieces need to fall into place for true 8K gaming.
IGN also had one of our tech experts break down what those PS5 specs actually mean for the next generation of gaming.
PlayStation 5 Backward Compatibility
Good news PS4 and PS4 Pro owners — your PS5 will be backward compatible with PS4 games. Thanks to its architecture being based on what was used in the PS4, Sony is able to bring its already released and still upcoming games to the next-gen console.
What that will mean for the existence of remasters like The Last of Us Remastered remains unclear, particularly with so many heavy-hitters left to be released for the PS4. Will The Last of Us Part II, Death Stranding, and Ghost of Tsushima be optimized for PS5 but also still run on PS4’s? Will any of them move to solely being PS5 games? It’s unclear, but at the very least, whatever is and has been released on PS4 will still work on the PS5.
According to Wired, a Sony representative specifically said Death Stranding would be released for PS4 still, but that room was left open for both PS4 and PS5 versions of the game.
PlayStation 5 PSVR Capability
Good news first: your existing PlayStation VR hardware will be compatible with the PS5. So just like all your standard PS4 games will be backward compatible, your PSVR games library should work on the next generation as well. (And that’s exciting, particularly considering all the big, upcoming PSVR games we’re excited to play.)
As for whether a proper PSVR 2.0 headset will launch with the new system or at any point in its release, Cerny and the rest of PlayStation remained mum on the possibility. They didn’t outright deny the chance, and so an upgraded PSVR headset could be in the works, especially considering advancements in VR tech and hardware outside of PSVR. But for now, know that your old PSVR hardware will work with the new system, so you don’t have to ditch that headset just yet.
PlayStation 5 Services
Despite plenty of details coming from Wired’s breakdown of what’s to come with the PlayStation 5, we don’t know how Sony’s existing services will work on the next-generation console. Presumably, it’s a safe bet that something like PlayStation Plus will migrate over to the new generation. But how services like PlayStation Now might make the jump remains uncertain.
Sony did, of course, recently launch the ability to change your PSN ID, and while some PS4
PlayStation 5 Games
Of course, PS4 and PSVR games are expected to work on the PS5, we don’t know a ton about what Sony first-party games and studios will be made specifically for PS5.
However, there have been some reports that suggest Sony is emphasizing PS5 development internally. One of the most notable reported pieces of info prior to Wired’s report was that PlayStation’s first-party studios are now allegedly focusing their development efforts, beyond what’s in the works for the PS4 already, on the PS5.
Industry analyst Daniel Ahmad recently said “in general, most of the focus for Sony [first party studios] is on PS5 right now. It is still early to talk about next gen but I imagine we’ll hear some whispers come out of GDC.”
Ahmad also reported that PS5 dev kits are out in the wild and he’s heard “positive things” about them.
Sony focusing on PS5 development isn’t a total shock, of course. Outside of announced PS4 games like The Last of Us Part II, Ghost of Tsushima, Concrete Genie, and Dreams, plenty of Sony’s worldwide studios are working on unannounced projects. Depending on when Sony decides to release the PS5, it would make absolute sense for studios like Santa Monica Studio or Guerrilla Games to be prioritizing the next generation.
We gave our best guesses for what already announced PS4 games could transition to the PS5.
Beyond internal development, a recent patent has also started up plenty of conjecture about a possible feature: backward compatibility. A recent Sony patent has led many fans to think Sony is investigating the potential for the oft-requested feature to be included in the PS5. It describes a process allowing legacy software to run perfectly on new devices.
For now, we have a list of rumored PS5 games for you to check out while we wait for official word on confirmed titles.
PlayStation 5’s Official Name
It may be silly to note, but as I mentioned above, we don’t actually know what the next PlayStation will be called, and Wired’s interview with Cerny didn’t offer any additional info on that front.
So we’re addressing it as the PS5 or PlayStation 5 for now, and should a different, official name be revealed, we’ll be sure to let you know.
PlayStation 5 Preorders
Unfortunately, we don’t have any information about the PS5’s exact launch date or price point, and as such don’t have any preorder information available. When we do have PS5 preorder info, our IGN Deals team will sure to be let you know where it’s available for preorder, the best deals where possible, and everything else you’ll need to know.
PlayStation 5 Pictures
Unfortunately, we don’t have any PS5 photos or details about what the PS5 will exactly look like. Wired’s interview with Cerny saw the use of a devkit hidden with no clear “componentry” apparent. So for now, we don’t know what the PS5 hardware model will look like just yet.
For more on our PS5 coverage, be sure to read our opinion piece about why the PS5 sounds like a PS4 Deluxe and that’s probably what people actually want.
And of course stay tuned to IGN’s weekly PlayStation show, Podcast Beyond! for our extended thoughts on the PS5 information.
Jonathon Dornbush is IGN’s News Editor, PlayStation lead, and Beyond! host. Talk to him about what you hope to see in the PS5 on Twitter @jmdornbush.
