So, just like that, Sony has showed us the actual design of the PS5, alongside a ton of games. Now that we know what it will look like, what games it will play and how well it would run those games, here are my thoughts on the PS5. This will be covering everything that Sony has talked about so far and why I’m really looking forward to the PS5.
Grab some snacks, and enjoy!
PS5 Design
Number one probably sounds a bit lame because it is really the least important part of a Games Console, which is the Design.
Sony has had two major PS5 events, the first one being in March where Mark Cerny, the PS5’s Lead System Architect, talked about the specs and how the entire system was built. The second big event was just last week, when Sony revealed the full design of the PS5.
We’ve made a number of concepts of how we imagined the PS5 would look. We were also the first ones in the world to reveal an actual photo of the PS5’s DevKit, back in October 2019. I know that there are already a bunch of memes floating around but, I actually really like this Design. It kind of reminds me of Eve, from Wall-E. It’s got that very futuristic and minimalistic look to it, with that Glossy Black middle and then the two Matte White slabs surrounding it. You might remember me saying that the Panda Pixel 2 XL was my favourite colour scheme on any Smartphone and this is pretty much the same. You could say it’s the Playstation 5: Storm-Trooper Edition, I love it!
Compared to the Xbox Series X, the Xbox has a more mature and classic look, which some may prefer. I like both actually, but I just think that the PS5 would look a bit more interesting and futuristic in my Living-Room, whilst the Xbox would just blend in better. Also, a few people have calculated the actual size of the PS5, based on the Disk-Drive size and the USB Port, and it turns out that it’s actually massive. It dwarfs the PS4 Pro, the Xbox One X and even the Xbox Series X. This makes it, I believe, the tallest Games Console ever made.
This is how the PS5 stacks up to its predecessors & main competitor (Credit: The Verge).
Now, the Xbox is more of like a box, so it is fatter than the PS5, which is tall and thin. The good news is that you can indeed use the PS5 on its side as well, which would make it look even weirder. In a way it kind of resembles our latest concept, on its side. But you can use it in any Orientation that you wish, just like you can with the Xbox.
Something that I was really not expecting to see with the PS5, is more than one model. We’ve heard the rumors that Microsoft is planning at least two models of the Xbox Series X, with Lockhart and Scarlett, but unlike the Xbox, the PS5 will have two models that would have identical performance between them. The only difference is that the less expensive one does not have a Blu-Ray Drive in it, which in my opinion also makes it look so much better and so much more uniform.
Here’s something that I want to clarify, just because of how insanely fast that SSD is, you would not be playing any games from the Disk Drive. They would just be there for the sake of you not having to download the actual games. In some cases, maybe Game Developers would store some game assets there, but I don’t even see that being the case as the speed of the Blu-Ray Disk Drive is 27MB/s, compared to the 9000MB/s or so that the SSD inside the PS5 is said to be. So, in this case, the only reason why anyone should get the disk-version of the PS5 is if you really want to play your old PS4 games and you have those games on disk. That’s literally the only reason.
Now, just a few more things that I want to cover here. I do love the blue LED light-strip that Sony has added towards the top of the PS5, I think it looks gorgeous and we can also see the Ports now. It seems like on the front we get a USB A and a USB C Port, alongside what looks to be two physical Buttons, likely the Power Button and the Disk-Eject Button, on the model that has a Disk Drive. The other one seems to be lacking this second Button. Unfortunately, Sony hasn’t showed us any photos of the sides or the back, so we don’t know what Ports we’ll have there, but at least when it comes to the front, easily accessible Ports, both USB C and USB A are there.
Sony has also released a teaser trailer of the PS5’s UI and they said that it will be completely re-imagined and that no single Pixel will be left untouched. I really do hope that they don’t change it too much as the PS4’s UI was already regarded as the very best. It was easy to navigate and very easy to understand. I just hope that they don’t ruin that for the sake of redesigning it.
Controller
The second thing that I’m really looking forward to, is the brand new Controller.
You see, rather than Sony calling this the DualShock 5, they decided to go for a brand new name, the DualSense. There’s actually a very good reason for this name. The main feature of this new Controller, aside from the new Design that I’ll cover in just a minute, is that it has a full Haptic Engine built into it.
We can’t wait to get our hands on this… literally (Credit: PlayStation)
On high-end Smartphones, like the iPhone 11, Pixel 4, Galaxy S20’s and many more, you get a Haptic Engine which gives you the impression that the Buttons that you see on the screen are actual physical Buttons that you can actually feel. The new DualSense controller now does just that. It can apparently mimic the feel of sand, grass, water, dirt and more, immersing you so much more into the game. The Haptic Engine on Smartphones today are already incredible, so having an even better Haptic Engine in a device such as a game Controller should definitely be game-changing.
Sony also added Adaptive Triggers to this Controller, meaning that the Triggers would provide you with a different level of resistance based on what you’re doing in a game. This way, weapons in Modern Warfare for example, would actually feel very different and in combination with the Haptic Engine, they should feel closer to firing a real weapon.
We also have a USB C Port, which not only means that you can use any charger to charge this Controller, but you’ll also be able to use an external Battery Bank. We now have a built-in Microphone, so that you can chat with your friends without the need to plug in Headphones, which of course can still be plugged in using the dedicated 3.5mm Headphone Jack. We still have a built-in Speaker as well. We also have a brand new Magnetic Connector for adding Accessories, possibly that Back Button Attachment, which should be launching at some point.
Finally, there’s the Touchpad in the middle, pretty much the same Buttons as before, just renamed, and then the dual-tone black and white design, which resembles the Design of the actual PS5 Console.
Accessories
The next thing that I’m really looking forward to, are the Accessories.
Aside from the Console and the Controller, Sony has also teased a few of the Accessories that you can purchase to go with your PS5. There’s a DualSense Charging Station, which allows you to charge two DualSense Controllers at the same time using that proprietary Magnetic Charging Port on the bottom, so no need to fiddle around with cables.
3D Audio has been something that Sony has mentioned a lot with the PS5, so this headset will be the best way to experience it at launch. (Credit: PlayStation)
We also have a brand new HD Camera, which interestingly enough does have two Camera Modules. This makes me think that this would be used for the PSVR Tracking as well, or at least for some 3D functionality to some extent.
We also have one new Wireless Headset, the Pulse 3D, which would be the best way for you to experience 3D Audio on the PS5. Up until now, Sony has had a few models of their own Playstation Headsets, this time it seems like they only want to have one model, which I’m totally for.
Sony is also adding a new Media Remote as an Accessory, which will allow you to control and use the PS5 just like you would use a Smart TV Box. From the looks of it, it seems that it has four Buttons that look like they can be remapped into possibly any App that you want, such as Netflix, Amazon Prime video and so on.
I’m pretty sure that even more Accessories will be added in the near future. There’s a new PSVR coming out in 2021, which will be a pretty big deal and we’ll likely see more colours of the Controller and possibly even the PS5 itself, not too long into the distant future either.
Specs
Right, now onto the good stuff, the Performance. The PS5 is a gigantic leap in Performance over the PS4 and even the PS4 Pro.
In terms of the CPU, it comes with a Desktop Class AMD Processor, based on the Zen2 Architecture. We have an Eight-Core CPU at 3.5GHz, which is just light-years more powerful than the old Jaguar Architecture that we got in the PS4.
With the GPU, we get AMD’s brand new Navi 2 Architecture, which isn’t even out for PC at the moment. The GPU offers 10.28 TFLOPS in GPU Compute Power, making it 5.58 times more powerful than the PS4’s GPU and 2.44 times more powerful than the PS4 Pro’s GPU. If those numbers don’t seem high enough, in reality they’re actually even higher as RDNA with ‘X’ amount of TFLOPS is actually significantly more powerful than what it would be on GCN, with that same amount of TFLOPS.
The SSD is sure to be one of the PS5’s biggest advantages over the Xbox Series X, those numbers are just ridiculous. (Credit: PlayStation)
I’m not going to go into a super amount of detail into the specs as I’ve already covered those in a previous video, but what you need to know for now is that the CPU, in combination with the GPU, will give us true 4K gaming at 60FPS with support of up to 120FPS , as well as 8K support too. Not only that, but we’ll get things such as Ray Tracing support for extremely realistic shadows and insanely detailed 8K textures in games that would look like real-life photos. We’re also going to get 3D Audio on a hardware level, which when combined with that new Pulse 3D Headset, should give you the most immersive audio experience in gaming yet.
Epic Games has demoed their brand new Unreal Engine 5, running in real time on the PS5. Here we saw some of the most amazing graphics ever on a Console or even PC. However, this new Unreal Engine 5, which is launching in 2021, will also run on Xbox and PC as well. So, those graphics are coming to the other platforms, not just the PS5.
Performance-wise, the Xbox Series X is superior to the PS5, there’s been quite a few Developers that are currently working on games for both Consoles that have said that. However, the PS5 is much easier to develop games for and also has a much faster SSD with up to 9GB/s Compressed, when compared to 2.4GB/s that the Xbox Series X will have. The PS4 had a HDD with a Transfer Speed of around 50MB/s, so the SSD inside the PS5 is 180 times faster!
This allows for zero loading times in games and more importantly, the ability to change the game’s Design based on the SSD speed entirely. For example, in Spider-Man you have to take the Metro when you’re fast-traveling. On the PS5, that option could be removed entirely and you could also jump inside of buildings instantly, without having to transition to a loading screen just to load the assets. So, this is where the biggest advantages to the PS5 are, the SSD and the Controller.
And of course, there’s the games!
Games
In terms of the games, what you need to know is that all of your PS4 games will work with the PS5. If you do have the ‘Digital Only’ Version of the PS5, you might have to re-purchase the disk games that you had, Sony hasn’t confirmed this but it is very likely that this will be the case. However, if you have the Blu-Ray Disk Drive version of the PS5, you will be able to just slot in a PS4 disk and play it on the PS5.
Now, aside from just playing PS4 games, most of those PS4 games will also run much better as the PS5 will feature a Boost Mode. Essentially, the PS5’s GPU has a PS4 GPU built into it, this is how it can natively run PS4 games. However, it can also increase the clock-speeds of that GPU above of what the PS4 could do, which is what Boost Mode is. This means that you will get higher Frame-Rates as well as increased Resolution for your PS4 games. If Developers also release a patch, we would even get PS5 specific features that would take advantage of that SSD and that extra Performance.
Ok, but what about PS5 exclusive games? Well, unlike Microsoft, who will not have any exclusive games on the Xbox for at least the next two years, Sony will. In fact, most of the games that they have announced are PS5 exclusives and that’s actually a very good thing. It means that they are all fully optimised for the PS5’s hardware, rather than having to make compromises in order to support older systems as well. The first game that they showed was Gran Turismo 7, with full Ray-Tracing support and running in 4K at 60FPS. At least this is what the video itself was encoded at. The graphics looked good but I wouldn’t necessarily say that they looked completely mind blowing. Still, I’m pretty excited to see this game in person.
‘Horizon 2: Forbidden West’ & ‘Spider-Man: Miles Morales’ were a couple of our personal favourites, although GTA V received a less than welcome reception. (Credit: PlayStation)
We then got a preview of the next Ratchet & Clank game, this looked like a Disney film, it looked like true next-gen. The unique thing about this game is that you can jump into a rift and get instantly teleported into a new world, a new dimension, with all assets being loaded instantly. There’s basically no loading time at all. This is why having this game run on the PS4 would be impossible without having to re-design the game-play element of it. The PS4 would not be able to load those assets that quickly.
GTA 5 was also announced and this seems to be a re-master of the PS4 re-master. The trailer has a ton of dislikes and I can definitely see why. This was already going to be supported on the PS5, thanks to Backwards Compatibility. All this is basically just a patch to increase the Resolution and Frame-Rate with a few high Resolution textures being added. However, it seems to be a much smaller change than what the PS4 version was to the PS3, as Rockstar hasn’t really shown us any side by side comparisons. The trailer that they uploaded was in 1080p, so I do understand why these dislikes are here.
There is a new Spider-Man game coming though, this is called ‘Spider-Man: Miles Morales’, which apparently is a standalone game and not an expansion. It is, however, in the same universe as the 2018 Spider-Man game and apparently this is coming out by the end of the year. It will be one of the first games to be released on the PS5. The graphics looked good but again, they didn’t look as good as the Unreal 5 Engine demo, they just looked to be at a higher Resolution with higher textures and effects quality. Also, for some reason, this trailer was in 4K but only at 30FPS, which I really hope isn’t the case for the final game. 60FPS is really the target for this generation of Consoles and if there’s a game that needs 60FPS a lot, that’s definitely Spider-Man.
Finally, the game that wowed me the most was definitely the new Horizon game - ‘Horizon 2: Forbidden West’ and this is where we can see true next-gen graphics on the PS5. It’s a pretty big leap over the already incredible looking Horizon Zero Dawn, but unfortunately we do not have a release date for that just yet.
Of course, these are just the very first games of this generation. Future games will utilise the hardware even better and they will deliver some even more outstanding graphics, these are very likely to include: GTA 6, Spider-Man 2, the next God of War and so on.
