We’ve known that it’s existed for a while but today, Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) have finally announced the release window for their next-generation console, aptly named the PlayStation 5!

The company’s current headlining product, the PS4, has been around since 2013 and has been one of the three major consoles of the current generation along with its Microsoft and Nintendo counterparts. As of June 2019, it was confirmed that Sony had officially sold over 100 million PS4s, making it the best-selling console of the current generation. This success is partly owed to the number of incredibly high-quality IPs that are exclusive to the console, including but not limited to – The Last of Us, Bloodborne, Uncharted, God Of War, Marvel’s Spider-Man, Horizon Zero Dawn & Ratchet and Clank.

However, it looks like the PS4s extensive story will soon come to a close, as the PS5 will be entering the console limelight in just over a year’s time. Various specifications about the console have been teased as a means of getting people excited for what the new console will be able to do and here is what we know so far.

The PlayStation 5 will have:

• A custom made SSD for ultra high speed access
• A built-in custom chip by AMD
• An x86-64-AMD Ryzen Zen 2 CPU with 8 cores/16 threads
• An AMD Radeon™ RDNA (Radeon DNA) GPU
• A 3D audio processing unit
• Support for 8K resolution for certain games
• Backwards compatibility with PS4 titles
• PlayStation VR support

Now that is a hefty list of specs! I don’t know about you guys, but I think what I’m actually most excited for is the backwards compatibility with PS4 titles! One of the scariest things about upgrading to a new console is finding out that all of the games you currently own don’t work anymore, especially when the new console costs a lot of money! So I’m really happy to know that I can keep all of the games I currently own on hand for the day when I eventually upgrade to the PS5.

Of course, that wasn’t all that was announced. According to the official PlayStation blog, they are upgrading the DualShock controller with some very interesting new technologies.

The “rumble” feature that has been present in the controller is being swapped out for what is known as “haptic feedback” to allow for a wider range of sensations to be transmitted. Some of the more tech-savvy amongst you might recognise haptic feedback as the technology that is present in smartphones today which is responsible for your phone vibrating differently depending on the action being performed – a “soft” vibration for when you press down on your screen to highlight something or a more aggressive vibration when you receive an email notification.

In the new controller, haptic feedback is supposed to help you differentiate between a car crashing in a racing game compared to making a tackle on the football field. Apparently, it will even be able to get a sense for a “variety of textures” which means that trudging through a puddle of mud and running through grassy plains should also feel different.

The second technology, and the one that I’m personally more excited for is called adaptive triggers. Similar to the haptic feedback implementation which is supposed to add that variety based upon the action that the player is performing, these adaptive triggers are supposed to allow developers to program different resistances for the triggers. So in theory, it should allow you to “feel” the resistance of pulling a bow and arrow compared to accelerating an off-road vehicle across uneven terrain.

That should make playing a stealth archer when Skyrim inevitably launches on the PS5 feel that much better.

On a more serious note, that’s all we’ve got now when it comes to the PS5 announcement. There are still plenty of awesome exclusives to come out on the PS4 – Death Stranding, The Last of Us II and Ghost of Tsushima!

What’s your favourite PS4 game? What are you hoping gets released on the PS5 to make the most of those awesome specs? Let us know!

Sources: Famitsu, PlayStation Blog, SIE Business Development