PlayStation 5 Is A Major Console Upgrade But Sony Hints At Surprise Features Not Yet Revealed
What we already know about the next generation of game consoles that will come out towards the end of the year is fairly enticing, such as hardware-level ray tracing support and solid state drive (SSD) storage for faster game loads. But what about the features we do not know about yet? There will inevitably be some surprises, and Sony in particular is hinting at novel things to come that have not been revealed.
Even before we get to that, we know the PlayStation 5 will feature custom silicon from AMD, with Zen 2 CPU cores working on concert with a Navi GPU. The latter is presumed to be based on Navi 20, as both Sony and Microsoft confirmed that their respective next-gen consoles will support ray tracing on the hardware level, a feature that is currently not available on any Navi GPUs for the PC.
Solid state storage will round things out, as both consoles finally leave behind slower mechanical hard disk drive (HDD) storage (unless HDDs show up on cheaper versions of the PS5 and Xbox Series X). Sony in particular has really hyped the benefits of moving to an SSD, and we'll have to wait and see just how much of an impact it makes.
Beyond what we already know, however, PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan told Business Insider in Japan that even bigger announcements are coming.
"There's more to the PS5 than the traditional game consoles that are unique. We haven't announced [the] bigger differences yet," Ryan said.
Ryan did not offer up any specifics, so we are left to wonder and speculate what additional features and capabilities the PS5 might bring to the table. However, he did double down on the PS5 looking beyond just having faster hardware and calling it a day.
"With every new console, the processor and graphics get better, which is, of course, compelling, but also needs a special appeal," Ryan said.
It's going to be interesting to see what finally arrives at the end of the year, from both Sony and Microsoft. As it relates to the PS5, Sony recently confirmed it will feature backwards compatibility with at least the PlayStation 4. Sony also talked about the PS5 being easier to develop games for, compared to prior generation PS consoles.
Barring an unforeseen delay, the PS5 will launch in holiday 2020.
