It’s official. Sony’s ‘next generation console’ is now officially named PlayStation 5, it’s coming at the tail-end of 2020, it has a fascinating series of controller upgrades vs the established Dual Shock 4 – and if it wasn’t already clear, the bespoke solid-state storage solution is going to be a game-changer. These are the key takeaways from the latest Wired magazine exclusive, which tells us much about the new system while at the same time keeping the vast majority of its technological secrets under wraps. Look closer though and there’s plenty of ‘buried treasure’ – small facts and asides that put a lot of the recent leaks into context.
In lieu of specs, we get to understand a little more of Sony’s next generation vision. Immersion seems to be the key theme surrounding the new controller for PlayStation 5, which we’re told looks very similar to the existing Dual Shock 4, albeit with an ‘extra hole’ which Wired author, Peter Rubin, believes may be a microphone for a voice activated assistant. Mark Cerny shut down that particular avenue of investigation but what was prepared to share was certainly interesting – and it’s all about receiving more feedback from the game via your interaction with the controller.
There’s a description of how the user can feel more closely connected with in-game environments via their ‘feel’, delivered with Sony’s take on the precision HD rumble feature built into Switch’s Joy-Cons. And then there’s the evolution of the triggers, which can now provide varying levels of resistance, likened to the increasing tension offered by a bow as you pull the drawstring. Interesting stuff, but also welcome are a couple of quality of life improvements – a shift to USB-C for wired connectivity and charging, along with a larger capacity battery. At the same time we’re told that the new pad remains lighter than an Xbox pad (with batteries inserted).
There’s welcome confirmation of hardware-accelerated ray tracing features in the PS5 graphics core, along with an example from EA chief studio officer Laura Miele of how the technique may be deployed – specifically in calculating more realistic ambient occlusion and ray-traced shadows. We’ve seen these features in some of the Nvidia RTX-supported titles on PC and as a first step into real-time hardware ray tracing, it may not match up to what we’re seeing in PC games like Control, but as with any console, expect to see developers get more from the technology as the generation progresses. In the meantime, a look at Nixxes’ RTX implementation for Shadow of the Tomb Raider may give some idea of the kind of effect Miele is referring to.
It’s interesting to note that Sony still isn’t talking much about the PS5’s GPU or CPU (though eight cores and 16 threads are now officially confirmed), but is very keen indeed to talk more about the SSD and why it is important. Sony believes that its bespoke solution is faster than any PC equivalent, and although not confirmed, I wouldn’t be surprised to see deeper integration at the hardware level, with the solid-state storage modules integrated into the mainboard itself.