AT last we finally know what the Sony PlayStation 5 console looks like, thanks to this morning’s live-stream.
Opinions on the sci-fi design – which has been compared to a wireless router, a coffee machine, and a space heater, among other things – has been somewhat mixed.
Personally, I rather like it, since I love all that World Of Tomorrow stuff and am partial to anything that looks like it belongs in the Aperture Science HQ, but its distinct appearance has made more than a few people online raise their eyebrows too.
Also unveiled were the official accessories accompanying the console at launch; notably including the Pulse 3D wireless headset, a 1080p camera, a remote control for media playback etc, and a charging station for two of the console’s DualSense wireless controllers.
As well as seeing the console and its accessories, several games were announced, ranging from the “definitely interested me” (Stray, DeathLoop) to the “Not my thing at all” (Horizon Forbidden West, Goodbye Volcano High) to the “Why are they bothering? (Grand Theft Auto V, which is a seven year old game originally released on the PlayStation 3, for smeg’s sake).
What Sony did not announce, however, was a price, meaning the speculation over how much the unit will actually cost (particularly in Australia) is likely to continue for some time yet.
Hoped-for official confirmation of backwards compatibility with PlayStation 4 peripherals (such as the DualShock controller) was also absent from the announcement, but Sony have said they “will announce pricing and additional details for PlayStation 5 at a later date” so it remains a distinct possibility.
It has also previously been confirmed there will be backwards compatibility with at least the top 100 PlayStation 4 games, showing Sony have learnt some lessons from the PlayStation 4 launch (the console is unable to play its predecessors discs).
Sony Interactive Entertainment president Jim Ryan said the company was “making a significant leap to deliver a truly new generation of transformative play experiences that will redefine expectations for what games can be” with the PlayStation 5.
“Worlds will be richer and more beautiful, they’ll captivate your senses in ways you didn’t think possible, and you’ll be able to experience them much more seamlessly, with lightning fast loading.
“Today’s showcase is just a glimpse of what’s to come in the next generation, and we want to thank our community for taking this journey to PS5’s launch with us.”
The technical specifications of the PlayStation 5 were announced back in March, and are known to include a custom AMD central processor chip and an AMD graphics processor unit, backed by 16GB of RAM. Storage will be provided by a Solid State Drive (SSD) and the console will also have a 4K Ultra HD Blu-Ray player in it as well; there will also be a version with no disc drive.
As part of the announcement, Sony also unveiled a range of launch titles for the console, both from their own studios and third party creators.
Among the major games announced were action-adventure title Marvel’s Spider-Man Miles Morales, racing simulator Gran Turismo 7, adventure game Horizon Forbidden West (a sequel to the acclaimed Horizon Zero Dawn), the supernaturally-themed Ghostwire Tokyo and cat-centred game Stray.
All of them have been reportedly been designed and optimised to take full advantage of the PlayStation 5’s capabilities and I was certainly impressed by a few of them, so there’s a lot to look forward to later on this year.
