Sony's PlayStation 5 finally has a release date – “Holiday 2020” (aka the 2020 summer holiday period in the Southern Hemisphere).
Sony Interactive Entertainment president and CEO Jim Ryan announced the changes overnight New Zealand time, and he says that the company will start to reveal more details about the console.
Sony originally teased the world with glimpses of the PlayStation 5 back in April this year, but now Sony is making the release date official – along with details of a brand new controller and touch systems.
The controller will swap out the ‘rumble technology' for haptic feedback (touch sensations) which means players will feel much more feedback when they crash in a racecar or make a tackle on the field.
“You can even get a sense for a variety of textures when running through fields of grass or plodding through mud,” says Ryan.
He adds that the switch to haptic feedback is all about giving players deeper immersion in games – and touch is a way to add to that immersion.
The PlayStation 5 controller will also feature more resistance on the L2 and R2 trigger buttons.
This will allow developers to program trigger resistance, so that players can feel more tactile sensations, like drawing a bow.
“In combination with the haptics, this can produce a powerful experience that better simulates various actions. Game creators have started to receive early versions of the new controller, and we can't wait to see where their imagination goes with these new features at their disposal,” says Ryan.
Wired Magazine also hinted at the PlayStation 5's support for ray-tracing, plus an onboard solid-state drive (SSD), and an optical drive that is also a 4K Blu-Ray drive.
That's as much as Sony is saying about the PlayStation 5 for the moment, but it's still keen to promote new games coming to the PlayStation 4 while people wait.
Ryan says that Death Stranding, The Last of Us Part II,and Ghost of Tsushima are all on the horizon for keen PS4 players.
“I'd like to thank all PlayStation fans for continuing the journey with us, as we embark on the future of games,” Ryan concludes.
*Ed note: Story image is not of the PlayStation 5 controllers.