Sony has finally revealed the details of its long-awaited PlayStation 5 console. The PS5 will be available in the UK from 19th November 2020 and will cost £449.99, with a cheaper ‘Digital Edition’ available for £359.99.
Sony’s PS5 Showcase put to rest rumours about the cost, release date and specs of the next-generation console, giving gamers a glimpse of what they can expect from what’s sure to be a wildly popular console.
Here’s what we know about the PlayStation 5:
PS5 release date
As mentioned, the PS5 release date is 19th November 2020 with pre-orders available now. This is over a week after the planned release of the Xbox Series X and Series S consoles.
See you in November! pic.twitter.com/CjrQ65rJ5a
— PlayStation (@PlayStation) September 16, 2020
The PS5 release date means that it will be launched alongside several highly-anticipated games all due for release in November. These include Cyberpunk 2077, Call of Duty Black Ops: Cold War and Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla. The early November release also means that the PS5 will be out in time for the Black Friday sales, but will be far enough ahead of time to still get plenty of attention.
PS5 price
There are two versions of the PS5 set for release in November. The standard console will cost £449.99 and the disc-less PS5 Digital Edition will cost £359.99.
This makes the PS5 £100 more expensive than the PS4 when it first launched back in 2013 and exactly the same price as the upcoming Xbox Series X.
The PS5 Digital Edition is Sony’s more affordable option, with a price tag of £359.99. This is over £100 more than Microsoft’s lower-cost option of the Xbox Series S, however, the specs for the PS5 Digital Edition show that it still features the same power and performance of the main console, just without the disc-drive.
A first look at Fortnite gameplay on #PS5, powered by Unreal Engine 4.
Available free to play at launch. pic.twitter.com/aFGFs4u7nX
— PlayStation (@PlayStation) September 16, 2020
PS5 games
Sony has been working hard to stock up its PS5 games line-up, with plenty of new titles on the horizon. Speaking of which, the sequel to Horizon Zero Dawn, Horizon Forbidden West, looks set to make full use of the console’s next-gen visuals. The preview featured sun-kissed beaches and tropical reefs, complete with the robot dinosaurs that terrorised the original game.
Some of the other major titles that Sony is proudly plugging are Spider-Man: Miles Morales, the long-rumoured Demon’s Soul PS5 remake, and the return of the Resident Evil franchise with Resident Evil 8: Village.
PS5 will also include immediate access to the PlayStaion Plus Collection which will allow you to digitally download and play some of the most popular PS4 titles the moment you get your shiny new PS5, including games like Persona 5 and God of War.
PS5 Specs
Sony revealed many of the PS5 specs at its first official reveal event back in March and confirmed what’s under the hood last night. Probably the most important detail is the console’s SSD internal storage of 825GB. This will allow for bigger open worlds and will let system memory be managed more effectively.
SSDs load a lot faster and have more bandwidth than traditional hard drives (HDDs) so that data can be loaded when it’s needed rather than loading unnecessary data onto the console’s RAM.
Overview of the PS5 specs
CPU: AMD Zen 2-based CPU with 8 cores at 3.5GHz (variable frequency) GPU: 10.28 TFLOPs, 36 CUs at 2.23GHz (variable frequency) GPU architecture: Custom RDNA 2 Memory interface: 16GB GDDR6 / 256-bit Memory bandwidth: 448GB/s Internal storage: Custom 825GB SSD IO throughput: 5.5GB/s (raw), typical 8-9GB/s (compressed) Expandable storage: NVMe SSD slot External storage: USB HDD support (PS4 games only) Optical drive: 4K UHD Blu-ray drive
PS5 Digital Edition
The PS5 Digital Edition follows the trend of moving away from traditional physical games, with the disc-less console relying solely on downloads for gameplay. And while this will certainly make swapping games with friends much more difficult (possibly a driving rationale behind the move) it does allow the hardware to be slightly more affordable without sacrificing any quality and power from your console — unlike the Xbox Series S which delivers lower-resolution graphics than its more expensive counterpart, the Series X.
Another key difference between the PS5 and the new Xbox consoles is access to a gaming streaming service. Microsoft’s Game Pass Ultimate subscription service gives gamers unlimited access to its collection of games for one monthly price. When asked by the BBC, PlayStation’s chief executive Jim Ryan stated that “PlayStation was about big blockbuster games that cost a lot to make, so a similar subscription service model would not make financial sense.”
We’ll see if the success of similar gaming streaming services makes PlayStation change their minds in the future.
Getting the best broadband for gaming
The increasing reliance on digital downloads and streaming services in gaming means that run-of-the-mill broadband just won’t do for hardcore gamers.
In order to make sure you’re never stuck waiting days for the latest title to download or having to deal with a frustrating lag, get yourself fibre broadband with speeds of at least 59Mbps.
