PS5 full specs released

Matching their Xbox Series X article, Eurogamer has posted PS5 specs.

TL;DR - Less FLOPy than Series X, but more I/O bandwidth. Able to use off-the-shelf NVMe drives for expansion, but with a bunch of caveats. The data transfer rate of this thing is going to be nuts.

So now I'm wondering if the PS5 will be a tad cheaper than the Xbox SX.

It seems like Sony is using more custom hardware than MS, so I suspect PS5 might be more expensive to produce. But how they choose to price the hardware is anyone's guess. Either or both could be willing to take a loss. Or not.

No full PS4 BC sucks. I'm not building another separate digital library. I thought we were going to be past that.

@liquiddragon: how I read it was that they were working through each ps4 game testing each for compatibility. More would come later

@themaxdaddy: Ofc more will come but they didn't commit to anything. It's wishywashy nonsense. How are they not committing to near-full BC for PS4.

I'm glad to see the two companies taking different approaches in their quest for power and speed. I really don't know which one will come out on top technologically speaking, but both seem impressive in their own ways.

The amount of custom hardware in the PS5 seems to negate the talk of a big price gap between it and the Xbox Series X. Looking at PC part prices, NVMe drives comparable to the ones Sony are using seem to be 100-200 euros more expensive than the ones Microsoft opted for.

I might be being a bit pessimistic here but I feel like the first hundred PS4 games that Sony mentioned will be available for BC at launch will not include games like Bloodborne. They will be compelled to sell a Re-Master simply because they know that even if people complain they will still buy it.

Specs aren't really doing much for me on this decision.

But like.. no real solution to game pass and limited backwards compatibility? That's rough.

I've read a lot of talk about how the SSD speed will revolutionize future game design by having less artificial loading zones and such but as always we will see how this technology will actually function in the wild. The cell processor was supposed to be revolutionary and it turned out to be a massive headache.

EDIT: Also this presentation and a lot of Sony's moves as of late are eerily starting to resemble the old Sony that didn't know how to interact with their own customers. Microsoft has course corrected their messaging and are now doing great. E3 just got cancelled and Sony is dropping this extremely niche tech conference when everyone is starved for some basic info about their upcoming console. It's the type of communication blunder you'd see in the PS3 days.

Well, judging by Cerny's intro, it sounds like this talk was supposed to be at GDC and not really for the consumer.

Always thought the PS5 would be slightly weaker but the SSD in the PS5 sounds nuts, I might start to believe we'll see an end to load screens. Now I'm not so sure it'll be cheaper.

Soooo... Backwards compatibility for PS1, 2, 3 and 4 when?!

4 in stages. Each game has to be individually evaluated.

1,2,3 was always a pipe dream.

I’m surprised they haven’t invested in emulation.

I wouldn't rule out PS1/PS2 backwards compatibility yet. As others have said, this presentation was unnecessarily hyped. It was initially intended for developers. I thought it was fascinating, but I guess disappointing for the general audience who wants to know about features, form factor, and see gameplay examples. Especially after Microsoft did most of that a couple days ago.

Seems like Sony is still way behind on the info reveal curve. Still, I'm very excited. Both machines sound like they'll be amazing.

Just go full backwards to make up for the optics of less teraflops.

I'm not a very technical person, so I can't claim to understand most of what was in these presentations, but it does seem like this time around, the XBOX and PS5 are actually going for pretty different design philosophies out of the gate. As opposed to the current gen, where it seemed like the boxes were broadly similar except for Microsoft boning the messaging.

At this early stage, I'd say I'm leaning ever so slightly towards Microsoft, since they've seemed to focus more on the practical gaming component of things, with backwards compatibility and streaming and such. Some of the Sony stuff sounds cool, but I kind of doubt its applicability to the real world. I mean, sure, it's cool that the load times are nearly instant and all, but if they are already talking it up as being so fast that devs might need to artificially slow it down, then you have to wonder if its overkill.

@humanity: It definitely reminded me of those 00's E3s where the first part was all pie graphs and there was this "finish your vegetables" attitude.

Personally I think the systems won't be all that different in execution. I think both sound pretty promising but Microsoft has a better package now.

My main worry is actually tying some things into last gen still. Streaming stuff seems like it could really benefit say open world games but if they are still developing games that can support switching between say Xbox One and Xbox Series X versions that seems like it would limit the ceiling of what can change.

I have no idea what's going on inside Sony, but I just don't see many signals they care about multi-generational backward compatibility. As a company, they don't appear to believe demand for it is worth the investment. And they're probably right.

Sony clarified PS4 BC on PS5

"A quick update on backward compatibility – With all of the amazing games in PS4’s catalog, we’ve devoted significant efforts to enable our fans to play their favorites on PS5. We believe that the overwhelming majority of the 4,000+ PS4 titles will be playable on PS5.

We’re expecting backward compatible titles will run at a boosted frequency on PS5 so that they can benefit from higher or more stable frame rates and potentially higher resolutions. We’re currently evaluating games on a title-by-title basis to spot any issues that need adjustment from the original software developers.

In his presentation, Mark Cerny provided a snapshot into the Top 100 most-played PS4 titles, demonstrating how well our backward compatibility efforts are going. We have already tested hundreds of titles and are preparing to test thousands more as we move toward launch. We will provide updates on backward compatibility, along with much more PS5 news, in the months ahead. Stay tuned!"

@liquiddragon: This is basically what i took from his backwards compatibility talk in the presentation. He talked up how well AMD did keeping the chip compatible with PS4 games, people where reading way too far into the "most of these 100 games" comment. Even the PS2 and PS3 had some problems with a few games here and there with there backwards compatibility (late model PS2's even had problems with PS2 games), but most problems where minor or for a handful of games.

Its probably going to be the same for PS5. A large percentage of games will be fine and hopefully work with boost mode, but a few will have problems with boost mode, some glitches and maybe some will just not work without a patch. But Sony cant promise all games because its almost certainly not going to be %100, and are going to test em and see what the real percentages are and patch as needed.

Im still hoping they get some form of PS1 and PS2 emulation in there, not just the PS4 ports. And PS3 would be awesome but im not holding my breath.

and as far as the new SSD's go, im all for it. The massive load times for games like GTA and The Division are a little absurd at this point. And if it can help with the slightly annoying patches all the better. The 3D audio will be nice, but its not one of the things im really hyped for at the moment. Just hope its $500 or less, that $600 PS3 launch price was a no go for me.

The revamped PS Now is there solution to game pass. They lowered the price and added the ability to download PS4 games to the console and give online play with the PS Now games, and you still get the steaming side of it for PC or old PS3 games. They really need to get there marketing team to start showing it off, because i think most people still think of it as that bad expensive streaming rental service from when it launched. But i don't see Sony tossing first party titles on there day one like Microsoft has, and Game Pass has had newer games on it sooner, so there are a few things they need to play catch up on.

Below are two very good videos about the consoles. The first video is a fair look at both consoles, but shows fair pessimesim for Sony plan. I present it because AdoreTV backs up his conclusions and his a diliegent researcher on his videos. I might add that the author says players might not even notice the difference between tehy two conoles. The second video is a pretty stocks Digital Foundery video; but like it or not, BOTH Sony and Microspft share far documentionand, hands on time, and phone interviews with DF than anyone else.

AdoredTV: Consoles - Analysing the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 Reveals.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkd7wR69WYA

DF Direct: PlayStation 5 - The Official Specs, The Tech + Mark Cerny's Next-Gen Vision

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4higSVRZlkA

^ This some kind of news/marketing bot? lol