Top 5 New Things You Did Not Know About The PS5

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With more information being brought up about the next-generation PlayStation console which we’re calling the PlayStation 5 (PS5), we bring you 5 new things you did not know about the PS5.

5: Ultra fast broadband SSD

While the PS4 and PS4 pro currently use hard drives, the Next Generation PlayStation will use an SSD instead. The main difference between the two is that the SSD takes less time to process data than your typical hard drive. Mark Cerny described the use of an SSD as important as not only would characters be able to load fast, but move faster as in game as well.

During the demonstration with Marvel’s Spider-Man, the game took 8 seconds to load with a PlayStation 4 Pro, while the next-generation (PlayStation 5) was able to load only after 0.8 seconds. While that was impressive on its own, the demonstration continued by moving the camera through the city at breakneck speeds. This showed that the new PlayStation 5 would be able to render games at incredible speeds while being one of the fastest-loading consoles demonstrated.

With these fast rendering speeds, open-world games will definitely see an increase in quality as rendering speed plays a huge role in the process. We don’t want to drive a super-fast car to see the world render around us a few seconds later, it would have to render fast to keep up with in-game speeds. Well with PS5’s new SSD, there should be no problems with rendering speeds

4: Seamless Play Using Cloud

Sony’s President and CEO, Kenichiro Yoshida described that the future direction of PlayStation 5 will be “immersive” and “seamless,” meaning that players can play games at anytime and anywhere without disruption. While this sounds like a portable console much like the Nintendo Switch, Yoshida more than likely is talking about streaming their games to any device from the new PlayStation console.

Now PlayStation is working on a few things like Remote Play and PlayStation Now, both utilizing cloud services. With Remote Play users can play their PlayStation games onto any computer screen this is similar to Microsoft’s xCloud project and Google Stadia, except Remote Play works only through the PC.

With PlayStation Now users can stream any game on the PS Now roster of games with varying quality for free given they bought the service. It has been heard that both of these features were rough around the edges upon release and Sony has been learning on how to make it work through the years. It is very likely that both of these features will make a return with the PlayStation 5 by being either completely revamped and ready for the new generation with an improved cloud system, or build from the ground-up to create something new entirely. We’ll just have to see how they’ll build these features in for the PS5.

3: Collaboration with Microsoft to strengthen future titles

Microsoft and Sony have reached a partnership recently that will strengthen both of their Cloud/Streaming capabilities. That’s right, on May 16^th, Sony President and CEO, Kenichiro Yoshida and CEO of Microsoft, Satya Nadella have made an agreement to partner on, “new innovations to enhance customer experiences in their direct-to-consumer entertainment platforms and AI Solutions.”

They hope that by working together, the companies will deliver more enhanced entertainment experiences for their worldwide customers. This will be beneficial to both parties as they will make use of Microsoft Azure’s cloud capabilities to power both of their future streaming services. Microsoft will work on xCloud and Sony will work on PS4’s streaming capabilities.

For future titles, this could mean that they’re using Microsoft Azure’s cloud and AI capabilities for their future first-party titles. This could mean that work will be done easier and faster due to this partnership’s resources that both Microsoft and Sony can share.

2: Backwards Compatibility is going to be “Incredibly Important.”

The CEO of Sony Interactive entertainment, Jim Ryan went on to explain that the backwards compatibility for the Next-Gen console will be “something that is extremely powerful. It also gives players the opportunity to migrate from PS4 to next-gen while being able to play older games with their existing friends.

Players can imagine that several multiplayer games on the PS4, like Rainbow Six Siege, Red Dead Online, and the Tom Clancy’s The Divison 2 will still be around by the time the Next-Gen console releases. It would be very important to keep the backwards compatibility for those using PS4-gen games in order to bridge the gap between them both. This would create cross-generational gameplay between games

Now cross-generational gameplay is important as maybe some people won’t be able to play the next Call of Duty game if the new PlayStation console required you buy a new disc for the next generation. In fact if the games weren’t Backwards Compatible, players would have to buy the newer, “remastered” version of the game if they can’t run the previous PlayStation 4 version. In any case it would seem that backwards compatibility will be a huge factor for the PlayStation 4 as it make things more “seamless” to consumers with PS4’s.

1: Aims to be more “Publisher Friendly”

According to Ryan, Sony is, “broadly happy” about their ratio of first-party to third-party games in their market. First-party games currently take up 20% of their market while third-party games take up 80%. While it may seem like Sony doesn’t have a lot of first-party support, it actually means that they have enough first-party support already, and that they have the amount of third-party support they need.

Sony sees that they have “critical mass” and gain a return investment on its third-party studios. Since third-parties take 80% market share means that PlayStation is now the “publisher-friendly platform.” Sony has always planned for this ratio, so it’s a success for them. If Sony is known to be “publisher-friendly” this means that the amount of indie games or game publishers will more than likely gravitate towards Sony.

What does this mean for the Next-Gen PlayStation? Well this would mean that PlayStation possibly has plenty of games on the lineup for their platform and if 80% of those games come from a third-party, we can imagine that Sony will give those publishers plenty of support as well. In this case Sony will likely welcome several indie games and small publishers to put their games on PlayStation’s market.