PlayStation 5 Release Confirmed For Holiday 2020: What We Know

More details about the next PlayStation landed today, including two big ones: its official name and the release window that Sony is targeting. Sony revealed today that the next PlayStation will indeed be called the PlayStation 5, and while that's probably an obvious decision given the naming convention Sony has to stuck to for the past 20 years, it's good to have that official confirmation nonetheless.

The company also revealed that it's targeting a holiday 2020 release for the PlayStation 5, though it didn't get any more specific than that and likely won't for a while. From the start, a holiday 2020 release seemed likely for the PlayStation 5, as it allows the console a start strong during one of the most important periods of the year. It's worth pointing out that Microsoft is also targeting a holiday 2020 release for Project Scarlett, so we may see these two consoles launch in close proximity to one another.

While Sony isn't quite ready to show off PlayStation 5 hardware just yet, it did dish new details on the controller that will accompany the console. The controller doesn't have an official name just yet, but it'll probably be called the DualShock 5. These new details were shared in an interview with Wired, just as the first details about the PlayStation 5 itself were back in April.

In Wired's interview, there are two key takeaways about the PlayStation 5's controller, with the first being that haptic feedback will replace the rumble function we're used to seeing. The idea is that players will be able to feel a broader range of sensations while playing a game. Some of the demos Wired was taken through included walking through sand, mud, and ice, which each one giving different feedback using this new haptic functionality.

Secondly, the DualShock 5 will use "adaptive triggers," as Sony calls them, which allow developers to customize the level of resistance players feel when they press them. The functionality offered by these triggers kind of goes hand-in-hand with the controller's haptic feedback capabilities, as you'll feel different tactile responses depending on what you're doing in-game.

The controller wasn't the only thing Sony talked about in its info drop to Wired. PS5 system architect Mark Cerny and Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan gave us more details about the console, with Cerny clarifying that the PS5 will be capable of hardware-based ray tracing. We also learned that PS5 games will ship on 100GB optical discs, and that the PS5 will be able to play 4K Blu-Rays – something neither the standard PS4 nor the PS4 Pro can do.

The PS5 will also allow players to customize their game installs. For instance, for some games players may be able to choose to only install the multiplayer component of it, or install the whole thing and delete the single-player portion when they're finished with it, leaving multiplayer installed and ready to play. The PlayStation 5's UI will also surface information about games without requiring that players boot them up first.

"Multiplayer game servers will provide the console with the set of joinable activities in real time," Cerny told Wired. "Single-player games will provide information like what missions you could do and what rewards you might receive for completing them — and all of those choices will be visible in the UI. As a player you just jump right into whatever you like."

All in all, it sounds like the PlayStation 5 is shaping up to be quite the console. Obviously, we won't know what the console is truly capable of until it's actually here, but the focus Sony is putting into the PS5's SSD certainly sounds great. With around a year left before the PS5 is on shelves, we'll look forward to plenty more information about it, so stay tuned for that.