Everything you need to know about the PS5: Release date, price, and more

Sony is gearing up to release the PS5, its most ambitious console to date.

While development on the PS5 has likely been going on for years, Sony has officially confirmed that it’s in the works and is on its way this year. It is expected to release holiday 2020 alongside the Xbox Series X, cost upwards of $450 or $500, and should be fully revealed sometime soon over the summer. Here’s everything we know about the PS5 so far.

Holiday 2020

PlayStation 5

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Get your hands on it before it sells out

The PS5 isn’t available for preorder just yet, but a few retailers are letting fans sign up for notifications so they don’t miss out. It’s unknown what the standard model or Digital Edition will cost, but you should probably start saving up your money.

PS5 FAQ

• PS5 cost and release date
• PS5 design
• Is there a digital edition PS5?
• PS5 specs
• PS5 games
• Is PS5 backward compatible?
• PS5 DualSense controller
• Will the PS5 have a PSVR2?
• PS5 software

What will the PS5 cost and when will it release?

We don’t know the cost for sure, but reports have indicated that Sony is struggling to keep the price down. Apparently, the PS5 cost $450 to make right now (it is unknown if this includes packaging and shipping) due to scarce supplies and a cooling system that is more expensive than usual. There is reportedly some debate within Sony whether or not the PS5 should be sold at a loss. Analysts have speculated that the PS5 will cost $500.

Others have speculated — and Sony itself even indicated as much — that the company is waiting to see what Microsoft will price the Xbox Series X at before committing to a price for the PlayStation 5.

The PlayStation 5 will release Holiday 2020. This coincides with the release of Microsoft’s next Xbox console, Xbox Series X. There have been no publicly revealed delays due to COVID-19 as of yet.

What will the PS5 design look like?

Sony has revealed the official design of the PS5, and it’s looking futuristic and sleek. I’m not exactly sure what it resembles, but I can say I like it a lot more than the Xbox Series X. I can appreciate what Microsoft is offering, but a big, blocky console isn’t all that eye-catching.

Does the PS5 have an all-digital edition?

Yes. Like the Xbox One X all-digital edition, Sony is getting in on the fun with an all-digital edition of the PlayStation 5, dubbed the PS5 Digital Edition, that will not accept discs of any kind. If you want to play games, you’ll need to download them directly to the console. It’s unknown whether it will be less expansive than its sibling.

What are the PS5’s specs?

Sony spoke exclusively with Wired about what fans can expect from the upcoming next-generation PS5.

PS5 CPU

According to PlayStation,, the CPU will be based on AMD’s third-generation Ryzen line, with eight cores of the new 7nm Zen 2 microarchitecture. It will also apparently include a custom unit for 3D audio.

PS5 GPU

The GPU, which is a custom variant of Radeon’s Navi family, will support ray tracing, which is a huge win for Sony. Ray tracing is a rendering technique that models how light travels and interacts with virtual objects. Wired notes that this is something Hollywood employs in big-budget movies, but it has not made its way to any video games consoles yet (although it’s becoming more common with PC games).

PS5 Ray tracing

To clarify whether or not ray tracing would be achieved on a software level or through built-in hardware integration, Sony confirmed the latter. “There is ray tracing acceleration in the GPU hardware,” he said, “which I believe is the statement that people were looking for.”

Ray tracing doesn’t just deliver visual benefits, though, according to PlayStation. “If you wanted to run tests to see if the player can hear certain audio sources or if the enemies can hear the players’ footsteps, ray tracing is useful for that,” he said. “It’s all the same thing as taking a ray through the environment.”

PS5 Solid-state drive

The crème de la crème is that the PS5 will come packed with a solid-state drive (SSD) as opposed to an hard-disk drive (HDD). SSDs are historically more powerful, faster, and make for a much better gaming experience. Sony demonstrated what took 15 seconds to fast travel in Spider-Man on PS4 took only 0.8 seconds on a next-gen devkit. It will even support 8K graphics, though most people will likely have TVs that only deliver up to 4K resolution.

Because more simplified game data is possible through the use of an SSD, the way that game downloads work will differ from the PlayStation 4. On the PS5, downloads will be more configurable, and parts even removable. “Rather than treating games like a big block of data,” PlayStation said, “we’re allowing finer-grained access to the data.”

This means that players could choose to download either the single-player or multiplayer portion of a game depending on what they wanted to play, or they could download the entire game and delete one part of it, like the single-player.

PS5 Specs compared to Xbox Series X and PS4 Pro

We still don’t have exact number details on the PlayStation 5 specs, but we’ll keep you updated on all new info. Here’s how it stacks up against the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 4 Pro based on what we know so far.

What are the games coming to PS5?

Outside of the launch titles like Godfall and Spider-Man: Miles Morales, there’s a decent list of games that have been confirmed for the PS5. Here’s the full list that we know of:

• Assassin’s Creed Valhalla
• Astro’s Playroom
• Bugsnax
• DEATHLOOP
• Demon’s Souls
• Destiny 2
• Destruction AllStars
• DiRT 5
• Dying Light 2
• Fortnite
• Ghostwire: Tokyo
• Godfall
• Gods & Monsters
• Goodbye Volcano High
• Gran Turismo 7
• Grand Theft Auto V
• Hitman 3
• Horizon Forbidden West
• Jett: The Far Shore
• Kena: Bridge of Spirits
• Little Devil Inside
• Lord of the Rings: Gollum
• Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales
• NBA 2K21
• Observer: System Redux
• Oddworld: Soulstorm
• Outriders
• Pragmata
• Project Athia
• Quantum Error
• Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart
• Recompile
• Resident Evil Village
• Returnal
• Roots of Pacha
• Sackboy: A Big Adventure
• Solar Ash
• Scarlet Nexus
• Stray
• Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Quarantine
• Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege
• Ultimate Fishing Simulator 2
• Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2
• Warframe
• Warhammer: Chaosbane
• Watch Dogs Legion
• Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Earthblood
• Worms Rumble
• WRC 9
• Yakuza: Like a Dragon

Is PS5 backward compatible?

PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan has stated that the PlayStation 5 will be backward compatible. Ryan even went so far as to see that the company plans to offer cross-generational play, where players can start a game on PS4, pick up where they left off on PS5, and hop back to PS4 if they wish.

“Whether it’s backwards compatibility or the possibility of cross-generational play, we’ll be able to transition that community to next-gen,” Ryan said. “It won’t be a binary choice about whether you have to be either on PlayStation 4 or next-gen to continue your friendship.”

In a blog post, Sony clarified that it believes “that the overwhelming majority of the 4,000+ PS4 titles will be playable on PS5.”

What is the new PS5 DualSense controller?

The next-generation PlayStation controller is officially called the DualSense. Sony revealed its design in a post on its blog. It features haptic feedback technology, adaptive triggers, a built-in microphone array, and a new Create button to replace the Share button.

To that end, there are two key innovations with the PlayStation 5’s new controller. First, we’re adopting haptic feedback to replace the “rumble” technology found in controllers since the 5th generation of consoles. With haptics, you truly feel a broader range of feedback, so crashing into a wall in a race car feels much different than making a tackle on the football field. You can even get a sense for a variety of textures when running through fields of grass or plodding through mud.

The second innovation is something we call adaptive triggers, which have been incorporated into the trigger buttons (L2/R2). Developers can program the resistance of the triggers so that you feel the tactile sensation of drawing a bow and arrow or accelerating an off-road vehicle through rocky terrain. In combination with the haptics, this can produce a powerful experience that better simulates various actions.

Geoff Keighley went hands-on with the DualSense during the Summer Game Fest and gave us our first look at the controller in action. As you can see in the above image, taken by Keighley, the DualSense appears to be slightly larger than the DualShock 4. Keighley also noted that it feels heavier as well, but this added weight still feels fine to hold.

Will the PS5 support virtual reality?

Though you shouldn’t expect a new VR headset to launch alongside the PlayStation 5, Sony has big plans for virtual reality going forward. Sony Global Head of R&D for PlayStation Dominic Mallinson wants the next headset to be lighter, easier to put on, and have fewer cables. A fully wireless headset is difficult to put on the market right now because it would be more expensive for consumers, but he believes that is the way the market is trending.

Mallinson is excited about the possibilities of eye-tracking, and stated that he expects the resolution to almost double in future VR headsets, with FOV increased to over 120 degrees.

PlayStation System Architect Mark Cerny has also said, “VR is very important to us and that the current PSVR headset is compatible with the new console.”

Sony has patented a new, wireless VR headset however you should still not expect this headset at launch alongside the PlayStation 5.

What will the PS5 user interface look like?

The user interface on the PlayStation 4 is fast and works well, but it’s also static and can not provide a ton of information. The PS5 is set to change this.

“Even though it will be fairly fast to boot games, we don’t want the player to have to boot the game, see what’s up, boot the game, see what’s up,” PlayStation said. “Multiplayer game servers will provide the console with the set of joinable activities in real time. 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.”

Holiday 2020

PlayStation 5

See at Amazon
See at Best Buy
See at Walmart

Get your hands on it before it sells out

The PS5 isn’t available for preorder just yet, but a few retailers are letting fans sign up for notifications so they don’t miss out. It’s unknown what the standard model or Digital Edition will cost, but you should probably start saving up your money.