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. The PS5 is set to release on November 12 at $499. The PS5 Digital Edition will cost $399 and hit store shelves on the same day.

Coming soon

PS5

$499 at Amazon
$499 at Target
$499 at GameStop

Get your hands on it before it sells out

PS5 is the place to be for exclusives like Spider-Man and Horizon Forbidden West. Get yours before they sell out. The standard PS5 boasts a disc drive so that you can play 4K Blue-ray DVDs and use your physical PS4 games through backward combability. This comes at a higher price tag than the Digital Edition.

All-digital

PS5 Digital Edition

$399 at Amazon
$399 at Target
$399 at GameStop

Get your hands on it before it sells out

Cheaper than the standard PS5 but lacking a disc drive, the PS5 Digital Edition can still deliver the very best exclusives entirely digitally. You may not be able to play physical games, but the future is digital anyway. The PS5 Digital Edition features an 825GB SSD.

PS5 FAQ

• Buy the PS5
• PS5 cost and release date
• PS5 early hands-on impressions
• When’s the next PS5 event?
• PS5 design
• PS5 teardown
• Is there a digital edition PS5?
• PS5 specs
• PS5 games
• Is PS5 backward compatible?
• PS5 PS Plus Collection
• PS5 DualSense controller
• Will the PS5 have a PSVR2?
• PS5 software

Where can I buy a PS5?

There are several retailers currently taking pre-orders so you can buy a PS5 like Amazon, Best Buy, Walmart, Target, GameStop, and more. The PS5 and PS5 Digital Edition are selling out fast so you’ll want to buy as soon as possible. Stores are looking to get more shipments in, but it’s never a guarantee.

Only seven markets will see the PS5 on November 12 — U.S., Japan, Canada, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand and South Korea — while the rest of the world, including Europe, Middle East, South America, Asia, and South Africa, will need to wait until November 19.

What will the PS5 cost and when will it release?

Sony has confirmed that the PS5 will cost $499 ($629.99 CAD) and the PS5 Digital Edition will cost $399 ($499.99 CAD). Microsoft has also revealed that its cheaper Xbox Series S will be $299 and the Xbox Series X will be $499.

The PS5 will release on November 12, 2020. This will be a few days later than the release of the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S on November 10. There have been no publicly revealed delays due to COVID-19 as of yet.

Early hands-on impressions of the PS5

Japanese journalists and YouTuber recently got to go hands-on with the PS5 and walked away with some early impressions. Among what we learned is that the PS5 fan appears to be quiet, the DualSense can indicate whether you are player 1, 2, 3, or 4, and there’s a weird nut in the casing that may be used to take the shell off.

When’s the next PS5 event?

Sony held a PS5 games showcase on September 16 where we learned more about upcoming launch games like Demon’s Souls and Spider-Man: Miles Morales. Final Fantasy 16 and Hogwarts Legacy were also announced, alongside the much-anticipated announcement of the PS5 price and release date.

Sony has yet to announce another event that may take place afterward, but we expect to hear about the PS5’s software and features before it launches in November.

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.

In terms of size, the PS5 is 15.4in x 4.1in x 10.2in. It’s a chonky boy.

PS5 teardown

Sony released an official teardown of the PS5 showing us exactly what’s inside the upcoming console. Most interestingly, we learned that the PS5 uses a liquid metal TIM (thermal interface material) to deliver “long-term stable high cooling” performance in conjunction with its fan and heatsink.

We also got to see how easy it was to remove the side paneling on the PS5, which people had already speculated were removable. After doing so, you can easily upgrade the internal storage by adding an NVMe SSD.

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.

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, Xbox Series S, and PS4 Pro

We still don’t have exact number details on the PS5 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
• Final Fantasy 16
• Fortnite
• Ghostwire: Tokyo
• Godfall
• God of War
• Goodbye Volcano High
• Gran Turismo 7
• Grand Theft Auto V
• Hitman 3
• Hogwarts: Legacy
• Horizon Forbidden West
• Immortals Fenyx Rising
• 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. This feature has not been fully detailed by the company as of yet.

“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.”

Sony confirmed that only the 10 following PS4 titles won’t be backward compatible on PS5:

• DWVR
• Afro Samurai 2 Revenge of Kuma Volume One
• TT Isle of Man – Ride on the Edge 2
• Just Deal With It!
• Shadow Complex Remastered
• Robinson: The Journey
• We Sing
• Hitman Go: Definitive Edition
• Shadwen
• Joe’s Diner

PlayStation Plus Collection on PS5

The PlayStation Plus Collection for PS5, a program that allows members to play select PS4 games on PS5 free with their subscription. While we don’t know all of the games that players can download, we learned of over a dozen so far:

• God of War
• Bloodborne
• Monster Hunter World
• Final Fantasy 15
• Fallout 4
• Mortal Kombat X
• Uncharted 4
• Ratchet & Clank
• Days Gone, Until Dawn
• Detroit
• Battlefield 1
• Infamous: Second Son
• Batman Arkham Knight
• Last Guardian
• The Last of Us: Remastered
• Persona 5
• Resident Evil 7

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. Ahead of its release, Sony gave us our first look at the PlayStation 5 UI. As the company already indicated, it is a lot more dynamic than ever before. Some of its biggest, most notable new features include a Control Center, Activities cards, Game Help, and changes to the way parties work.

With the press of the PS button, you’ll bring up the Control Center while whatever game you are playing continues to run in the background. This is the one stop shop for everything you’ll need to immediately access on your console, including your settings, downloads, friends list, and much more.

The PS5 User interface is much more dynamic.

Activities show up as cards above the Control Center, allowing players to jump into a specific level or point in a game they’re playing. “Activities enables you to discover new gameplay opportunities, go back to things you missed, jump directly into levels or challenges you want to play, and much more. Some Activity cards can be put in picture-in-picture mode, so you can view them without having to leave the game,” according to Sony.

Game Help is a benefit for PlayStation Plus members that allows them to view tips and walkthroughs for certain games. The example shown in the video is a level in Sackboy where it provides hints as to where to complete an objective. This ensures that you aren’t being spoiled and are getting exactly what you’re looking for. Game Help will not be enabled for all games.

Another big change comes to its party system. Players will now be able to Screen Share games they are playing with other members in their party, which those people can then open in a picture-in-picture view or on the side of their own screen.

Coming soon

PS5

$499 at Amazon
$499 at Target
$499 at GameStop

Get your hands on it before it sells out

PS5 is the place to be for exclusives like Spider-Man and Horizon Forbidden West. Get yours before they sell out. The standard PS5 boasts a disc drive so that you can play 4K Blue-ray DVDs and use your physical PS4 games through backward combability. This comes at a higher price tag than the Digital Edition.

All-digital

PS5 Digital Edition

$399 at Amazon
$399 at Target
$399 at GameStop

Get your hands on it before it sells out

Cheaper than the standard PS5 but lacking a disc drive, the PS5 Digital Edition can still deliver the very best exclusives entirely digitally. You may not be able to play physical games, but the future is digital anyway. The PS5 Digital Edition features an 825GB SSD.