Well in perhaps the most lost key confirmation of perhaps the worst kept secret right now, Sony have chosen today to confirm that the PlayStation 5 will indeed be released in Holiday (Christmas) 2020.
PlayStation 5 launches holiday 2020: https://t.co/RgVPQBw9t0 #PS5 pic.twitter.com/341ljxdAVI
— PlayStation Europe ? (@PlayStationEU) October 8, 2019
A new statement was released today on the Official PlayStation Blog, giving fans an ‘update’ on the next generation PlayStation console:
‘Since we originally unveiled our next-generation console in April, we know that there’s been a lot of excitement and interest in hearing more about what the future of games will bring. Today I’m proud to share that our next-generation console will be called PlayStation 5, and we’ll be launching in time for Holiday 2020.
These updates may not be a huge surprise, but we wanted to confirm them for our PlayStation fans, as we start to reveal additional details about our vision for the next generation. WIRED magazine covered these updates and more in .
The “more” refers to something I’m quite excited about – a preview of the new controller that will ship with PlayStation 5. One of our goals with the next generation is to deepen the feeling of immersion when you play games, and we had the opportunity with our new controller to reimagine how the sense of touch can add to that immersion.
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. Game creators have started to receive early versions of the new controller, and we can’t wait to see where their imagination goes with these new features at their disposal.
While there’s much more to share about PlayStation 5 in the year ahead, we have plenty of blockbuster experiences coming your way on PS4, including Death Stranding, The Last of Us Part II, and Ghost of Tsushima. I’d like to thank all PlayStation fans for continuing the journey with us, as we embark on the future of games.”
Looking at the Wired article and it comes across that Sony is looking to compete with the Xbox Scarlett, also releasing end of 2020, and going into a little more detail about improvements to the PS4 controller does seem as though they are looking to bring in some features more commonly seen on a “Pro” custom controller.
So there we have it, PS5 will launch in the same window as the Xbox Scarlet console, which will probably have a far more marketable name by then. Interesting to see Sony just putting this update out there to compliment in WIRED today, they did skip E3 altogether this year as they felt they had nothing to show and now in October, they have yet to announced their usually annual special event, PlayStation Experience after it skipped 2018’s normal December slot.
Next generation of console gaming is now just 14 months way so we can expect to start seeing more details of the next gen PlayStation and Xbox consoles soon and I do wonder if Microsoft will Utilise XO19 in London this November to showcase more of their own Xbox Scarlet and if Sony will respond with a surprise PlayStation Experience event.
