PlayStation 5 Finally Gets Official Name And Release Window
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Featured Image Credit: Sony
Despite confirming a number of impressive specs for its next-gen console back in April this year, Sony chose to remain strangely tight-lipped on the matter of what the fifth PlayStation console is actually called - until now. You probably won't be too surprised to learn that the console we've all been referring to as the PlayStation 5 in lieu of an official name will in fact be called... the PlayStation 5.
It's not much of a shocker, I know, and you probably already assumed that's what the next-gen PlayStation was always going to be called, but Sony's previous refusal to just come out and call it by its name had some convinced that it was going to be christened something needlessly weird like the PlayStation X or the Super PlayStation.
The (admittedly expected) news comes via a PlayStation blog post, which also finally confirmed one other key piece of information: a release window for the PS5. Again, as I think we all expected, the next generation of PlayStation is aiming for a Q4 2020 release, which sees it once again go head-to-head with Microsoft and Xbox Scarlett, which is gunning for the "Holiday" 2020 period.
As PlayStation President Jim Ryan notes in the blog post, "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."
Having an official release window also means that we can probably expect a lot more information regarding the PlayStation 5 to emerge in the coming months. It might also mean that the previously leaked (but completely unverified) PS5 reveal event in February is actually legit.
For now, we'll just have to be content with the knowledge that the PlayStation 5 is officially launching Q4 2020, which means the console could arrive anytime between October 1 and December 31. Given the Xbox Scarlett's window of Holiday 2020, we can likely narrow it down to late November, early December, though.
In the same blog post, Ryan also briefly touched on two new features that we can expect from the PS5 controller - haptic feedback (replacing the traditional rumble) and adaptive triggers.
"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," Ryan explains. "You can even get a sense for a variety of textures when running through fields of grass or plodding through mud."
Adaptive triggers, meanwhile, mean that developers will be able to program the resistance of the shoulder buttons (L2/R2), so that you can "feel the tactile sensation of drawing a bow and arrow or accelerating an off-road vehicle through rocky terrain."
Ryan hopes that these new features will work together to create powerful, immersive experiences for the PS5. This, coupled with the already-confirmed ray-tracing for more realistic audio and visual, should help to make the upcoming PlayStation home to some really unique experiences.
Topics: PlayStation 5, PS5, PlayStation, PS4
