It’s no secret that sales of gaming consoles and hardware have been down as players look ahead to next-gen systems. Today, we finally have an answer as to when one of the most-anticipated new consoles will hit the streets: Sony Playstation 5 (PS5).
Announced in April as an “unnamed new console,” the PS5 will be released for the 2020 holiday season. And yes, that’s the name, a simple, straight-to-the-point successor in the lineage of a platform that’s been hooking gamers since 1994. Just Playstation 5, with no additional code names or gimmicks.
Details are still light, but Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan says that one of the big innovations for the PS5 will be a new controller.
“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,” Ryan says.
The new controller will feature haptic feedback to replace the famous rumble technology featured in the controllers that most players are familiar with.
“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 says. “You can even get a sense for a variety of textures when running through fields of grass or plodding through mud.”
Additionally, the controllers will include “adaptive triggers,” which have been incorporated into the trigger buttons (L2/R2). With this new tech, 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.”
More details on the next-gen machine will be revealed in the months ahead.
Photo: Sony Interactive Entertainment
