(October 8, 2019) Earlier today, Sony’s President & CEO (Jim Ryan) released a PlayStation 5 update, linking to an exclusive article published by WIRED Magazine online. In the update, Ryan said the forthcoming console is on schedule to launch prior to the Holidays 2020, and included several technical details about a new controller design. The new controller will replace Sony’s traditional rumble feedback technology with a more nuanced “haptic” feedback system. The result will be broadly different tactile responses to what’s happening during a game. Ryan also says that the L2/R2 trigger buttons will be “adaptive,” allowing designers to program sensations of resistance specific to items used within a game.
According to WIRED, the PlayStation 5 will house a functional 4K Blu-ray player that also serves as an optical drive for 100-GB optical game discs. This is huge news for gamers that have longed for a PlayStation console that can also playback 4K movies.
For more detail, read Sony’s letter with an embedded WIRED link, below.
An Update on Next-Gen: PlayStation 5 Launches Holiday 2020
Jim Ryan President & CEO, SIE
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 a story that posted this morning.
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.
