PlayStation 5

The PlayStation 5 (PS5) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced in 2019 as the successor to the PlayStation 4, the PS5 was released on November 12, 2020 in Australia, Japan, New Zealand, North America, Singapore and South Korea. Worldwide released followed a week later. The PlayStation 5 along with Microsoft's Xbox Series X and Series S consoles, released the same month, are part of the ninth generation of video game consoles.

The platform was launched in two variants: a base model with an Ultra HD Blu-ray-compatible optical disc drive, and a Digital Edition lacking this drive, serving as a lower-cost model for those who prefer to buy games through digital download.

The PlayStation 5's main features include a solid-state drive customized for high-speed data streaming to enable significant improvements in storage performance, an AMD GPU capable of 4K resolution display at up to 120 frames per second, hardware-accelerated ray tracing for realistic lighting and reflections, the Tempest Engine allowing for hardware-accelerated 3D audio effects, and backward compatibility with most PlayStation 4 and PlayStation VR games.

Games

Each PlayStation 5 console comes pre-installed with Astro's Playroom, a game designed to serve as a demonstration of the DualSense controller.[65] Games are not region-locked, so games purchased in one region can be played on consoles in all regions.

Sony announced its concurrent responsibilities of supporting the PlayStation 4 community, and embracing the PlayStation 5 as a major technological advancement. In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Ryan stated "We have always said that we believe in generations. We believe that when you go to all the trouble of creating a next-gen console, that it should include features and benefits that the previous generation does not include. And that, in our view, people should make games that can make the most of those features."[66] Discussing the capabilities of the DualSense controller with Geoff Keighley, General manager Eric Lempel affirmed that Sony "want[s] to evolve every part of the experience", but for that to happen "we can't take everybody with us from previous consoles into [a next generation experience]. You need new hardware, you need new devices to experience what these developers want you to experience."[67][68] Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart was highlighted as a next-generation game that is not technically possible on older hardware. Lempel assured Keighley that interest in PlayStation 4 will not end abruptly, with more to come.

Sony's definition of consoles as distinct generations had been widely interpreted as an era-defining shift to PS5-exclusive games that exploit the console's capabilities instead of releasing cross-generation games that play across both PlayStation consoles. Ryan said that there should be no disappointment as the PS5 versions take advantage of the console's advanced feature set and that PS4 versions can be freely upgraded. Few major games such as Horizon Forbidden West are developed as concurrent releases for PS4 and PS5, and Sony supports any publisher that wants to offer enhanced versions of PS4 games at no additional cost.

Eurogamer reported that Sony's certification program as of May 2020 required PS4 games, submitted for certification after July 13, 2020, to be natively compatible with the PlayStation 5.