Since Sony originally unveiled their next-generation console in April, they know that there’s been a lot of excitement and interest in hearing more about what the future of games will bring.
On Tuesday, President & CEO, SIE, Jim Ryan, said, “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 Ryan wanted to confirm them for the PlayStation fans, as they start to reveal additional details about the 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,” said Ryan.
To that end, there are two key innovations with the PlayStation 5’s new controller. First, they are adopting haptic feedback to replace the “rumble” technology found in controllers since the 5th generation of consoles. With haptics, a player truly feels 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. A player can even get a sense of a variety of textures when running through fields of grass or plodding through mud.
The second innovation is something they call adaptive triggers, which have been incorporated into the trigger buttons (L2/R2). Developers can program the resistance of the triggers so that a player feels 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 Ryan said they 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, they have plenty of blockbuster experiences coming to users 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.
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