In something of a bolt out of the blue, Sony has opened up about its next-gen plans and revealed a deluge of tech-specs and juicy details about the work-in-progress PlayStation 5.
According to an interview between Wired and chief system architect Mark Cerny, the next-gen console — which isn’t officially called the PS5 — will support 8K graphics, 3D audio, a lightning quick SSD, and backwards compatibility with PS4 titles.
For those devs looking for a more technical breakdown, Cerny explained the next-gen box will feature an eight-core CPU based on the third generation of AMD’s Ryzen Line, a custom-built Radeon Navi GPU that’ll support ray tracing, and a custom unit for 3D audio that will apparently “redefine” game audio.
Perhaps the most interesting thing about the PS5 is the inclusion of a SSD (solid-state drive). Cerny says the console will pack a “specialized” SSD that will dramatically reduce load times, and noted it was one of the most requested features from a dev standpoint.
To highlight the benefits of an SSD, he booted up Marvel’s Spider-Man on a next-gen devkit, which is only an early “load speed” version, and compared its performance with that of the PS4 version.
On the current-get console, fast-traveling across Manhattan took around 15 seconds, while on the new console the exact same journey took all of 0.8 seconds. It also allowed the game world itself to be rendered at much faster speeds, without any drop-off in visual quality.
Although Cerny couldn’t reveal any more technical details, he did reassure PlayStation VR owners that the headset would continue to be supported by the next-gen machine. There was also the hint of a suggestion that long-gestating titles, like Hideo Kojima’s bizarre babysitting sim Death Stranding, might soon become generation-spanning titles.
Beyond that, there was no word as to when the PS5 will actually hit shelves, although Cerny did at least rule out a 2019 release. For more details on the console, be sure to check out the full Wired interview.