Now that we’ve seen PS5, there are some questions and things we can infer from the June 11, 2020 announcement. So let’s dive in!
A tale of Two Consoles
Enough said right? There are two consoles – the Playstation 5 and the Playstation 5 Digital Edition.
The main apparent difference between the two consoles is the lack of an optical drive on the Digital Edition. Otherwise they consoles physically look identical. I wouldn’t expect any other hardware differences though.
The Ecosystem
Sony went further by showing off all the official accessories and there are some good ones! So let’s break it down…
There are the obvious ones we’ve seen before – Dualsense, Headphones and a camera for motion tracking (and now recording!).
I’m super happy to see a 2 controller charger being an official accessory from Sony. This has been lacking in previous Playstation consoles (3 and 4) and gamers had to resort to third party solutions. When you’ve got wireless controllers, you need to consider this.
A media remote! This was completely omitted from the PS4 console because of a focus on gaming over media hub. I’m going to quote the Playstation 4 announcement here:
…PS4 offers an expansive gaming ecosystem that is centered on gamers, enabling them to play when, where and how they want.
There was a deliberate effort to depart from Playstation being a gaming and media hub. PS3 did both really well and PS4 focused on being the best gaming platform, period.
With Playstation 5, it appears that the inclusion of a 4K Ultra Bluray drive and media remote means Sony is pivoting back towards being the best of both realms.
The big omission
Now…who noticed what’s missing from the ecosystem? That’s right, there is no refresh to PSVR for the PS5 as of yet. I’m not sure what that means for VR gamers but this was a notable omission from yesterdays lineup.
Dualsense
It looks good and looks identical to what we’ve seen previous to yesterday.
It looks sleek. There’s a charging station. It has a built-in mic. What more can I say? Oh, new name!
