UPDATE: This has been updated to reflect that the price and dates for the new Xbox One S model are actually for the US. Deets for Australia will be released later.
With critically-acclaimed games like Red Dead Redemption 2 and God Of War pushing the visual bar beyond anything we’ve ever seen in gaming, you’d think we will have a few more years left before the current video game console generation is rendered obsolete.
Well Sony has decided to surprise everyone by jumping the gun early and revealing the first ever details for its successor to the wildly popular PS4, which we’ll creatively call the “PS5” from henceforth since it actually doesn’t have an official name right now.
Let’s be honest, it’s going to be called the PS5.
In a new exclusive chat with WIRED, Sony’s lead console guru Mark Cerny spilled the beans on the company’s PS4 follow-up and it sounds like it will be a, ahem, game-changer.
The PS5 will be powered by a cutting-edge AMD chip capable of pumping out Hollywood-level of CGI and 8K resolution, which is almost certainly more than what your TV is capable of right now. On top of that, it will also pack an SSD and backwards compatibility (which gamers been asking for for years). Cerny also gave an example on just how fast the PS5 will be by comparing the loading screen times for Spider-Man on that and the PS4.
For the PS4, it took around 15 seconds. For the PS5? 0.8 seconds. Yes, holy crap is the right response.
There are a bunch of other little technical details that Cerny revealed (which you can read here) but in short, games on the PS5 will not only make those on the PS4 look like garbage, everything will run faster than a squirrel on Red Bull.
Ugh, so ugly.
Now there are a few things that you need to think about before buying this magical PS5. It won’t be out in 2019 and it’s looking like 2020 will be the earliest release window. And with high-end specs that would make PC owners green with envy, don’t be surprised if the PS5 will cost more than your net worth. For comparison, the PS4 cost $550 when it was first released so expect its successor to be at around that price point at the very least.
Not to be outdone by their big rivals, Microsoft has responded to Sony’s surprise announcement by revealing their own new console. Well, new-ish console.
There’s going to be a new Xbox One S model that’s going to be all digital, meaning that you’ll no longer need any game discs. This will probably be awesome in the US or UK, but it’s going to be a little tough to sell a digital-only Xbox One in Australia since our internet sucks.
Other than that, well, it’s exactly the same as the Xbox One S in terms of specs. But hey, it’s around $50 cheaper than the current $300 price tag for the Xbox One S and it’ll be out on May 7th so there’s that. Just a heads up, that’s the price and release date for folks in the US. We still have no clue when it’ll drop in Australia or how much it will be but we imagine it won’t be that drastically different in price or release date.
https://twitter.com/Xbox/status/1118263745984094209
So what this means is you all will have the choice between a cheap and digital-only Xbox One S model later this year, or a top-of-the-line PS5 model that will ruin everything in gaming for you but isn’t out for another year at least and will also push you towards bankruptcy.
Choose wisely, gamers.