PS5 news is coming faster than ever! Before the holiday weekend here in the U.S., we wanted to recap some of the big stories from this week, and there are several! Epic Games Calls The PS5 a ‘Masterpiece of Systems Design’ Our first story comes from The Game Post who reported on an interview between Official PlayStation Magazine and the VP of engineering at Epic Games, Nick Penwarden. In the interview, Penwarden expanded on this claim about the PS5: “The PlayStation 5 is a masterpiece of systems design. Not only is it driving huge leap in computing and graphics performance, but it is also revolutionary in terms of storage and data compression technology, unlocking new kinds of games and experiences for players to enjoy.” Talk about an endorsement! New Listing for NBA 2K21 shows a Price Hike For Next-Gen Games Next up, we’ve got an interesting story after 2K Sports announced new versions of its NBA 2K series. The current generation versions cost $59.99, but the next generation costs $69.99. Could this mean that games will be $10 more in the next-gen? Push Square reached out to 2K Sports for clarification and got this in response: “2K’s suggested retail prices for its games are meant to represent the value being offered,” an NBA 2K spokesperson said. “With nearly endless replay value and many new additions and improvements only possible on next-generation consoles, we believe our updated suggested retail price fairly represents the value of NBA 2K21.” Okay, so it doesn’t seem like the standard version costs any more for any reason beyond it being next-gen. While other publishers may not make the same move, I personally wouldn’t mind a small price increase. Games take a long time to make and cost more than ever. It’s only fair that the price change at some point. Speaking with GamesBeat earlier this week, former Sony executive Shawn Layden agreed with this, saying: “It’s been $59.99 since I started in this business, but the cost of games have gone up ten times. If you don’t have elasticity on the price-point, but you have huge volatility in on the cost line, the model becomes more difficult. I think this generation is going to see who two imperatives collide.” This plays into a larger discussion around the length of games, and whether it makes sense to make them shorter to keep costs in check. That’s a discussion for another time, but if they need to go up $10, I don’t mind. PS5 Price and Release Date Reveal Happening July 13th? We save the best for last! Now that we know more about the PS5 after the June reveal, it’s time for price, release date, and preorders. Turns out, we may not have to wait long. In this thread, one tweet stands out: July 13 > #PS5 price, release date and pre-order TBC — Roberto Serrano’ (@geronimo_73) July 1, 2020 Roberto claims to have industry sources to back up this claim, but the rumor is a little … Read More
Despite Rumors, The PS5 Won’t Be Here Until 2020
How much would you pay for an exclusive look at the actual specs of the PS5? Would you pay $1000? That’s exactly what news outlet, Semiaccurate is asking for a look at their exclusive post. If you’re not a subscriber, you’re left wondering what’s hidden behind that paywall. A few details have slipped through the cracks, but this once again begs the question of when we’ll see the PS5. Some rumors have said we could see it as early as 2018. We here at PS5 Gamers have always leaned towards a 2020 release date, and new evidence seems to solidify our claims. Join us as we break everything down. Semiaccurate Claims Exclusive PS5 Details While we have multiple rumors to discuss, the latest development is the claim that semiaccurate has obtained PS5 specs information. In the past, this outlet has been right about a few details regarding console specs for the Switch before it was released. The actual article is hidden behind a $1,000 paywall, but thankfully the folks over at resetera have compiled some information from the post. Here is a breakdown of the information contained within: The PS5 may use AMD’s Navi as its base architecture, but it won’t be using it specifically The CPU is a custom Zen A large amount of dev kits have been sent out The author suggests a 2018 release based on the number of dev kits VR support is a priority at the foundation level of the system These claims should be taken with a grain of salt as both rumor and a summary of a post that most people will not be able to read (myself included). Even so, many of these things are in line with some of our predictions regarding the PS5’s potential CPU structure. Taking all of this into account, would it be wise to release the PS5 as soon as 2018, or is it more likely that Sony will wait. You already know our opinion on the matter, but let’s look at the facts. The PS5 Release Date: 2018, 2019, or 2020? The rumor mill has been working overtime lately. Just a few weeks ago, we heard that PS5 dev kits were already in the hands of developers. This pointed to a possible release date that was sooner than we originally thought. Now, with another 2018 prediction courtesy of the Semiaccurate article’s author, we have to address this possibility. We outlined our major arguments against this release date in our development kit post (linked above), but the most compelling piece of evidence is the current lineup of titles still to release for PS4. Why would Sony release a new console when they still have several major first-party titles yet to release? It doesn’t make sense. This point and several others are mirrored in Kotaku’s latest PS5 article, which claims that the PS5 is still a ways off, according to reputable sources. In this piece, Jason Schreier mirrors my opinion that the PS5 isn’t coming until 2020. While … Read More
PlayStation Hiring For Work on a “Next Generation Gaming System”
More than a few rumors in the past have started as a result of job postings. In some cases it’s a company asking for work on a new title, and in other cases someone puts a sensitive bit of information on their resume or LinkedIn profile, which blows the lid off the whole thing. It looks like we have one of those situations in the form of a job posting on the official PlayStation Website. Details on The Job Posting If we mosey on over to the Sony PlayStation Page, we’ll see a job posting that is for a “Senior Game Programmer.” Here’s what the description says: “We have an exciting opportunity at Sony Computer Entertainment of America. We seek a senior game programmer to assist us in developing a game used for R&D purposes related to our next generation gaming system. For someone passionate about gaming this is a very rare opportunity. After reviewing the below job profile, if this is for you, please apply!” The job responsibilities also provide us with some clues: Contribute to the architecture design and development of OS subsystems Advanced level systems programming and debugging using C and C++ Multi-threaded programming Whoa, if that’s not a sign that Sony is pushing forward on PS5 development, I don’t know what is. As we know, R&D refers to “research and development,” so that’s our first clue. The job responsibilities refer to subsystems of an OS, so this could be work on the PS5’s interface or base operating system. Interpreting This News The fact that they’re using a game programmer means that they are most likely developing a prototype for something that would work on the PS5. It could be that they are referring to Project Morpheus as a “next generation gaming system,” but it’s really more a peripheral, so I’m going to write that one off. While PlayStation VR isn’t a system, it could be used as a peripheral with the PS5, so we shouldn’t rule out the possibility that this game is VR in nature. The fact of the matter though is that this is big news for the future of PlayStation. Depending on how Sony progresses, we could see more news quite soon. Perhaps we’ll have concrete evidence on whether or not the PS5 will be cloud-based? This programmer could be developing an operating system that relies on a streaming service, the possibility is certainly there. One of the theories that I’ve been throwing around is the concept of a unified operating system like Windows 10. It’s interesting that Microsoft took this approach, and it’s something that I think Sony may adopt as well. Microsoft wants Windows 10 to be the last operating system they do. They want to transform the platform into a service that is constantly updated instead of replaced. If this job posting is indeed for an OS structure, it could be that Sony is developing an operating system that can run across multiple devices. It may be something as simple … Read More