Sony is slowly announcing details about the PlayStation 5, or PS5, its anticipated next-gen console. And after a briefing about the technical specs , we now know more than ever. Some details, like the price, are still shrouded in mystery and rumor. But Sony has unveiled the console's design, a list of confirmed games and the existence of an all-digital edition of the console . Here's what we know so far.

PS5 Specs

Late last year, we learned through an interview Sony had with Wired that the PS5 will use a CPU based on AMD’s third-generation, eight-core Ryzen processor, along with a custom GPU based on the Radeon Navi line, and a new 4K Blu-ray player with support for optical disks up to 100GB. The console is also set to use a custom 825GB SSD,

PS5 lead architect Mark Cerny said in March that the  Zen 2-based CPU will have 8 cores, 16 threads, up cap at 3.5 GHz. The RDNA 2-based GPU will boast 36 compute units and cap at 2.23GHz, or 10.3 teraflops.

The main drive in the system will be a 825GB with 5.5GB/s read bandwidth. Cerny suggested that loading screens will be all but eliminated, and that games may just fade out and back in to show loading. He said that it can load 2GB in 0.27 seconds.

The PS5 will lack the proprietary SSD expansion slot built into the Xbox Series X, but will support some M.2 SSDs after launch. It will also support external hard drives for game storage.

Sony's official video comparing performance of PS4 Pro vs next-gen PlayStation pic.twitter.com/2eUROxKFLq May 21, 2019

The PS5 uses the new PCIe 4.0 standard, it would likely have to do so to beat out top-of-the-line PC SSDs like the Adata XPG SX8200 Pro , which has a 3,500 MBps/3000 MBps sequential read/write speed and uses PCIe 3.0 x 4.

Cerny also detailed a unit for 3D audio, the Tempest Engine, which runs Tempest Engine. He largely referred to it as a research project, suggesting it would work best, at first, with headphones. But it should, in theory, allow immersive audio from TV speakers, sound bars and surround sound setups in the future.

Sony said the PS5 will  offer "support of 4K 120Hz TVs, 8K TVs, VRR (specified by HDMI ver.2.1)," but it's unclear if it will do 4K and 120Hz at the same time.

Early last year, tech analyst Pelham Smithers, who focuses on Japan’s stock market,  guessed that the PS5's processor will fall between $180 and $220, putting the console as a whole around $399. Which leads us to our next section.

PS5 Price

When the PS4 launched in November of 2013, it did so at a price point of $399, which undercut the Xbox One by $100. If Smithers is right, Sony will be able to pull the same trick again with the PS5, but not all analysts agree. As reported by Twinfinite in May of last year, Ace Research Institute analyst Hideki Yasuda predicted then in his quarterly forecast that the PS5 will launch for $499, which would bump it up $100 over what the PS4 and PS4 Pro sold for at launch.

A recent report from Bloomberg , meanwhile, seemed to find a middle ground between Smithers and Yasuda’s predictions. The report said that Sony was having difficulty securing DRAM and NAND for the console at reasonable prices, despite the memory market having oversupply issues for all of 2019. This is probably because next-gen consoles themselves increased demand enough for prices to jump, and NAND prices in general were expected to rise in 2020 for a litany of reasons . The report also suggested that Sony will be spending more than usual, "at a few dollars per unit," on cooling, leading to a total estimated price of "around $450." However, a more recent report seems to be pointing to even further issues on Sony's end, with anonymous sources close to the company telling Bloomberg to expect a price range between "$499 and $549."

Sony itself has yet to confirm a price, telling investors in its most recent earnings call that it has yet to be decided . The Xbox Series X also has yet to reveal a price, despite dumping its full specs list.

PS5 Design

In a June 11th livestream , Sony finally gave us a glimpse of what the PS5 will look like, which completely broke expectations from an earlier patent leak in August 2019.

While leaks showed a horizontal, V-shaped console, the final design instead has a more curved, two-tone appearance, with the console essentially being a mostly featureless rounded black rectangle housed in a curved white shell. There's also 2 editions of the console, one with a disc drive and one without, and the disc drive version has a small extension on the console's bottom-right side. The disc drive-less version is named the Digital Edition, but this is the only difference we know so far.

The PS5 also has ambient blue lighting inside the shell. In general, the look here matches the DualSense controller, which Sony gave us a look at in April. However, if you're worried that the PS5's outside curves makes it vertical only, don't be.

It's not vertical-only. #PlayStation5 pic.twitter.com/ySxqU5qHHf June 11, 2020

The PS5 also appears to have one Type-A USB port and one Type-C USB port on the front. We haven't yet seen the console's back I/O.

PS5 Controller

DualShock is officially dead...again...for now.

Introduced in a blog post on April 7th, 2020, the DualSense is less of a departure than, say, the PS3 boomerang controller, but still bears a striking design and a few new features to set it apart.

Design wise, it's got a similar layout to the DualShock 4, although with what appears to be some Switch Pro Controller style thickness. It also features a new black and white design, with a black base and a white coat wrapping around the top of the controller as well as its grips. We don't know yet if it'll be available in additional colors, but it's very GLaDOS .

As for new features, the DualSense includes a new built-in microphone to let players chat without the need for a headset, though that's still an option, as well as "adaptive triggers" that are supposed to offer haptic feedback and a sense of tension to certain actions. It's also replacing the share button with a new create button, which will include both the PS4's sharing features as well as new features to be detailed at a later date.

From the photos of the controller, we're also guessing that the DualSense is swapping from MicroUSB charging to Type-C charging. The light bar also wraps around the DualSense's touchpad now, as opposed to being isolated on top of the controller.

In the same Wired interview from earlier, Sony also gave the publication an early look at the DualSense, which it confirmed will ship included with the PS5. Here, the company demonstrated examples of the controller's new haptic feedback features for the publication.

These included feeling the difference between track and dirt in a racing game, or in terrain such as sand or ice in a platformer. Sony also promises in its blog post that its “adaptive triggers” will use resistance to better emulate precise movements such as firing a bow and arrow.

Moving into the realm of speculation, a recent patent also suggests Sony might be working on a PS5 controller that can support wireless charging, while an older one from 2018 hints at a controller that can track sweat and heart rate. Whether these features will be bundled with the base DualSense or be peripherals of their own, we will have to wait and see.

Other PS5 Accesories

In the same livestream where Sony showed off the PS5's official design, it also unveiled a lineup of accessories for the console, which goes beyond the Dualsense but is generally pretty standard fare.

First up is the Dualsense charging station, which has slots for two controllers and comes in the same black and white color scheme as the controllers themselves.

Second is an accessory just called "HD Camera." We don't have any details about what its resolution or frame rate is yet, though the presence of two cameras on it does point to potential 3D or motion tracking applications.

There's also a media remote, for accessing streaming apps or watching discs without needing to use your controller.

Finally, Sony also showed off the Pulse 3D Wireless headset, which has the same black body, white shell design. We don't have any specs for it, but it also seems to have a suspension headpad and not be over-the-ear. Sony's livestream promised the console will have 3D audio, which is where we're guessing this got it's name.

PS5 Games

The majority of Sony's June 11th PS5 livestream, where it unveiled the console's design, was spent showing off games that will be coming to the system. The list of trailers included exclusives and games that are almost sure to be multiplatform, and varied from fan favorites to surprises.

The two big exclusives for the event were Horizon: Forbidden West and Spider-Man: Miles Morales . Forbidden West is a follow-up to Horizon: Zero Dawn taking place in the Americas, while Miles Morales will continue the story from the PS4 Spider-Man game, but this time following Miles.

There's also a Demon's Souls game slated to come to the PS5, though we're unaware if it's a remake or follow-up.

On the lighter side of things, Sackboy from LittleBigPlanet is also getting his own 3D platformer called Sackboy: A Big Adventure . It's not made by Media Molecule, so it probably won't have LittleBigPlanet's customizability; instead, it seems to focus on multiplayer 3D gameplay akin to Super Mario 3D World .

Big reveals that aren't likely to be exclusives include Village: Resident Evil and Hitman III .

Here's a full list of games confirmed for the PS5:

• GTA V: Expanded and Enhanced
• Spider-Man: Miles Morales
• Gran Turismo 7
• Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart
• Horizon: Forbidden West
• Resident Evil VIII: Village
• Astro’s Playroom
• Project Athia
• Hitman III
• Little Devil Inside
• NBA 2K21
• Demon's Souls
• Deathloop
• Jett: The Far Shore
• Bugsnax
• Godfall
• Solar Ash
• Pragmata
• Ghostwire: Tokyo
• Sackboy: A Big Adventure
• Destruction Allstars
• Kena: Bridge of Spirits
• Stray
• Returnal
• Goodbye Volcano High
• Oddworld: Soulstorm
  
  

PS5 Backwards Compatibility

Finally, while we have yet to know if the PS5 will bump up the power of at least some older games played on it, a Series X feature Xbox revealed yesterday, Sony has confirmed that the PS5 will be fully backwards compatible, with the PS4 logic built into the PS5's graphics solution. It will also support the PlayStation VR headset. No word yet on if the console will be able to play Playstation games from older generations

Release Date

Sony announced in October of last year that the PS5 will launch in time for Holiday 2020, but as we stated in our Xbox specs post, the novel c oronavirus might delay that release into 2021. Anonymous sources close to Sony are also telling Bloomberg to expect a limited amount of units- between 5 and 6 million- to be produced in the console's first fiscal year, which would be 1 million units short of the amount of PS4s the company sold in just the first two quarters of that console's lifespan.