Along with today’s unveiling of the DualSense—the new PS5 controller—SIE President and CEO Jim Ryan gave us a few hints about when we’ll next hear more about Sony’s next-gen console, as well as confirming that it’s still targeting a Holiday 2020 release. “We look forward to sharing more information about PS5, including the console design, in the coming months,” Ryan said, indicating that the timeline for a reveal is more or less mirroring the timeframe of the PS4’s console design reveal. “More information” likely means the added features that Sony is implementing to make the PS5 feel like a revolution rather than an incremental step. This will probably include details on the “Create” functionality hinted at by the new controller design.
Here’s Ryan’s full quote about the future:
DualSense marks a radical departure from our previous controller offerings and captures just how strongly we feel about making a generational leap with PS5. The new controller, along with the many innovative features in PS5, will be transformative for games – continuing our mission at PlayStation to push the boundaries of play, now and in the future. To the PlayStation community, I truly want to thank you for sharing this exciting journey with us as we head toward PS5’s launch in Holiday 2020. We look forward to sharing more information about PS5, including the console design, in the coming months.
We first got a look at the physical PS4 box at E3 in June 2013, ahead of the console’s November release later that year. June certainly counts as “in the coming months,” but so do July and August and September. Sony’s wording is just vague enough to leave us wanting more. The good news is it seems like Sony’s rollout of information will march onward through the year, especially as third-party developers are starting to get antsy to show what they are working on. Today’s DualSense controller reveal was much more marketable than last month’s rather dull (but informative!) tech-centric talk by PS5 system architect Mark Cerny.
During his tech talk, Cerny hinted that a full console teardown would be coming soon, including a look at the PS5’s unique cooling system. Previous reports have indicated that Sony is going all out on the PlayStation 5 cooling solution. Whether this teardown comes as part of the PS5 console design reveal is unknown, but getting a look at the console as well as the innards all in one go makes sense, especially considering rumors that the design could feature a pretty radical aesthetic thanks to the unique cooling required for its constant power draw.
If we assume that a “Holiday 2020” launch window means mid-November (mirroring the PS4’s November 15 release) to release in time for the holiday shopping period, then we have just over seven months until we have the PS5 in our living rooms. In those “coming months” we’re set to learn a lot more about the console, from the PS5 console design itself to the unique features it boasts, not to mention reveals of the games we’ll be playing later this year, first and third-party alike.
[Source: PlayStation Blog]