PS5: News, price, specs, release date, and everything we know about PlayStation 5

What will the PS5 cost and when will it release?

We don't know the cost for sure, but reports have indicated that Sony is struggling to keep the price down. Apparently, the PS5 cost $450 to make right now (it is unknown if this includes packaging and shipping) due to scarce supplies and a cooling system that is more expensive than usual. There is reportedly some debate within Sony whether or not the PS5 should be sold at a loss. Analysts have speculated that the PS5 will cost $500.

Others have speculated — and Sony itself even indicated as much — that the company is waiting to see what Microsoft will price the Xbox Series X at before committing to a price for the PlayStation 5.

The PlayStation 5 will release Holiday 2020. This coincides with the release of Microsoft's next Xbox console, Xbox Series X. There have been no publicly revealed delays due to COVID-19 as of yet.

What will the PS5 design look like?

Sony has revealed the official design of the PS5, and it's looking futuristic and sleek. I'm not exactly sure what it resembles, but I can say I like it a lot more than the Xbox Series X. I can appreciate what Microsoft is offering, but a big, blocky console isn't all that eye-catching.

Does the PS5 have an all-digital edition?

Yes. Like the Xbox One X all-digital edition, Sony is getting in on the fun with an all-digital edition of the PlayStation 5, dubbed the PS5 Digital Edition, that will not accept discs of any kind. If you want to play games, you'll need to download them directly to the console. It's unknown whether it will be less expansive than its sibling.

What are the PS5's specs?

Sony spoke exclusively with Wired about what fans can expect from the upcoming next-generation PS5.

PS5 CPU

According to PlayStation,, the CPU will be based on AMD's third-generation Ryzen line, with eight cores of the new 7nm Zen 2 microarchitecture. It will also apparently include a custom unit for 3D audio.

PS5 GPU

The GPU, which is a custom variant of Radeon's Navi family, will support ray tracing, which is a huge win for Sony. Ray tracing is a rendering technique that models how light travels and interacts with virtual objects. Wired notes that this is something Hollywood employs in big-budget movies, but it has not made its way to any video games consoles yet (although it's becoming more common with PC games).

PS5 Ray tracing

To clarify whether or not ray tracing would be achieved on a software level or through built-in hardware integration, Sony confirmed the latter. "There is ray tracing acceleration in the GPU hardware," he said, "which I believe is the statement that people were looking for."

Ray tracing doesn't just deliver visual benefits, though, according to PlayStation. "If you wanted to run tests to see if the player can hear certain audio sources or if the enemies can hear the players' footsteps, ray tracing is useful for that," he said. "It's all the same thing as taking a ray through the environment."

PS5 Solid-state drive

The crème de la crème is that the PS5 will come packed with a solid-state drive (SSD) as opposed to an hard-disk drive (HDD). SSDs are historically more powerful, faster, and make for a much better gaming experience. Sony demonstrated what took 15 seconds to fast travel in Spider-Man on PS4 took only 0.8 seconds on a next-gen devkit. It will even support 8K graphics, though most people will likely have TVs that only deliver up to 4K resolution.

Because more simplified game data is possible through the use of an SSD, the way that game downloads work will differ from the PlayStation 4. On the PS5, downloads will be more configurable, and parts even removable. "Rather than treating games like a big block of data," PlayStation said, "we're allowing finer-grained access to the data."

This means that players could choose to download either the single-player or multiplayer portion of a game depending on what they wanted to play, or they could download the entire game and delete one part of it, like the single-player.

PS5 Specs compared to Xbox Series X and PS4 Pro

We still don't have exact number details on the PlayStation 5 specs, but we'll keep you updated on all new info. Here's how it stacks up against the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 4 Pro based on what we know so far.