Everything we know about Sony’s PS5 next console

Having launched in November 2013, the PS4 has already been on the market alongside Xbox One for almost five years. Of course, we’ve had iterative upgrades with PS4 Pro and Xbox One X, but many are still waiting for news of the next generation. Could we receive an announcement on such a thing soon? 
Trusted Reviews has compiled everything we know about PS5 including all the latest news, rumours, potential specs and more.

PlayStation boss John Kodera confirmed in the most recent Sony Corporate Strategy Meeting that PS4 is nearing the end of its life-cycle. This doesn’t mean the console is vanishing immediately, as a number of exclusives are yet to launch for the platform. Instead, it’s likely a way of explaining to investors they expect a decrease in sales to come in the future. It’s also another juicy hint toward the inevitable PS5.

In other news, A Kotaku report states the PS5 may not arrive until 2020 at the earliest, which may disappoint some, but it’s hardly surprising considering how successful Sony has been of late. With the PS4 and PS4 Pro so far ahead of the rival consoles from all parties, Sony won’t be in much of a rush to spend vast sums of money releasing new hardware.
According to the report, many developers questioned, including those at Sony’s first-party studios “have not yet been briefed on the existence of a PlayStation 5.”
Schreier writes: “In summary: There is information about the PlayStation 5 floating around at both first- and third-party companies, but it’s far more limited than it would be if the console’s release was imminent.”

PS5 release date – When is the PlayStation 5 coming out?

Sony hasn’t actually said a thing about a new console – yet. The PS4 continues not only to be the current best-selling console on the market, but one of the best sellers in history, so it makes sense to not announce a successor yet.
Microsoft has come back swinging with Xbox One X, so the PS4 is no longer the dominant machine from a specs perspective. Logic would point to Sony having to respond in some fashion.

PS5 dev kit – Is it already in the wild?

Coming from SemiAccurate (via ResetEra), the outlet is reporting on potential specifications for Sony’s next console, claiming dev kits are already in the hands of developers.
According to the article, PlayStation 5 will use AMD’s Navi as its base architecture while it will utilise a Zen CPU from the same company.
Virtual reality “goodies” will be baked in at a system level. If true, this suggests Sony has no plans to abandon PlayStation VR in the coming years.

However, we at Trusted are taking this rumour with a very generous pinch of salt for numerous reasons. Firstly, the PS4 is still the best-selling console on the market, despite Microsoft’s efforts with the Xbox One S and One X. So although Sony may well be thinking about its next console, actually dishing out dev kits seems very premature.
Secondly, putting a dev kit together all but locks in the hardware specs for the machine, meaning that said hardware already begins to age. Minor adjustments can be made, but the core capabilities of the supposed PlayStation 5 will be there. Considering our belief that Sony won’t be launching the PS5 for a good while yet, it would be surprising to lock in hardware specifications at this stage, which could be massively outdated come launch.

PS5 Specs – How powerful will the PlayStation 5 be?

Again, without any announcements, we can’t fully assess what the PlayStation 5 will look like from a hardware perspective. We can, however, take a look at the competition, and see how Sony will compete.
Let’s take a look at the Xbox One X. It has an an eight-core 2.3 GHz CPU, paired with 12GB GDDR5 memory and a GPU sporting 40 compute units operating at 1172MHz. In layman’s terms, this is a mid-range 2017 gaming PC, but with lots of clever software and hardware tricks to squeeze maximum performance out of it.

As is ever the case with console launches, manufacturers have to balance cost with performance. The PS4 has been so wildly successful because it’s been able to offer better performance on third-party titles over Xbox One.
Now the balance of power is swinging in Microsoft’s favour (albeit with a more expensive console), Sony will want to redress that and offer a console even more powerful than the One X. Or perhaps Sony will be able to counter with a less powerful but better-value console come that woolly 2018 launch date.

PS5 Price – How much will it cost?

As we don’t even know its specs, we can’t accurately guess how much the PlayStation 5 will cost.
The Xbox One X currently retails for £450 or so. Knowing this, Sony will probably aim for a similar price point if it hopes for its next console to remain competitive.

PS5 Backwards Compatibility – What can we expect?

At the launch of the PS4 Pro, system architect Mark Cerny clarified this was not the start of a new console generation. “I believe in generations. Generations are a good thing. So, philosophically, we believe in them. We believe they continue, and this is a mid-generation release,” he is quoted by Gamasutra.
Sony was at pains to make sure consumers saw the PS4 Pro, a modest improvement over the base console, as a mid-cycle refresh.
Microsoft, meanwhile, sees the One X as the beginning of the end of console generations. Microsoft’s head of marketing, Aaron Greenberg, told Engadget “We think the future is without console generations.”
Both with very different outlooks, but both doing something important: allowing players to carry over their game libraries.


Sony made a misstep in a lack of PS4 backwards compatibility. Microsoft capitalised by offering extensive Xbox One backwards compatibility via consistent updates, with new games added almost weekly.
Both Xbox One X and PS4 Pro, as they’re not fully fledged ‘next-gen’ consoles, play all current and future Xbox One and PS4 titles respectively, but with improvements over being played on base consoles.
The PlayStation 5 simply must offer backwards compatibility so that all PS4 games work on the machine.

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PS5 Games – What will we get?

2017 has offered some of the best PS4 games the console has seen. So let’s look at which series are due a sequel and judge which titles might be around at launch of a new console.
With the likes of God of War, The Last of Us Part 2, Spider-Man all on the horizon, those series are pretty much locked down for the foreseeable future. Plus with Ratchet and Clank, Uncharted 4, Lost Legacy and Persona 5 all available now, we wouldn’t be seeing those titles arriving with the PS5.
It’d be more likely we’d see brand-new IP with the new console, or a return of an old favourite like Infamous or the Resistance series.

PS5 VR – Will we get a new headset?

PlayStation VR has proven a big success for Sony. Even today it’s hard to find a headset in stores or online.
It also has a great library to support it, with new releases arriving on the PlayStation Store frequently for current owners of the headset.


However, as a console VR headset, it naturally couldn’t match the power and fidelity of its PC counterparts. If the PS5 is significantly more powerful than the PS4, could we see a hardware revision to offer a better virtual reality experience?

It would make sense, as Microsoft is planning on offering VR with the Xbox One X, though based on the company’s showing at E3 this won’t be a big push at all.