With only a couple of months until launch, it’s been a little weird that we haven’t gotten an exact date or price for Sony’s next flagship console. In a stream today the company finally announced both. The Sony PS5 will cost a whopping $749.95, and the disc-free Digital Edition will retail for $599.95. Both will ship November 12 in the U.S. and November 19 elsewhere.
After a leak last weekend, Microsoft finally announced a price and launch date for the Xbox Series X and Series S. Those will launch November 10 and be priced at $749.95 and $499.95 respectively, with pre-orders starting September 22.
[referenced id=”1222646″ url=”https://gizmodo.com.au/2020/06/this-is-the-ps5/” thumb=”https://gizmodo.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/12/qhnyhsicdmaw5lj4oavf-300×168.png” title=”This Is the PS5″ excerpt=”While Microsoft has already shared a number of details about the Xbox Series X, Sony has taken a more cautious approach for its next-gen console. But today, following an absolute deluge of trailers for upcoming games, Sony finally gave us a glimpse at the PS5.”]
The pricing on the Digital Edition of the PS5 could leave some scratching their heads, as Microsoft’s cheapest offering is $150 less, but the Digital Edition is expected to be nearly identical to the PS5 apart from the disc drive, while the Microsoft Series S isn’t expected to be as powerful as the Series X.
Like the latest Xboxes, the next-gen Playstations will operate on custom AMD Zen 2 CPU and RDNA 2 GPU architectures and support up to 4K resolution, while Microsoft still plans futureproof and support up to 8K. Sony’s hoping to be different by focusing on things like load speeds — with a much covered SSD being the star of the show. It’s also going to have some unique haptic experiences in a new controller.
During the stream, Sony showed an extended sequence from the new Spider-Man Miles Morales which did a lot of highlight one, at least thus far, underseen element of the new system: ray tracing. Lights reflected realistically off his slick-looking suit and wet streets. Even people’s reflections seemed to appear in the water. It was showy but could be too subtle to entice PS4 owners to upgrade. (I’m kidding, my brother has texted three times this week asking when the PS5 comes out so he can upgrade.)