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Exclusive: A Deeper Look at the PlayStation 5 (archive)

Sony skipped games show E3 this year, a void during which Microsoft unveiled details about its own next-gen console, a successor to the Xbox One referred to only as Project Scarlett. Like the PS5, Scarlett will boast a CPU based on AMD's Ryzen line and a GPU based on its Navi family; like the PS5, it will ditch the spinning hard drive for a solid-state drive. Now, though, in a conference room at Sony's US headquarters, [Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan] and system architect Mark Cerny are eager to share specifics.

Before they do, Cerny wants to clarify something. When we last discussed the forthcoming console, he spoke about its ability to support ray-tracing, a technique that can enable complex lighting and sound effects in 3D environments. Given the many questions he's received since, he fears he may have been ambiguous about how the PS5 would accomplish this—and confirms that it's not a software-level fix, which some had feared. "There is ray-tracing acceleration in the GPU hardware," he says, "which I believe is the statement that people were looking for." (A belief born out by my own Twitter mentions, which for a couple of weeks in April made a graphics-rendering technique seem like the only thing the internet had ever cared about.)

Sony confirms the PlayStation 5 is coming in 2020, reveals new hardware details

[Since] games are getting quite large (Red Dead Redemption 2 took up nearly 100GB; The Elder Scrolls Online is even larger), the PlayStation 5 will use 100GB optical discs. It will support the 4K Blu-ray disc format.

Previously: Sony's Next PlayStation Will Include an AMD Zen 2 CPU and Navi GPU
Microsoft, Sony Partner on Streaming Games, Chips and AI
Microsoft Announces New Xbox Console and xCloud Streaming Game Service

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