What is the PS5 price? There are a lot of questions about Sony’s upcoming PlayStation 5 console now that it’s been officially announced, but there’s a bunch of other PS5 News to cover as well, including the PS5 cost. Whether you’re wondering about PS5 VR / PSVR 2, the DualShock 5, ray tracing, haptic feedback, or any of the other cool tech that’s coming in this next-generation console, we’ve got you covered! Read on for all the PlayStation 5 news that we have so far!
What is the PS5 price? | Theories on the PlayStation 5 cost
One of the biggest questions is going to be how much the PlayStation 5 will cost. We can’t say for sure just yet, but we can speculate based on past console releases.
PS5 Price | Breaking down the PlayStation 5 cost
The PlayStation 3 made waves when it debuted at the then-crazy price of $599, a number that the then-President of Worldwide Studios Shuhei Yoshida called “horrifying.” The PlayStation 4, conversely, launched at $399 and this was several years later, when the value of an individual dollar was worth less. That’s the rub: while technology gets cheaper as time goes on, the value of an individual dollar also goes down. Using an inflation calculator, we’ve found out the following:
- The PS3 launched for $599.99 in 2006, which would be $763.55 today.
- The PS4 launched for $399.99 in 2013, which would be $440.5 today.
- The PS5 should cost no more than $450.00.
While the inflation gap between 2006 and now is pretty big, there’s only about a 10% difference between the PS4 launch and its price if it were to launch today.
Although a bunch of new technology is going in, they can probably maintain the same price point of $399.99 at launch, and we wouldn’t expect it to go any higher than $450.00. The PS4 Pro launched for $399.99, so we image the PS5 will retain the same price point.
Will there be a PS5 Pro?
Another thing to consider is whether or not there will be a PS5 Pro. The release of the PS4 Pro (and conversely, the Xbox One X) marked a drastic change in the console release cycle with a sort of “midway” generation being released. Will the PlayStation 5 do the same and launch a Pro version halfway through the release? In short: maybe.
PS5 Pro on launch day?
Unlike Sony, Microsoft has had no problems launching multiple versions of their console on the first day. This time around, the rumor mill says that we may very well see Sony do the same and launch a PS5 Pro at the same time that the standard console debuts on launch day. Presumably, this console will be launching at a higher price but also be more powerful and offer better graphics.
If it does come at launch, the next question would be this: will there be yet another upgrade launched halfway through the next generation? We can’t say for sure, but it wouldn’t be surprising — it’s entirely possible that advantages in tech over the next few years could justify a third version of the PlayStation 5.
PS5 Slim
Equally likely — almost certain, in fact — is that we’ll get the opposite of a “Pro” console. Pretty much every single PlayStation has had a “Slim” version launch at a lower price point since the overall cost of the same tech has become cheaper. That is one thing that is practically an inevitability, although we couldn’t say whether they’ll release one machine or a separate standard and pro version.
PS5 release date
One key piece of information we do have is that the PS5 release date will be sometime in the holiday season of 2020 (presuming that there aren’t any manufacturing difficulties that cause a delay). While we have a release window, we don’t have an exact date just yet.
PS5 release date compared to previous PlayStation consoles
Here is when the previous PlayStation consoles launched in the United States according to Wikipedia:
- PlayStation: September 9, 1995
- PlayStation One: September 19, 2000
- PlayStation 2: October 26, 2000
- PlayStation 2 Slim: November 25, 2004
- PlayStation 3: November 17, 2006
- PlayStation 4: November 15, 2013
- PlayStation 4 Pro: November 10, 2016
Although the earliest PlayStation consoles launched in September and October, every single one after that — upgraded and Pro versions included — launched in mid-to-late November. This means that the PS5 release date could be in the same range, barring any problems.
PS5 launch games
There is only one confirmed game for the PS5 so far, with Bluepoint revealing that it’s working on another project following its Shadow of the Colossus remake. This list will be updated when more games are announced.
When can I pre-order PS5?
Although we have the release window for the PS5 and we can make a pretty good guess at the release date, it’s a little more difficult to figure out when pre-orders will open up. Those will surely depend on the progress of the console’s manufacturing.
Nonetheless, we can make a pretty solid guess as to when PS5 pre-orders will open up based on past data. Find out more about when you can pre-order the PS5 here.
PS5 Controllers | DualShock 5, Adaptive Triggers, and Haptic Feedback
It wouldn’t be much of a new PlayStation without a new PlayStation controller. We’ve also received some details about what we can expect from the DualShock 5.
The first important note is that “DualShock 5” isn’t yet the official name; Sony still hasn’t officially announced what they’re going to be calling this one, although the odds are nonetheless good that it will be called the “DualShock 5”.
That aside, we do know that the L2 and R2 buttons will feature something called “Adaptive Triggers” and the controller as a whole will replace the rumble feature with haptic feedback — you can read more about that here.
Will there be PS5 VR / PSVR 2
The PSVR didn’t exist at the launch of the PlayStation 4, but it’s undeniably going to be a thing when the PS5 drops in the holiday 2020 season.
We don’t yet know if the existing PSVR is going to work on the PlayStation 5. It’d be pretty lame if it didn’t, but it’d also be understandable considering that the PS5 VR (or PSVR 2, depending on what you want to call it) is going to launch with a bunch of new features. According to a patent, these could include:
- 2 cameras on the front of the HMD
- 1 camera on the rear of the HMD
- A camera on the new PlayStation Move controller
- Motion sensors
- Wireless capability via Bluetooth
Read more about the PS5 VR / PSVR2 here.
PS5 Specs | Ray-Tracing hardware
As noted in the Wired piece about the PS5 reveal, the PlayStation 5 is going to support ray-tracing. Unfortunately, there has been some confusion about how exactly this is going to work.
PS5 Ray tracing will not be solved with a software-level approach. (Of course, some level of software is going to be involved.) Rather, there will be ray tracing acceleration baked right into the GPU’s hardware that developers will be able to take advantage of.
What’s the big deal about ray tracing? Well, simply put, it allows a computer to trace a lot of lines from A to B. This ability allows computers to create much more realistic looking light and sounds, and those will make the audio and visuals of the PS5 a heck of a lot better.
PS5 Specs | SSD
One other item of note in the Wired article about the PlayStation 5 reveal is the fact that it’s going to have an SSD, or Solid-State Drive. This means that load times and game installs are going to be blazing fast, although some of these things are going to depend on your Internet speed. (Press F to pay respects for Australia.)
A faster permanent storage device means that developers can fundamentally alter the structure of the way files are handled on the PS5 which will speed things up and make data processing overall, ultimately resulting in a smoother experience for the player and a heck of a lot less time waiting around.
There is, however, one consequence of this modern piece of technology: game installations are going to be mandatory. The read/write speed differences between the PS5’s optical drive and the hard drive are just going to be too severe for it to work otherwise.
