Sony has delivered a fresh blow to PS5 fans, just days after delaying the digital showcase.
Unless things change in the upcoming weeks and months, the PS5 has been given a holiday 2020 release date.
What’s less clear is how much the console will cost, as Sony is yet to reveal an exact price.
And judging by Sony’s latest comments, the next-gen PlayStation console could be more expensive than anticipated.
In an illuminating interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Sony executive Jim Ryan discussed the PS5 launch and pricing strategy.
Despite potentially launching in the middle of a global recession, Ryan doesn’t think the gaming industry will suffer too badly.
“Recent history has told us that gaming is one of the pastimes, and one of the businesses, that benefits in economically difficult times,” Ryan explains.
“It’s quite logical, people don’t have the money to go out so they stay at home.
“Now, who knows how this recession is going to look, how deep it will be and how long it will last. It could be that the historic templates, the historic models, that have applied in the past may not apply in the future.”
In a follow-up comment, Ryan even suggests that the PS5 won’t be as cheap as fans may have hoped.
“I think the best way that we can address this is by providing the best possible value proposition that we can.
“I don’t necessarily mean lowest price. Value is a combination of many things.
“In our area it means games, it means number of games, depth of games, breadth of games, quality of games, price of games… all of these things and how they avail themselves of the feature set of the platform.”
Previous rumours have suggested the PS5 will cost between £400 and £500. However, judging by the specs, the console could cost even more.
Sony will also reportedly manufacture fewer PS5 consoles at launch than the PS4. This means they could be hard to come by in 2020, which could drive up the price online.
Sony’s next-gen console will support 8K resolution, ray-tracing technology and have much faster loading times.
The speedy (or non-existent) loading times are possible thanks to the specialised solid-state drive, which will make a huge difference to processing speeds.
In Spider-Man on a PS4 Pro, for example, it can take upwards of 15 seconds to fast travel from one location to another. The PS5, on the other hand, will be able to handle the same task in less than a second.
Worlds can also be rendered at far greater speeds, which should inject more pace into games.
Fans will get a better look at the console and games when Sony holds its delayed digital showcase. Expect a new date to be announced at some point this week.
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