Months of rampant corporate hints, internal leaks, wild fan speculation and educated media guesses have paid off. Sony have announced that the fifth iteration of their dominant home console will arrive in time for “Holiday 2020.” It also officially has a name: PlayStation 5.
PlayStation 5 launches holiday 2020: https://t.co/VuaxUVoBaR #PS5 pic.twitter.com/MPkKyRaHio
— PlayStation (@PlayStation) October 8, 2019
Neither the console’s name nor its release window should be particularly surprising. There’s no real reason for Sony to change their system of simply numbering each new console, and the Holiday window — the fourth quarter of each year, October to December — gets the machine on store shelves in time for Christmas.
Beyond the launch window and name announcement, Sony also detailed a small change to the PS5’s controller. The DualShock 5 will support haptic feedback, allowing developers to more intricately map controls on the L2 and R2 buttons. The haptic feedback feature was missing from the DualShock 4 (presumably to avoid further damaging the controller’s short battery life) and direct competitor Xbox has been building it into their controllers since 2013.
The haptic feedback announcement suggests the design of the controller will not change much from the DualShock 4, but considering how little its overall design has changed since the 90’s, that shouldn’t be terribly surprising either.
No further details were announced. We still don’t know what it looks like, which specific components Sony are using to build it or the speeds they operate at, we don’t know how much it will cost and we don’t know the specific day on which Sony plans to launch.
What we are sure of is this: Sony dropped the PlayStation 4 during the Holiday 2013 window and demand was so intense that it lead to widespread stock shortages almost immediately. If you want a PS5 on launch day, or in the weeks before Christmas, you would be well advised to place a preorder.
