Sony has left its fan a little confuddled recently, after it failed to deliver on a PS5 (opens in new tab) unveiling this month. A number of sources confirmed that a February event (opens in new tab) was on the cards, but we're looking at March at the earliest now - but with no word from Sony, that's just guesswork at this point.
We have, of course, heard a bit about the console's specs, although the company hasn't been near as generous with those details as Microsoft. The Xbox Series X (opens in new tab) was revealed last year and just this week, Microsoft dropped a huge specs bomb (opens in new tab). Xbox's own Major Nelson even delved into the drastically improved quick resume (opens in new tab) that's only been made possible thanks to the custom SSD inside the console.
Luckily for those of you waiting for the PS5 ball to drop, there's been a minor - but still official - leak confirming rumoured specs and features of the console, courtesy of GameStop.
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The retailer has a pre-registration page (opens in new tab) up for the PS5 so that you can sign up to receive updates about the console, as opposed to a pre-order page. Sony put its own sign up page (opens in new tab) live earlier this month, although it didn't list anything about the console.
GameStop's page has since been taken down, but according to Tom's Guide (opens in new tab), it read, "While the world eagerly awaits to get a look at the PlayStation 5 hardware, Sony has revealed what’s under the hood, and there’s no shortage of horsepower:
- Full 8K TV support
- Bespoke 8-core AMD chipset
- 3D Audio
- Built-for-purpose SSD storage
- Backwards compatibility with PS4 games/PSVR hardware
- Ray tracing capabilities
- Sony PS5's secret weapon to take gaming to the next level revealed (opens in new tab)
- PS5 shock: forget the 8K resolution it's the blisteringly high frame rates that are the real killer (opens in new tab)
Outside of an interview last year, that saw PS5 lead system architect Mark Cerny discuss some of the specs of the hardware, Sony has kept any further details to itself, so this is the first time we're seeing them in an official capacity anywhere else.
The console was suspected to be backwards compatible (opens in new tab) with PS4 games, but now we have official confirmation. Hopefully we'll see Sony announce its own version of the Xbox Series X's smart delivery, which allows gamers to pay for a game once, and then delivers the version appropriate for the console that they're playing on. Cyberpunk 2077 developer, CD Projekt, is the first third-party studio to confirm that it'll be opting in to the program (opens in new tab) with its upcoming sci-fi title.
There's not much else in the GameStop leak that we don't already know, so for now, we all have to sit tight and wait for Sony to make its move.
