Sony Just Unveiled a Bunch of New Details About the PlayStation 5

If you've been practicing good social distancing lately, then there's a good chance you've been playing lots of video games to pass the time. You may even be pining for more, especially if you've felt bored or frustrated by your current console. And while the PlayStation 5 isn't set to arrive in stores until the holiday season later this year, Sony unveiled a bunch of new details about the much-anticipated new gaming system during a live broadcast on Wednesday. 

In a nearly hour-long presentation, the lead system architect Mark Cerny detailed the PS5's powerful performance, saying the company addressed major requests from game developers to further remove barriers to gaming, particularly when it comes to speed. Another new feature you'll likely notice is immersive 3D audio. Translation: shorter load screens, better sound, and ultimately, even better games. 

Here's a chart with tech spec highlights from Cerny's talk (if you're into that kind of thing), per the official PlayStation blog:

Sony/PlayStation

Sony announced the surprise event via Twitter on Tuesday, promising "a deep dive into PS5’s system architecture and how it will shape the future of games." The news comes just days after Microsoft showed off the full list of specs for its new Xbox Series X console, including highlights such as faster game loading times and support for removable storage. 

Cerny first outline the next-generation consoles basic tech specs back in April of 2019. At the time, he said the PS5 will sport a GPU based on AMD's Radeon Navi and a CPU built on the third-generation AMD Ryzen processor, according to a report by Polygon. Additionally, the system will support resolutions up to 8K, backwards compatibility for PlayStation 4 games, and PlayStation VR.

Speaking of backwards compatibility, or the ability to play games that were released for the PS4, the company said the feature is looking good for most games so far.

"[W]e’re excited to confirm that the backwards compatibility features are working well," the PlayStation team stated on its blog. "We recently took a look at the top 100 PS4 titles as ranked by play time, and we’re expecting almost all of them to be playable at launch on PS5. With more than 4000 games published on PS4, we will continue the testing process and expand backwards compatibility coverage over time."

Now, we just have to wait 'til the holidays to get our hands on this thing. 

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Tony Merevick is Senior News Editor at Thrillist. Send news tips to news@thrillist.com and follow him on Twitter @tonymerevick.