Sony isn’t holding its usual E3 press conference this year, but the company has been gradually revealing parts of its next-generation PlayStation console. The PlayStation 5 will support 8K graphics, 3D audio, SSD storage, and backwards compatibility with existing PlayStation 4 titles. That SSD storage should boost load times significantly, and Sony offered up some clear demonstrations of exactly that today.
During a Sony investor relations meeting (PDF), the company demonstrated PlayStation 5 load times using Spider-Man to load cities and rapidly navigate throughout them. While the PS4 takes around eight seconds to load a Spider-Man level, the PS5 (identified simply as next-generation) does the same in less than a second. The PS5 can also better handle dynamic maps that load portions of a game as a player moves throughout them, avoiding the classic spinning circle or pause when you move from one part of a map to another.
Sony's official video comparing performance of PS4 Pro vs next-gen PlayStation pic.twitter.com/2eUROxKFLq
— Takashi Mochizuki (@6d6f636869) May 21, 2019
Sony’s PS4 is still important for the next three years
Sony might be focused on its next generation PlayStation 5 console, but the company says the PS4 will “remain the engine of engagement and profitability in the next three years” and will provide early adopters for the next generation of PlayStation. Sony also previously revealed that the PS5 will use an eight-core CPU based on AMD’s third-gen Ryzen line, and include a GPU that supports ray-tracing graphics. Sony has not yet demonstrated ray-tracing on the PS5, though.
We’re still waiting to hear about pricing and release dates…
