History of video games/Platforms/PlayStation 5

Development


The PlayStation 5 followed the older PlayStation 4.

Supply logistics for NAND and DRAM were a key concern to Sony in early February 2020, though they were reportedly more worried more about competition with 5G smartphone manufactures then the still not yet widespread coronavirus outbreaks.

"The ease in which they are able to get code running on PlayStation 5 is way beyond any experience they've had on any other PlayStation platform."

When the cooling system was being designed, smoke from dry ice was pumped through a transparent casing to observe it's effects on temperature.

Launch
Two consoles were announced for launch in November of 2020, a $399.99 Digital Edition without an optical drive, and a $499.99 full console with an Ultra HD Blu-Ray drive. At those prices, the PlayStation 5 hardware was sold at a loss. By August 4th, 2021 the PlayStation 5 with an optical drive was no longer sold at a loss, though the cheaper digital edition continued to be sold at a slight loss.

Supplies of consoles were expected to be short on launch day, with only a units that had been preordered being available for pick up. By the end of 2020 4.5 million consoles had been sold. By late January 2021 supplies of the console were still inadequate due in part to issues with scalpers purchasing as much as 10% of all PlayStation 5 consoles sold, but mostly due to severe supply and logistical constraints.

During the Japanese launch retailers to took unusual precautions to meet high demand.

Afterlaunch
In December of 2020 the image of the PS5 on the Wikipedia page garnered some attention due to the inclusion of curtains in the background.

By early 2021 the lack of color variations for the PlayStation 5 created a small market for 3rd party replacement plates in other styles.

A PlayStation 5 VR headset was announced on February 23rd, 2021 with a slated 2022 release date.

By July 2021 10 million PlayStation 5 consoles had been sold.

In September 2021 it was announced that expanded support for free cross gen upgrades for first party games would be discontinued.

In early November 2021, two separate groups announced flaws in the security of the PlayStation 5, potentially allowing for a vibrant homebrew scene to emerge.

Compute
The PS5 uses an 8 core, 16 thread AMD Ryzen Zen 2 CPU clocked at up to 3.5 gigahertz. The AMD based GPU is capable of Ray-Tracing and has a variable frequency, typically clocked at 2.23 gigahertz with a performance of 10.3 teraflops.

The PS5 has 16 gigabytes of GDDR6 RAM with 448GB/s bandwidth.

Storage
A 825GB Solid State Drive is used in the PS5, with 5.5GB/s bandwidth during reads. An M.2 expansion bay exists for upgradable storage. Sony manufactured aftermarket storage drives.

An UltraHD Blu Ray drive is included on some systems, with a maximum disk capacity of 100GB.

Software
The PlayStation 5 includes a web browser which is not meant to be user accessible.

Cooling
The heatsink used on the Playstation 5 is very large. Liquid Metal is used as a thermal compound. Different fans were used in some consoles.

A change to a smaller heatsink was controversial, but ultimately appeared to either not to signficantly affect performance or to slightly improve it.

In 2020 Sony announced that the 120mm PS5 cooling fan was controllable by software, and would be updated for optimal performance.

Controller
The DualSense controller contains adaptive variable triggers for force feedback.

The DualSense controller is coated with a microtexture composed of 40,000 PlayStation symbols.

Drift is a common issue with the DualSense controller due to a possible defect.

The Dualsense controller sports updatable firmware. By late December 2020 Sony released an official driver for the controller on Linux.

Other
The system uses an HDMI 2.1 port.

Optional accessories
The PlayStation 5 HD camera records 1080p video using dual internal wide angle cameras. The camera is integrated with an adjustable position stand.

The PlayStation 5 media remote includes a microphone and is powered by two AA batteries.

Astro's Playroom
Pre-downloaded game included on all launch era PlayStation 5 consoles.

Read more about Astro's Playroom on Wikipedia.

Demon's Souls
2020 remake of the original.

Read more about Demon's Souls on Wikipedia.

Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart
Read more about Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart on Wikipedia.

Returnal
Read more about Returnal on Wikipedia.

Destruction AllStars
Read more about Destruction AllStars on Wikipedia.

Ghostwire: Tokyo
Read more about Ghostwire: Tokyo on Wikipedia.

Final Fantasy XVI
Read more about Final Fantasy XVI on Wikipedia.

Spider Man 2
Read more about Spider-Man 2 on Wikipedia.

External Resources

 * PlayStation website