Consoles Hub

The covers and cases for games for the PlayStation 5 have become the latest design aspect of the next-generation console that talented fans have decided to focus on, with some settling for square-shaped concepts and others preferring a more rectangular approach to the all-important case design. Square-shaped cases for games were common with the original PlayStation.

Capcom is reportedly working on a remake of Resident Evil 4. While few details are known, the success of the Resident Evil 2 and 3 remakes have likely spurred Capcom to continue releasing remakes of its storied survival horror series.

Details about Godfall, an exclusive title for the PlayStation 5, have surfaced on the ResetEra forums. Godfall will not be compatible with the PlayStation 4 but will look to harness the complete power of the PS5's CPU and GPU for an immersive gaming experience. Whether alienating an entire generation of console players will pay off or not is something that remains to be seen.

An observant Reddit user has offered up a timely reminder about the speed of the upcoming PlayStation 5’s SSD. In a demo from last year, a PS5 devkit thrashed a PS4 Pro in a loading and rendering comparison using Marvel’s Spider-Man as the test game. However, it seems many have forgotten that this PS4 Pro-whupping devkit was actually a “low-speed” variant.

Import sales of Animal Crossing: New Horizons have been halted and banned in China. Though the reasons for the ban are still unknown, a likely cause is the use of the game's online features by protestors to speak out against the Chinese Communist Party.

Snoreyn (aka designer Giuseppe Spinelli) has often impressed with a number of PS5-related concept designs and this latest effort is no different. The talented artist seems to have combined design language from the PS4 and the DualSense controller to come up with this new set of more than convincing PlayStation 5 console renders.

A blog has presented a new infographic showing the effect of the "coronavirus crisis" on gaming habits. It shows that 36% of causal gamers reported spending more time on this pursuit due to this situation, compared to 53% of non-casuals. In addition, it appears that, amidst a general market decline, stocks in gaming companies are up.

Although playing World of Warcraft with a game controller is possible, the game does not fully support this control method out of the box. However, World of Warcraft: Shadowlands is expected to sport support for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 controllers, so we can only wonder if the game will also hit Sony's console.

With all the incredible fanfare surrounding the recent reveal of the new DualSense controller for the PS5, many may have missed some important details from Sony Interactive Entertainment boss Jim Ryan. The executive has offered reassurance that the PlayStation 5 will launch in Holiday 2020 and a look at the console will take place “in the coming months”.

Sony unexpectedly announced the PlayStation 5 DualSense controller yesterday, but its design has had some unintended consequences. Not only did it cause its rival to trend on social media, but it has resulted in people making all kinds of unflattering comparisons.

Another retailer has created a placeholder price for the upcoming PlayStation 5, and yet again the figure chosen is high enough to unnerve those fans hoping for something well under US$500. An interesting fan-made PS5 concept design has taken its cues from a combination of the just unveiled DualSense controller and the Xbox Series X.

Sony has unveiled its next-generation PlayStation 5 controller. It has undergone a significant redesign, unlike the Xbox Series X controller, and also picks up a new name – ‘DualSense’. However, its console continues to stay under wraps for the time being.

While Atari is still struggling to manufacture its latest game console and ship it to Indiegogo backers, the system architect is suing the company for US$260,000, the salary that he claims the company still owes him.

A Crytek developer by the name of Ali Salehi has opined in an interview to a Persian gaming site that developing for the PlayStation 5 is easier than the Xbox Series X. He also said that the Xbox's higher TFLOP advantage is only applicable in ideal conditions and that the PS5 can better sustain peak performance.

An expertly created concept render of the PlayStation 5 retail box has been made by noted designer Giuseppe Spinelli. The authentic-looking packaging gives yet another glimpse at what the PS5 console could look like, presuming Sony and Spinelli are even slightly in synch in regard to design. Considering recent developments, the new render is a welcome positive note.

Naughty Dog and PlayStation have announced delays for The Last of Us Part II and Marvel’s Iron Man VR. According to statements from both companies, the current worldwide crisis has created logistical problems that mean the titles have to be put on hold “until further notice”. The Last of Us Part II had been scheduled for release on May 29.

A controversial post about the PlayStation 5 has rapidly spread across social media and forums due to its content. Although the claims made are currently unverifiable and the poster has made previous desultory comments about PlayStation hardware, the post has been successful in unsettling many concerned about a potential PS5 delay.

This year's April 1st special takes Gaijin's game to space, but also come with a special event that can end up with a very rare piece of military hardware, namely the Object 279 heavy tank. Back in 2016 and 2017, these special events involved ships and modern tanks, which were both added to the game since then.

A video clip of a supposed PlayStation 5 devkit in action has been recently uploaded to YouTube. There is a brief glimpse at the hardware and then the camera moves to a large monitor where we get a great look at the main menu and user interface. It’s an impressive show, but unfortunately for PS5 fans this is definitely fake.

There are reports that Nintendo has big plans to celebrate 35 years since Super Mario Bros. came out. The celebration apparently includes remastering a whole host of Super Mario games specifically for the Nintendo Switch. Super Mario 64, Super Mario Sunshine, and Super Mario Galaxy are believed to be on the remaster list.

Although nobody knows the exact PS5 price yet there have been quite a few retailers creating placeholders offering up details in regard to the cost and release date of the next-gen console. The latest offering, which comes from Play N Trade Vancouver Island, suggests that the PlayStation 5 could end up being quite a bargain.

The website for a Danish chain of supermarkets called føtex has created a placeholder for the upcoming PlayStation 5 that offers an astonishingly high price and a release date for the console. A new fan-made concept design will fill gamers with nostalgia, and a poll by IGN has shown that the PS5 is still the most-wanted next-gen console.

GPD is currently offering some great discounts on its range of well-regarded handheld computers and consoles. The sale is part of a 10th anniversary celebration being held by AliExpress. Currently, it’s possible to pick up a GPD WIN 2 for US$620 or a P2 Max mini laptop for US$732.06. Further discounts are available for new customers and through coupons.

Video-game retailer GameStop has stated that there should be no delay to the launch of the PlayStation 5 console later this year. A tenuous leak on an imageboard has suggested that both Daredevil and Wolverine could be headed to the PS5. A fun GPU comparison has revealed that the next-gen console’s GPU’s TFLOPS count is equivalent to 1,658 PS2 GPUs.

Excited for the PlayStation 5 later this year? Well, amid all the noise about the console's specifications, Sony is briefing developers that its SSD should make playing a game as easy as opening Netflix. Is the next-generation console's custom drive not a gimmick after all?

The venerable and highly configurable design of the Trident 3 is paying off for MSI. First launched during the Nvidia Pascal days, the internals have been updated to sport the latest desktop-class Coffee Lake-H CPUs and the removable GTX 1660 Super graphics card.

A survey of US households with broadband internet resulted in findings that 76% of this group reported that they would find life harder without these services. Given that this research was conducted in the last quarter of 2019 (4Q2019), this number may be even higher now. This study also suggested that more ISPs should bundle streaming subscriptions with their services.

Perhaps fearing another Death Stranding or Horizon Zero Dawn fiasco, rumours are circulating that God of War may be headed to PC, too. While that may prey on the vulnerabilities of PlayStation fanboys, there is little evidence to suggest that this is the case.

With the release of the PS5 console, Sony may decide to gradually open up the PS4 exclusive game catalog for ports on other platforms. Detroit: Become Human was already ported last year, while Death Stranding and Horizon: Zero Dawn are expected to come to the PC this year, and next in line could be God of War 2018, as Sony will be shifting its focus on the PS5 exclusives.

According to new analysis, Microsoft will catch Sony up somewhat with the pair's next-generation consoles. However, while Microsoft will achieve a larger market share with the Xbox Series X than it did with the Xbox One, Xbox One S and Xbox One X, Sony will hold out with the PlayStation 5. Ultimately, Sony will prevail as the king of the console wars once again.

The landing page for the PlayStation 5 has been updated but unfortunately there is still no news about how much the console will cost, when it might be unveiled, or when the specific release date is. However, it seems the coronavirus pandemic may not have affected PS5 production, at least for the time being, as the holiday 2020 launch is still on.

AMD has enjoyed a good week in terms of the sales data leaked from Mindfactory. Unsurprisingly, the popularity of the company’s Ryzen 3000 series has continued to help it keep a very strong lead over Intel in CPU sales; however, the previously stumbling Radeon RX 5000 series has enjoyed considerable uptake lately to greatly improve Team Red’s GPU share.

Sculptor Monitor is a start-up that has launched its eponymous new external display on Indiegogo. The company claims that it addresses a number of drawbacks of the average standalone monitor with this new device. They include USB type C ports that only do data or charging, bulky designs and a lack of 4K.

The next-gen console specifications have been revealed and on paper the numbers are clearly more favorable for the Xbox Series X. While many PlayStation 5 fans have been bemoaning the perception that Microsoft seems to have outplayed Sony, they have overlooked the fact of just how much the PS5 has to offer over the PS4.

If you’re an F1 fan, the postponement of all current F1 races until the end of May will be a hard pill to swallow. However, out of all the doom and gloom, F1 has announced that it will launch a new F1 Esports Virtual Grand Prix series featuring “a number” of current F1 drivers which should make for some good entertainment.

During Sony’s announcement of the PlayStation 5’s key specifications, the console maker lavished a lot of attention on the PS5’s new SSD. While the 5.5 GB/s storage solution is blazing fast, it is not a cure-all for other, fundamental compromises in the PlayStation 5’s architecture relative to the Series X.

Now that we know the specifications of the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5, which console is the best? Considering all the factors that play into a console's graphical capabilities and its overall success, comparing specs on paper is a largely useless endeavor that ignores the broader picture of the console gaming experience.

Sony’s claim that high clockspeeds offset its meagre shader allocation on the PlayStation 5 doesn’t hold water when Navi overclocking results are factored in. Due to non-linear performance/clock scaling, the likely performance deficit between the two consoles is in the 25-30 percent range, which may have a major impact on 4K performance.

Some new information about Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 for the PlayStation 5 has been leaked on Reddit. A reveal of the title being developed by Insomniac Games is expected for summer, with the game possibly being released by September 2021. Animation-heavy web-swinging should allow gamers to fully enjoy the performance capabilities of the PS5’s GPU.

It’s possible the Xbox product page just revealed the Xbox Series X release date. At the bottom of the page is the Xbox Series X logo and the slogan “power your dreams”. However, some regional variants of the site had the additional text “coming Thanksgiving 2020” underneath the slogan. An Xbox executive has reported the potential reveal as “inaccurately listed”.

Sony is equipping the PlayStation 5 with a revolutionary Tempest 3D audio engine that focuses a lot on positional audio experiences using HRTF methods. The PS5's Tempest Engine actually leverages an entire GPU compute unit for audio processing. Sony will be further improving audio in the years to come, and this may involve creating HRTF profiles based on the photo of a user's ear or head.

One of the defining features of the PlayStation 5 and one that Mark Cerny stressed a lot upon is the console's storage. Sony's custom flash controller has performance equivalent to that of nine Zen 2 cores and can deliver up to 5.5 GB/s of raw and up to 9 GB/s of compressed throughput. The PlayStation 5 will also be compatible with both USB and NVMe external storage solutions, but Sony prefers waiting it out before existing NVMe M.2 drives can be validated for the console.

Sony's Mark Cerny spoke in detail about the PlayStation 5's GPU, which is a custom designed AMD RDNA 2 chip. The PS5's GPU has a lower CU count than the Xbox Series X but has higher clocks and boosts differently compared to PCs and the Xbox. Sony intended to drive home the point that TFLOPs alone do not account for all the factors that collectively impact GPU performance.

(Update: The feature will be coming to the Sony PlayStation 5.) The AMD-only feature can give you "free" CPU and GPU performance by dynamically optimizing the power budget between the processors. Laptops with Nvidia or Intel hardware need not apply even though they make up the vast majority of the gaming laptops in the market.

Sony offered details into how the boost clocks of the Zen 2 CPU and RDNA 2 GPU in the PS5's SoC are regulated. Sony's approach of using a constant power but varying frequency should allow all PS5 units to process data in the same manner irrespective of ambient temperature. It also allows the GPU to boost way higher than anything that is available from AMD in the PC space.

Sony has finally taken the wraps off the PlayStation 5's much anticipated specs. PS5 Chief Architect Mark Cerny, in a pre-recorded webcast, talked in detail about the various hardware choices in the console and how they affect gaming. On paper, the Xbox Series X looks to have the edge in this generation, but it is too early to conclude anything before testing out some real games.

Tipster @rogame correlated a 2017 patent filing with a leaked quote on the RDNA2 architecture to identify how exactly the Xbox Series X’s ray-tracing hardware functions.

GPD has put its Win Max handheld computer through extensive testing in regard to its gaming capabilities. The company has measured FPS rates for numerous games and has come up with some great results that should attract plenty of customers. All the upper figures recorded were over 30 FPS, but some titles delivered unplayable lower rates for the GPD Win Max.

Following the heels of Microsoft fully unveiling the Xbox Series X, Sony is all set to reveal the PlayStation 5's internals via live streaming today. Leaked specs so far show a very tight competition in terms of specs between the two consoles, and it will be interesting to see how well the PlayStation 5 can match or exceed the standards set by the Xbox Series X.

Sony has still to officially present the PlayStation 5 next-gen console to the world. In the meantime, there have been plenty of concept renders made for the PS5, with two more turning up recently that offer a fresh perspective at what the console could look like. There is a growing belief that the coronavirus pandemic may be contributing to Sony’s continued silence.