As with any new technology, rumors about Sony’s upcoming gaming console continue to swirl. Some of the newest ones boast some very intriguing features.

Not all of these features have been confirmed and rumors are subject to change.

Potentially the biggest feature is the backwards compatibility. The PS5 will work with all other games before it meaning that the collection people have built with the PS4 over the past six years will still be playable when they upgrade. 

PS4 games will still be playable by disk as Sony has elected to stick with a disk drive as opposed to following Microsoft in the all-digital form of gameplay. 

While the official look for the new console has not been confirmed, the developer kits have a very unique appearance. It appears as a large block with a V-shaped cutout on the top and air vents all across the side. 

Tech reviewer Lew Later stated, “It looked like a V10 engine, it looks like a spaceship.” 

It’s much more aggressive than any previous console although it likely won’t stay with the final model.

Looking inside the console the old hard drive has been upgraded to a solid state drive. It has been reported to have had a major impact on the speed of local gameplay. 

Later said,  “A Spider-man level was able to able to load in less than a second.”

More specs on the inside show an increase in graphics capacity. Supposedly, Sony will grant consoles with the ability to run games at 8K resolution and 4K at 120 Hz. 

The software will also get an upgrade according to Twitter. The new user interface will “appear far more interactive.” Players will also be able to join multiplayer from the home rather than the game. It’s a nice feature that speeds up online gaming. 

Even more appealing is the option to download part of a game. For instance, if a user only wants to play the online multiplayer they will only need to download that part of the program. It’ll save space on the drive and save time downloading parts of a game players may not use frequently.

South High Senior Nolan Baird was especially excited about this feature. 

“I don’t use PlayStation Plus so all this [online] multiplayer stuff takes up space.” 

That’s space that even with a terabyte of storage can begin to run low with enough games.

With specs that can compete in the PC area, PS5 will also come with a competitive price point. The console should start at $499 when it launches in November 2020. This also places it very well it to compete with the XBox brand right before the holiday season.

The price is about $100 more than PS4. Baird seemed unsure about the raise.

 “I don’t know yet. You gotta see the finished product then you can make a decision.” said Baird.

Dimond senior River Mahugh provided an alternate view. 

“I want to upgrade pretty strongly because the PS4 has been out since like 2013 which is kind of a long time for tech to stay relevant. It’s still a good system (PS4) but it is started to struggle more than it used to, especially when it gets super warm.”

In addition to the console, there have been patents leaked for the next generation of controller.

While the name has not been officially announced, it seems safe to call the new controller the DualShock 5 to keep with the current naming scheme.

Sony looks to be keeping with the conventional layout and look of the DualShock 4 with the exception that according to The Verge, “There’s a USB-C port on the back and apparently, the light bar on the back of the controller is gone.”  It’s exciting to see that USB-C is making more headway in becoming the central charging cable.

The biggest change to the controller dramatically changes they way that players will receive input from their controller. Sony will be moving away from rumble control and moving to haptic feedback.

Rumble controls are the technology that makes the controller vibrate in accordance to the gameplay on screen. This has so far been limited to different strengths of vibration through the entire controller. Haptic feedback takes this much farther.

Haptic feedback is much more precise in how the controller and its effects feel. It could change the strength of the triggers depending on what tool is in use. It brings more sophisticated vibrations to really distinguish the types of vibrations felt in different scenarios of gameplay.

By far the most outlandish rumor for  DualShock 5 is the idea of having a second display. The idea is that a small screen could be placed on the controller where the touchpad currently resides being used for displaying inventory or minimaps. Sony has released no plans to follow through with the idea and it hasn’t been in any patents.

Baird had some concerns regarding the screen. 

“That’s really small and the Wii U tried to do that… it could add to the cost of repairing it, if that screen gets damaged it will be a lot more expensive than if a trigger gets loose,” he said. 

Another interesting idea was to make the screen an accessory that could add the benefits without the risk of implementing it in the controller.

Mahugh agreed that the feature may go unused. 

“I’m not sure I would use a screen in the controller at all because I never look at the controller when playing so I think it would mostly go unnoticed. Especially since I play a lot of games where looking away from the screen will cost me valuable seconds that will hinder my ability to play well.”

PlayStation has in interesting leg up on XBox in one other category. It is the only console to provide a Virtual Reality  experience. 

While far from the most advanced VR available, PSVR uniquely allows for VR to be easily played on a console. But if anyone was wondering about the status of PSVR 2, there’s not much to say.

These is little information as to if Sony even plans to upgrade the PSVR experience, although it will be compatible with the PS5. One patent suggests the potential to make the experience wireless like certain PCVR adapters and to improve tracking but the state of the production is unknown. 

Mahugh listed this as one feature he wanted most that hadn’t been leaked yet. 

“Other features I want out of the PS5 are a more advanced VR system which I know is coming too but I want to see what the system will be able to.”

PS5 has even caught the attention of XBox users. 

South High Freshman Will Fontana said he is only towards XBox “because I only have ever played on an XBox and owned one.” 

Fontana said that after reviewing the specs of PS5 he definitely wants to move to team blue. Fontana also mentioned he would be interested in seeing more cross compatibility between Microsoft and Sony consoles.