In case you missed the latest PlayStation stream organized this Wednesday, don’t worry too much. While most of us gamers expected it to be the grand reveal of the latest PlayStation console – it didn’t come to pass. Instead, Sony’s Mark Cerny gave an in-depth introduction to the hardware which is PlayStation 5. The talk was a big technical talk mostly dedicated to game developers instead of the actual gamers. However, we also received some valuable information about the new console.
Let’s start with a confirmation – yes, you’ll be able to play almost all your PlayStation 4 games on PlayStation 5 at launch. During the presentation, Mark Cerny talked about backward compatibility and how his team tackled the issue. According to him, the hardware architecture of PS4, PS4 Pro and PS5 allows perfect scalability between platforms. The only thing that can become a roadblock to make a game backward compatible is due to the game design itself. Some games might not be designed to run on hardware that runs incredibly fast compared to earlier hardware generations. However, the majority of PlayStation 4 titles are.
Another big leap forward in technology might come in the form of new audio. According to Mark Cerny, PlayStation 5 will be able to recreate 3D audio. This new PlayStation 5 feature is called Tempest 3D Audio Tech which is basically a technology that creates hundreds of advanced sound sources and adds dimensionality to all game sounds. This all sounds lovely and if this technology works well, this might be one of the biggest differences between PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X.
All in all, Mark Cerny’s speech was full of interesting details and if you’re into all the technical gibberish, we suggest checking it out – we believe you’ll find a lot of interesting insights into the thought process of one of the greatest hardware architects of our time. If you’re not fluent in technical terms and would love to hear more about the games… well, you’ll have to wait a bit longer.
Here’s a full presentation:
