PS5 REVEAL

Mixed reaction as Sony finally shows PS5

WE NOW KNOW what the PlayStation 5 will look like. The black and white box features rounded corners and distinct fins, or wings. There are the near-obligatory blue LED lights too. It certainly looks better sitting vertically. Thankfully it looks nothing like the many bizarre renders we’ve seen online over the last months. Even so its slightly bold design has attracted some criticism, particularly on Twitter. That bastion of good taste has already run with an ugly duckling meme. There are two designs, one with an optical drive and one without, and the latter is slightly thinner. PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan claimed the company wants to take some risks with design, and it certainly makes the Xbox Series X look like a black block with a light on top, which it is.

We’ve known the basic hardware specifications for a while now (4K games at 60fps, 3.5GHz Zen 2 CPU and RDNA 2 GPU with 16GB). It’ll be here for the holidays, so how much? When the PS4 launched against the Xbox One in 2013, Sony undercut its rival. Microsoft announced a $499 price tag, and the next day Sony announced a $399 one. It has been hoped that Sony would repeat the trick, but that looks highly unlikely now, as the PS5 has some expensive silicon in it, especially with all that fast solid state storage. Rumors of a $600 machine aren’t looking so ridiculous. The pundits are now backing a price of $500, or possibly a little more.

Meanwhile, Microsoft’s Xbox Series X could be in for a $400 price. It seems Microsoft may be willing to take a loss to get the sales. Microsoft has the money to take a hit, and now that streaming services give you profits for years afterwards it’s not so important to make money on the boxes themselves.

Microsoft appears to be waiting for Sony to blink first.

Either way we are in line for some seriously powerful consoles.