PS5 release date, specs and all you need to know

We’ve had our first look at the PS5, now we want to know more

Price

The PS5 (or PlayStation 5) is Sony’s long-awaited next-generation console. It costs $499.99 / £449.99 / AU$749.95 and will be available from November 12, 2020 (in select markets such as the US and Japan) and November 19, 2020, for the rest of the world, including the UK. Sony is also releasing a Digital Edition of the console, which removes the disc drive and costs $399.99 / £359.99 / AU$599.95.

After months of speculation, leaks, and announcements, we now know pretty much everything about the PS5 – and we’ve even had some time with it ourselves. Though Sony’s marketing strategy has been to drip-feed information, we’ve now seen the PS5 design (including a full teardown video and a look at the new UI), know all about the PS5 games coming to the console – including Horizon Forbidden West and Spider-Man: Miles Morales – and been given an in-depth look at the console’s specs and features. These include an NVMe SSD for super-fast load times, ray-tracing support, a built-in 4K Blu-ray player, and backward compatibility with thousands of titles in the PS4’s game library.

However, and most importantly, we finally know the PS5 price and release date  – and it’s set to go head-to-head with Microsoft’s Xbox Series X. Both consoles will be hot property this November (which is just weeks away), and will be vying for consumers’ cash come the holiday season.

PS5 vs PS4

The PS5 is a vastly different console to the PS4, with its space-age black-and-white color scheme representing a noticeable shift from PlayStation designs of the past. There’s also more than one PS5 console releasing this year, too, as Sony has also confirmed it’s going to be releasing a PS5 Digital Edition – a streamlined, digital-only console without a disc drive.

Both consoles are going to be pretty powerful from what we know about the PS5 specs. We’ll cover them in full below, but specs-wise, the PS5 (and its digital alternative) are rocking an AMD Zen 2-based CPU with 8 cores at 3.5GHz, 16GB of GDDR6 memory, and a custom RDNA 2 AMD GPU that puts out 10.28 TFLOPs of processing power. That might sound like nonsense if you’re not up on this kind of jargon, but prospective PS5 players have a lot to be excited about. 

Details

We’ve got full PS5 details for you below, including our early impressions and detailed breakdowns of pricing and availability, so read on to find out everything you need to know about the PlayStation 5.

PS5: Key facts 

• What is it? The Sony PS5 is the next-gen PlayStation console.
• When will it release? November 12 in the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Mexico, South Korea, and November 19 for the rest of the world.
• What will the PS5 cost? $499.99 / £449.99 / AU$749.95 for the standard console, and $399.99 / £359.99 / AU$599.95 for the disc-less PS5 Digital Edition.
• What can I play on it? Loads of games! They include a new Spider-Man entry, a Horizon Zero Dawn sequel, a Demon’s Souls remake, and much more to come.
• Can I play PS4 games on the PS5? Yes! The PS5 is backward compatible with “almost all” PS4 games – earlier generations are still to be confirmed. It will launch with support for the majority of the top 100 PS4 games, but it’s been suggested support will extend to most of the PS4’s library. 
• Will the PS5 support PS4 accessories? Mostly. The DualShock 4 controller will work with supported PS4 games, while officially licensed PS4 arcade sticks, flight sticks. racing wheels and some PS4 headsets are supported. 
• Will PS5 have VR? Oh yes. The next-gen console will support current PSVR hardware, and there are also rumors of PSVR 2.

Release Date

• PS5 pre-order date: September 17 (live now)
• PS5 release date: November 12 (US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Mexico, South Korea)
• PS5 rest of the world release date: November 19

Sony has officially confirmed that the PS5 release date is November 12 for the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Mexico, and South Korea, while the rest of the world will have to wait a week for the PlayStation 5 to arrive on November 19 – putting it in direct competition with the Xbox Series X, which is releasing on November 10.