Sony has announced that its PlayStation 5 game console will be launched globally at the end of 2020 in time for the holiday season.
Sony said that the new PlayStation 5 console will be introduced in December 2020 with a new controller which used enhanced vibration technology. It will also include a solid-state drive (SSD) that will enable faster boot up of games and reduced loading times.
A new technology will also be used to upgrade the console's graphics for better lighting effects.
In a blog post on the PlayStation website, Jim Ryan, president of Sony Interactive Entertainment, said that the company wanted to "deepen the feeling of immersion when you play games" through the new controller. He claims that Sony focused on making the games feel more realistic "so crashing into a wall in a race car feels much different than making a tackle on the football field."
Ryan added: "You can even get a sense for a variety of textures when running through fields of grass or plodding through mud." While currently, there are no pictures of the new console or information on which games will be launched alongside the PlayStation 5, Ryan assures that the Sony will be providing more details on the console in the coming months.
This follows Microsoft's announcement of its latest version of the Xbox console, currently dubbed as Project Scarlett, which apparently will also be released around Christmas 2020. Similar upgrades were also made to the PlayStation's rival console.
The launch announcements from Sony and Microsoft come at a time when more people are moving away from traditional consoles and moving towards streaming games online through various devices, with mobile phones being the most popular.
Game subscriptions have been introduced by both Google and Apple in recent years in order to capitalize on this trend and compete with Sony's PlayStation Now online gaming service.
