Sony has confirmed that its Playstation 5 is on the way, and revealed some crucial details about the next-generation game console.
In an interview with Wired magazine, lead system architect Mark Cerny said that the PlayStation 5 will be more powerful than its predecessor, thanks to an eight-core AMD Ryzen processor.
The AMD chip includes a custom unit for 3D audio that Cerny says will make the player "feel more immersed in the game as sounds come at you from above, from behind, and from the side".
The console will also feature a Radeon Navi graphics card, which will support 8K graphics and "ray tracing" - a technique that mimics the way light bounces off 3D objects for heightened realism.
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While ray tracing is a staple of Hollywood visual effects, it is only just appearing in modern PC graphics cards, and no game console has been able to manage it yet.
However, what Cerny describes as the "true game changer" is the fact that the Playstation 5 will have a solid state drive (SSD), replacing the hard disc drive usually found in games consoles.
Cerny didn't reveal exact details about the hard drive, but claims that it has a higher bandwidth than any SSD available for PCs, enabling faster downloads, faster graphics rendering and shorter load times.
He demonstrated that a fast-travel manoeuvre in the game Spider-Man takes just 0.8 seconds on a PS5 prototype, compared to 15 seconds on a PS4 Pro.
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The new console will be backward-compatible with Playstation 4 games, and will accept physical media as well as downloads, according to Wired.
Cerny quashed rumours that the PS5 would be released in 2019, but confirmed that a number of game studios are already working with development kits for the new console.
He also hinted that Sony plans to respond to the new wave of game streaming services from the likes of Google Stadia, Apple Arcade and Microsoft's Project xCloud for Xbox.
"We are cloud-gaming pioneers, and our vision should become clear as we head toward launch," he said.
