Sony is changing things up with the PS5 and the newly announced PS5 Digital Edition that were unveiled today during the PS5 gameplay reveal event.
The console, shown at the very end of the event, has an almost Alienware-esque, space age design to it with a black center piece and a rounded white top and bottom. The console was shown in a vertical position on a stand throughout the unveiling, leading us to believe that it needs to stay in that orientation, but Sony hasn't confirmed that yet.
Sony also announced a new Digital Edition of the console - seen on the right - that doesn't feature a disc tray / 4K Blu-ray player like the main PS5.
In addition to the console, Sony showed off the first batch of accessories including a headset, DualSense Charging Station, media remote and an HD camera, all of which match the design of the PS5.
What's the deal with the PS5 Digital Edition?
Sony is taking a page out of Microsoft's book by launching a disc-less console - one that runs solely off digital downloads. You'll buy all your games from the PlayStation Store and keep them on the console's SSD, on an external hard drive or in the cloud.
It's likely Sony is making the move to a Digital Edition to shave some cost off the new hardware - though, that part is purely conjecture as Sony has yet to make any announcement on specific pricing yet.
Microsoft made a similar move last year with the Xbox One S All-Digital Edition, and is rumored to release a lower-cost Xbox Series X that follows the same format called Project Lockhart.
As far as we know, the console will have the same specs as the regular PS5 in terms of GPU, CPU, memory and storage, but there is a chance that those specs might differ in order for Sony to cut costs.
What did we learn about the design today?
Because this is the first time we're seeing the console, a lot, actually.
Looking at the face of the console we can see a USB and USB Type-C port on the front, as well as two physical buttons for power and, in the case of the main PS5 console, eject for the disc tray.
We also got a chance to see how the console will handle ventilation, which is crucial for sustained performance. It seems like Sony is using vents on both the left and right side of the console to keep things cool.
We're still waiting to see the back of the console to see what it has in terms of inputs and outputs, but that's likely to come sometime in the near future.
Remind me what's happening on the inside?
Today was all about the design and the new games coming to the console in 2020 and beyond, but it's worth reminding everyone what the console has under the hood.
Namely, that includes an AMD Zen 2-based CPU with 8 cores at 3.5GHz and a 10.28 TFLOP custom RDNA 2 GPU that has 36 CUs at 2.23GHz. It uses a custom 825GB SSD and 16GB GDDR6 memory with a streamlined system architecture that, according to the lead console architect Mark Cerny, eliminates bottle necks.
Finally, it will have a 4K UHD Blu-ray drive... or at least the regular PS5 will. The PS5 Digital Edition will have to stream movies or buy them from the store - which isn't the end of the world either way.
Both consoles are expected out at the same time, Holiday 2020 a.k.a. November or December of this year, and you can count on us being there to cover them.
- What can the PS5 play? Here are all the PS5 games announced so far
