Playstation 5 [PS5] [Release November 12 2020]

[Mianca]

With the PS5's (external) design somewhat revealed, let's speculate about how it might be constructed INSIDE, i.e. what kind of cooling solution and airflow SONY applies.

For what it is worth, the design seems to lend itself VERY much to an application of the (through-PCB) cooling patent that was published some time ago. This way, they could actually use two heatsinks (one at each side of the main PCB) to maximise effective heat dissipation.

Here is a quick and dirty illustration of what I mean (notice that - while the XBOX Series X PULLS cool air up through the heat sink - the PS5 might very well use a fan to PUSH hot air out. Very much like the solution applied in many graphics cards - but maybe (?) improved by the use of two heatsinks that "sandwich" the main PCB):

PS: I am aware that the fan would need to be designed somewhat differently, btw (I just used the first image I found and patched it in) ... but you get the gist.

 

[Kaotik]

Thanks that the first pic I've seen of it laid on its side.

Now just sort out the HDMI 2.1 thing.

I don't think there's a UHD Blu Ray player which has 2.1 yet. Not sure if UHD Blu Ray spec supports the higher frame rates and bandwidth of 2.1 though. But presumably PS5 will have apps. which stream UHD HDR video and potentially Dolby Atmos audio.

MS has confirmed HDMI 2.1 and XSX includes UHD Bluray drive (like XB1S and X before it). Though I'm pretty sure Sony will support 2.1 too.

 

[MrFox]

Digital foundry video is up! And they saw RT reflex where I saw them.

DF is always fun to watch, I'm so jealous of the amount of fun all three of them seem to be having at work. It's not fair.

 

[Pete]

With digital, two of you can play at the same time with 1 license bought.

Technically that’s a gray area. Sony doesn’t want you doing that. But it’s a neat hack. Can you play a multiplayer game together? Do you both need PS+?

By psn games yo you means digital games or online games or tiny psn games? (tagged as PSN Games in psn in some region).

If it's digital games, you need to set your console as primary to be able to use them without internet.

It was a digital copy of Bloodborne Complete, IIRC (paid, not a PS+ freebie, thouh I can’t remember if my PS+ was lapsed at the time). I had a single PS4 set as primary. Maybe it was a fluke. I guess I could try to replicate it, but I get enough aggro from the GT Sport daily races.

Target / Walmart / BestBuy can just get rid of huge sections of low margin games. They can instead stock DD cards which are worthless if stolen and use some of the space they got back from games to stock higher margin gaming stuff like head phones or controllers or cases and what not.

I like the tiny game cases BB uses for XB1 instead of cards.

 

[Strange]

Technically that’s a gray area. Sony doesn’t want you doing that. But it’s a neat hack. Can you play a multiplayer game together? Do you both need PS+?


It was a digital copy of Bloodborne Complete, IIRC (paid, not a PS+ freebie, thouh I can’t remember if my PS+ was lapsed at the time). I had a single PS4 set as primary. Maybe it was a fluke. I guess I could try to replicate it, but I get enough aggro from the GT Sport daily races.


I like the tiny game cases BB uses for XB1 instead of cards.

Both accounts need PS+ to do that.

Playstation 1 Primary account A, uses account B to play a game bought with Account A, license validated because game is played on machine where the "bought " account is primary
Playstation 2 Primary account B, uses account A to play a game bought with Account A, license validated because account A is playing the account's bought game.

You still play online with Accounts A and B, thus both requires playstation Plus.

 

[Pete]

So you could play, say, Star Wars Battlefront 2 or Gran Turismo Sport together with a single copy of a game? That’s wild.

 

[Strange]

So you could play, say, Star Wars Battlefront 2 or Gran Turismo Sport together with a single copy of a game? That’s wild.

Yes

Used to be 5 or so , then 3, now 2.
only doable on digital though.

 

[eastmen]

I like the tiny game cases BB uses for XB1 instead of cards.

Gamestop had a ton of tins of each console back in the day that the gift card went into.

I've said this before but retail space is expensive. If you go into a target the Bluray / DVD and the Games sections take up a lot of space and the margin is really low on that. Then you have to add in all the additional costs.
1) Shrink - Someone steals a video game and that's a $60 shrink right there and a lost sale for the retailer and the company who made the game. Someone steals a piece of card board … that's cents and no one can activate them aside from the store. So retailers / publishers don't loose any money on that aside from a few cents.

2)Space - I talked about it above but in the size of a single xbox or ps 4 game box you can fit a lot of cardboard gift cards. Depending on the design I've seen you can typically fit 2 in the size of a box and then around 5 to 7 in the thickness of a game case , maybe upwards of 10. So you can have upwards of 20 times the inventory in the same space.
Space is also felt in shipping costs

3) Security - This is like shrink but its more the cost to avoid shrink. With new releases of Games a lot of stores like target or Walmart will either have them in large glass displays that require someone to come and unlock them or in plastic cases with magnetic locks. In both cases you need to pay for someones time to do all this. You can argue that stocking the gift cards takes the same time as stocking game cases. However if you've ever used those locking cases they can add a lot more time to the process and of course the case costs money , the special keys cost money and you have the time for someone to put it in the case and to take it out of the case at check out.

4) old games - for a store the only two options with old games is to discount them or destroy them. Depending on the store they've already paid a certain amount to have that game in the store. So this is all money sitting on a shelf and as the game ages the value the store gets off them decreases. Stores want stuff that flys off the shelfs and doesn't sit. With digital you have 2 types of digital , a strait out monetary amount per card that can be used for anything. These never go bad and then you have the ones for a specific game. Except those are cents. So a store can just toss them when they stop selling.

There are a lot reasons why a target or Walmart would want digital only. They will make the most off controllers and head phones and hdmi cables and the like. Of course for gamestop used games are a big draw for them. But remember there is still a lot of risk there. I remember before I left game stop in 2004ish we used to copies of madden sitting on the shelf priced at $5 that gamestop had bought for $20 or $30 from a customer. There are tons of games like that. Back then and until my friend left about 5 years ago they would periodically have stores destroy old sports games and other things because there was no value to them. At this point in time I don't know how bothered gamestop would be with physical games decreasing. Like I've said before they have already started moving away from used games and towards games collectables and concept stores.


Also lets not forget , @MrFox says that the physical costs of a uhd bluray drive is low I think we both argue on the price difference , I think its closer to $50 (and considering they have a completely different casing for it) but you have the secondary savings and that's all the hands in the pie for the games. Sony will be able to recoup a lot more money on digital sales than optical disc sales. The cost of pressing a disc which while low still adds up over millions of discs , the price for making the packaging / printing the art work and shipping costs still adds up.

At this point I wouldn't be surprised if the refresh in 3 years or so does not come with an optical drive. I am hopeful that sony doing this will get MS to put out a diskless edition of the xsx at launch and I hope lockheart is just DD only

 

[orangpelupa]

Ps plus can be shared too. So the ultimate sharing experience example:

Account A - set PS4 B as primary. Play on PS4 B with account A.

Account B - set PS4 A as primary. Play on PS4 A with account B.

This allows account A and account B to share any digital license including PS plus.

So for the best bang for your buck, just buy PS plus on one account (account A or B) and both can enjoy PS plus. Also never buy the same game, always buy different game. You also can pool money with friend, so practically 50% discounts for all games.

Sony has allowed this thing since ps3 era. Used to be 5 console or something. Currently got no report of people getting banned for exploiting this feature.

---

If you are cheapskates like me, you also can buy ps plus from poor country where your own currency got ridiculously strong exchange rate. Or poor countries with localized prices.

Personally I play on US account but subscribed on PS+ for many years to come on Indonesia account. As the ps plus was only around 20 dollars for a year before they jacked the price up to 50 dollars.

I stacked the sub to a few years before the price hike

---

PS5 got no news about its licensing. But probably will stay the same.

I just hope they didn't change anything to the PSN backend for PS5 too. Otherwise I would need to do some research again to make P. T. Silent hills re-download works on PS5.

 

[London Geezer]

So you could play, say, Star Wars Battlefront 2 or Gran Turismo Sport together with a single copy of a game? That’s wild.

Yes that’s what we do in my house. We have my PS4 set up as my partner’s primary and vice versa. We buy one game (digital) and we both play it even at the same time on both PS4’s. Easy.

 

[Rootax]

I really dig the design... Now I'm curious about noise/cooling.

And the media remote too. Will Sony go full media player like a shield tv or something ? I doubt it, but to make a special remote if you're not is kind of weird imo.

 

[Clukos]

I'll be happy as long as it doesn't sound liike a jet engine tbh. My launch PS4 Pro is quite noisy even after changing thermal paste/pads.

 

[Strange]

Ps plus can be shared too. So the ultimate sharing experience example:

Account A - set PS4 B as primary. Play on PS4 B with account A.

Account B - set PS4 A as primary. Play on PS4 A with account B.

This allows account A and account B to share any digital license including PS plus.

So for the best bang for your buck, just buy PS plus on one account (account A or B) and both can enjoy PS plus. Also never buy the same game, always buy different game. You also can pool money with friend, so practically 50% discounts for all games.

Sony has allowed this thing since ps3 era. Used to be 5 console or something. Currently got no report of people getting banned for exploiting this feature.

---

If you are cheapskates like me, you also can buy ps plus from poor country where your own currency got ridiculously strong exchange rate. Or poor countries with localized prices.

Personally I play on US account but subscribed on PS+ for many years to come on Indonesia account. As the ps plus was only around 20 dollars for a year before they jacked the price up to 50 dollars.

I stacked the sub to a few years before the price hike

---

PS5 got no news about its licensing. But probably will stay the same.

I just hope they didn't change anything to the PSN backend for PS5 too. Otherwise I would need to do some research again to make P. T. Silent hills re-download works on PS5.

oh yeah I forgot you can share PS+ too, however only for online play. Other online services don't work. I'd also suggest putting your accounts in different regions so that you can buy stuff from both regions.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

There better be a way to lay it on its side ...

Push it over. It's not like it'll bounce/wobble back to upright position.

 

[orangpelupa]

I really dig the design... Now I'm curious about noise/cooling.

And the media remote too. Will Sony go full media player like a shield tv or something ? I doubt it, but to make a special remote if you're not is kind of weird imo.

Years ago when Sony still publicly open up for consumer's ideas, bringing the full featured media player like on ps3 Into PS4 was approved / greenlit by Sony. Probably the software was moved from PS4 to PS5.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

And the media remote too. Will Sony go full media player like a shield tv or something ? I doubt it, but to make a special remote if you're not is kind of weird imo.

PS3 media remote:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B009VUPA64/?tag=b3d-21

PS4 media remote:
https://www.playstation.com/en-us/explore/accessories/media-remotes/media-remote-for-playstation-4/

It's a given PS5 will run media apps.

 

[orangpelupa]

Push it over. It's not like it'll bounce/wobble back to upright position.

And as long as there's no disc inside, should be no problem even if its slanted /not level and wobble if you touch it.

 

[Rootax]

PS3 media remote:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B009VUPA64/?tag=b3d-21

PS4 media remote:
https://www.playstation.com/en-us/explore/accessories/media-remotes/media-remote-for-playstation-4/

It's a given PS5 will run media apps.

Well, I didn't know it was already a thing... Thx !

 

[cheapchips]

I'd bet on the Digital edition being slightly cheaper than the Bunion edition but an interesting permutation would be same price and more SSD in the Digital edition. It's probably high time Digital isn't seen as second class.

 

[Strange]

And as long as there's no disc inside, should be no problem even if its slanted /not level and wobble if you touch it.

Upside down!