Playstation 5 Console Discussion

[Will]

He’s not really saying anything with that though. It’s obvious Sony will have a relationship with anyone capable of developing for PS5 and that those developers will either have content and/or games available to discuss as exclusives for the system. It would be more surprising if deals hadn’t been discussed.

I’m not saying he’s wrong, and I’d say it’s a safe bet that we’re going to see a lot of exclusive “stuff” during the launch period coming up. Just don’t believe everything a journalist who’s closest touch point to games companies is a (often 3rd party) PR guy representing the best interests of whatever they’re talking about that day.

[Julius]

Leaked photos and impressions of the DualSense have come out. 1560mAh battery.

Crazy that we're getting to the point where all the major hardware bullet points are doing the roads from actual manufacturing and testing of the product.

As for the battery, for reference, the old DualShock 4 had 800mAh, and the newer V2 model I believe has 1000mAh, whereas the Switch Pro Controller has 1300mAh. This coming in at 1560mAh has me hopeful that I'll finally be able to rely on one controller for a day-long gaming session, because at the moment I have an older DS4 and have to keep another one fully charged as backup when I get the chance for longer gaming sessions. 

Edited August 12, 2020 by Julius

[drahkon]

27 minutes ago, Julius said:

at the moment I have an older DS4 and have to keep another one fully charged as backup when I get the chance for longer gaming sessions. 

Those must be some serious sessions I can usually play 8-10 hours with a fully charged DS4.

Edited August 12, 2020 by drahkon

[Happenstance]

Mine doesn’t last particularly long anymore but I just plug it in and carry on playing when it runs out.

[Ronnie]

Hooray, actually decent battery life on a Playstation controller! Though the improvement isn't as much as I would have liked. Still, baby steps...

It's baffling to me that they thought they could release the DS4 that lasts such a short time when the competition are getting 20 or 40 hours out of theirs. Mine last about 4 or so hours, maybe 6 at most.

Edited August 12, 2020 by Ronnie

[Julius]

14 minutes ago, drahkon said:

Those must be some serious sessions I can usually play 8-10 hours with a fully charged DS4.

Yeah they are definitely leaning to the more extreme side of most gamers when I do that I'm sure, with The Last of Us Part 2 and Final Fantasy VII Remake for example I booked time off for them so would get up nice and early, brew some tea, and dig into the games for most if not all of the day. It's not every game of course, and definitely not my usual playing style, but the last thing I want during these sessions is to be swapping to a different controller because my battery's dying. My DualShock 4's probably last 6 - 8 hours I'd say, but worth mentioning they are the older models. Talking about this makes me miss H-o-T, I'm sure he knows the struggle 

It's crazy to me because even my DualShock 3 has a longer lasting battery, I remember I got through both Mafia II and Metal Gear Solid 2 on one charge. Similarly for the Switch, though I admittedly don't use it as much as my PS4, I've put nearly 200 hours into my most played games and have only charged the Pro Controller 3 or 4 times since. 

It's not a problem for me, so I don't want to make it seem bigger than it is, but I would be very happy if we see at least a 15 - 20 hour battery life this time around. It's made that much more noticeable to me because I sink so much time into my PS4 compared to the other consoles I own, the last thing I - and PlayStation, I guess, purely from a numbers side of things - want is for me to have to put the controller on charge and stop playing, and sink time into something else. 

One of those where it's not something I hold against them, but would be happy if they improved upon 

[drahkon]

6 minutes ago, Julius said:

I would be very happy if we see at least a 15 - 20 hour battery life this time around

But why? I'm genuinely surprised why anybody would want that, or rather why it's necessary. Unless, of course, people regularly play for 15-20 hours in one session?
I get that maybe a 5-6 hour charge can get annoying, but everything over 10 seems overkill to me

 

[Ronnie]

6 minutes ago, drahkon said:

But why? I'm genuinely surprised why anybody would want that, or rather why it's necessary. Unless, of course, people regularly play for 15-20 hours in one session?
I get that maybe a 5-6 hour charge can get annoying, but everything over 10 seems overkill to me

You're surprised why people want a longer battery life on their electronics? 

[Julius]

19 minutes ago, drahkon said:

But why? I'm genuinely surprised why anybody would want that, or rather why it's necessary. Unless, of course, people regularly play for 15-20 hours in one session?
I get that maybe a 5-6 hour charge can get annoying, but everything over 10 seems overkill to me

 

For me it's less about the longer sessions and needing a backup controller for them, and more about needing to charge the controller on an almost daily basis. Again, it's a nitpick, but when I'm playing the PS4 I don't want to have to stop playing because I forgot to charge the controller last night, and from Sony's side of things, I'm sure they'd rather have us playing games on their platform. 

I don't buy into the Xbox vs PlayStation vs Nintendo console wars, because I think it's pointless and what everyone wants out of their console is different, but I do buy into the idea that they are competing for our time. If the battery running out interrupts a playing session, they've lost time that I could potentially be playing on their console. Of course it's down to each user to keep these things charged, but as someone who does make sure to charge their controller regularly, it can get a little grating. I'm not even looking for parity with the Xbox and Switch controllers, but I don't see any reason why PlayStation's controllers shouldn't be on the same level as their competitors. 

Same argument for longer battery life in smartphones. It's convenience if nothing else, which is a selling point. It's not especially bad, so like I said I don't hold it against them, but yeah, I'd like if the controller for the system I play the most could get by for longer on one charge. 

Again, it's not the end of the world, and I think PlayStation have bigger fish to fry, namely the handling of applications, how poorly the OS can run at times, and the PlayStation Store - latter definitely isn't specific to PlayStation, just think it's important going into next gen, especially with an all-digital console on the way, that they get it right. 

Edited August 12, 2020 by Julius

[drahkon]

7 minutes ago, Julius said:

but when I'm playing the PS4 I don't want to have to stop playing because I forgot to charge the controller last night, and from Sony's side of things, I'm sure they'd rather have us playing games on their platform. 

To be fair, if you forget to charge the controller...that's on you

I can understand the convenience argument, but still: If you play 10 hours during the day/evening without needing a charge (as is possible with the DS4) and charge it over night, you're golden.

7 minutes ago, Julius said:

Same argument for longer battery life in smartphones.

I think it's a little different for smartphones, though. You use those for way longer periods of time than gaming controllers. If my smartphone only lasted 10 hours I'd be pissed (then again, I wouldn't have bought it).

Anyways, I get it's more convenient but I still don't see it as a problem.

My point is: Don't be lazy twats and charge your damn controllers

7 minutes ago, Julius said:

how poorly the OS can run at times, and the PlayStation Store - latter definitely isn't specific to PlayStation, just think it's important going into next gen, especially with an all-digital console on the way, that they get it right. 

Yeah, aside from the price POINT, this is the only thing I need to see. There's so much room for improvement on those fronts...but I'm convinced they've put enough resources into it. At least into their OS.

Edited August 12, 2020 by drahkon

[Happenstance]

I think I find the PS Store the best of the 3 console stores but it’s a disappointingly low bar. None of them are particularly good, with Switch being the worst. Hopefully all 3 put some effort into updating them for modern use.

I’ve never really had an issue with the general OS use on my PS4. 

[Will]

I don’t quite get why the battery life is so important. The DS4 is absolutely terrible, but when it runs out I just plug it in and carry on playing. What environment do people play in where they need to charge a controller while playing with another one?

[Ronnie]

It's not important as such, plenty other issues for them to sort, but it's a convenience thing. When my Switch controller lasts 40 hours and my DS4 lasts 6 you have to question why that is. It's annoying having to constantly charge it every 2-3 sessions, especially if you're not sat next to an outlet.

[Sheikah]

It's a convenience thing to have a very big battery, but it's also something that Sony know they really only need to make it last for a long gaming session to get by.

If it does 12 hours minimum that'll be more than enough. Anything else is just gravy.

[Goafer]

1 hour ago, will' said:

I don’t quite get why the battery life is so important. The DS4 is absolutely terrible, but when it runs out I just plug it in and carry on playing. What environment do people play in where they need to charge a controller while playing with another one?

Makes me wonder how some people ever coped with *shudders* wired controllers.

[Ike]

1 hour ago, Goafer said:

Makes me wonder how some people ever coped with *shudders* wired controllers.

Wired were (are) better. Same with replaceable batteries.

[Happenstance]

6 minutes ago, Ike said:

Wired were (are) better. Same with replaceable batteries.

Depends on the length of the wires (fucking NES Mini...)

[bob]

At least you don't actually have to plug the PS4 controllers directly into the console.

[Julius]

5 hours ago, drahkon said:

To be fair, if you forget to charge the controller...that's on you

I can understand the convenience argument, but still: If you play 10 hours during the day/evening without needing a charge (as is possible with the DS4) and charge it over night, you're golden.

Yeah, totally agree, I said the same  I worded it weirdly, which is my bad. What I meant to say was it's not ideal to have to charge a controller every night if you are going to have a window where you are playing for much longer than you might otherwise - as I said before, and want to reiterate again now having a scan through some of the other replies, is that this is absolutely not a big issue. It's just something I wished they would improve, in much the same way I wish my Switch would last for longer off a full charge, or to keep it more relevant to what's being discussed, that the Joy-Cons would last longer off a full charge.

Just to give an example of what I mean though drahkon, I had to charge my main DualShock 4 up fully before playing Final Fantasy VII Remake for the first time, and charged it fully again another 3 times and changed to my backup controller twice during the 38 hours or so it took to finish the game in the following days. 

My preference would be to have a controller I needed to charge maybe once during that time (at parity with the Switch Pro Controller). 

5 hours ago, drahkon said:

I think it's a little different for smartphones, though. You use those for way longer periods of time than gaming controllers. If my smartphone only lasted 10 hours I'd be pissed (then again, I wouldn't have bought it).

Anyways, I get it's more convenient but I still don't see it as a problem.

My point is: Don't be lazy twats and charge your damn controllers 

Sure, probably not the best thing for me to compare it to, maybe something like the Switch or the Switch's Joy-Cons in particular like I mentioned above would be more appropriate. The only thing I would say that is different for phones and controllers is that anecdotally I know that I almost always have my phone on me, which is why I'm probably a bit more tuned into its battery life and keeping it fully charged, when compared with something like a game controller, where I'm much more likely to go days - sometimes even weeks - at a time without playing.

Maybe one way to get around that, or perhaps to just help keep people more aware of their controller's battery state, is if they just showed the controller battery life from the main menu of the PS4 vs the menu which pops up when you hold the PS button? I don't know, just a though. I'm sure someone's going to say we can already do this but I just don't know

5 hours ago, drahkon said:

Yeah, aside from the price POINT, this is the only thing I need to see. There's so much room for improvement on those fronts...but I'm convinced they've put enough resources into it. At least into their OS.

@bob he did the thing! 

But agreed drahkon. That very short look we got at the startup screen has me hoping it runs a bit more smoothly and is a bit nicer to look at and use. 

Totally sidetracking from the discussion about the controller for a second, but I know you're a big PlayStation fan, and I know roughly where most people on here are landing from the last few pages, but can't remember where you were at with the PS5. Are you already onboard, or is there anything holding you back? Anything you'd like to see PlayStation do in the next few months which would make you want it more? 

4 hours ago, Happenstance said:

I think I find the PS Store the best of the 3 console stores but it’s a disappointingly low bar. None of them are particularly good, with Switch being the worst. Hopefully all 3 put some effort into updating them for modern use.

I’ve never really had an issue with the general OS use on my PS4. 

Absolutely agree on the PS Store being the pick of the bunch, but still far from great.

I don't have an Xbox, so won't comment on that, but for the PS Store they've done a good job of making it fairly functional in the last few years. I remember there was a point where it would try its hardest to not launch in the app, or take my payments, so I would have to open the site in my phone's browser. Still a bit slow on the console itself at times, but think it's just being weighed down by quite a bit of bloat. As for Nintendo eShop, I agree that it's probably my least favourite of the two I use, it hasn't got great curation and only the most basic of lists to work through. Something I do love about it is wishlisted games going on offer and receiving that email to say X, Y and Z are 50% off and swooping in to pick them up, away from the console space the same of course goes for Steam with this. I don't know if it's something PlayStation do at the moment? But if it is, I genuinely have no idea.

As for the OS, maybe it's just my model (first batch of 1TB PS4's that got that matte black look all over, instead of the one panel having a gloss to it), but it's got a bit of bloat now and I experience slowdown and lag while looking through my menus a few times a month. I also just kind of wish it was a bit more pleasing to look at and sort through.

3 hours ago, will' said:

I don’t quite get why the battery life is so important. The DS4 is absolutely terrible, but when it runs out I just plug it in and carry on playing. What environment do people play in where they need to charge a controller while playing with another one?

I don't think me and @Ronnie were saying that it was really important, more that it was something we would like to see them improve and would be a convenience which brings them closer to parity with their competitors, which is why I'd be glad with a longer lasting DualSense by comparison.

It's a little odd (maybe that's too harsh...a sticky wicket? ) to me that my most played console (the PS4) has a controller with a battery life comparably much shorter than my least played (the Switch), so I would like to see it improved. 

And the environment is the living room where I sit a good 7' or 8' away from my TV  before anyone suggests it, the idea of a long charging cable makes me envision scenes of disaster in my living room, don't think it's the best option for where I live right now  

 

Edited August 12, 2020 by Julius

[drahkon]

@Julius All fair points regarding the controller.

5 minutes ago, Julius said:

Are you already onboard, or is there anything holding you back?

Finances, mostly. I'm not in a position to save money, so it all comes down to how much the PS5 will cost and if I can trade in my PS4 Pro to reduce the price.

Quote

Anything you'd like to see PlayStation do in the next few months which would make you want it more?

Sony themselves (or rather their first party studios) don't need to do more. The big PS5 event a few weeks ago showed everything I wanted. I came in with the knowledge (given PlayStation launches in the past) that first party launch games won't be a big part of their plan so I'm fine with that. And with Sony's incredible track record in the last decade (turning around their PS3 fiasco and just rocking the show with the PS4 - which, by the way, is still selling like hot cakes...absolutely insane) I know what I can expect.
The first two years are already stacked (assuming there won't be lots of delays) and it can only get more crowded.

There's only a few things I'd like to see:

• PS5's OS
• more information regarding third party accessories (would love to know whether I'll be able to use my headset and controller) - that's something for the respective companies, though, not Sony
• a few more indie devs focusing on developing a game for the new console

 

[Julius]

Some more PS5 box art shown, this time for Overcooked: All You Can Eat, Watchdogs: Legion, Far Cry 6, and Assassin's Creed Valhalla. Taken from the website of JB Hi-Fi, a home entertainment retailer in Australia: 

So...maybe it's just the lighting, or maybe the cover for Miles Morales just didn't look great, but I've got to say it's starting to grow on me the more that I see it. Maybe it's that the colour scheme almost perfectly contrasts with the Legion and Valhalla box art? 

[Will]

I really think they should have gone for a new colour on the cases themselves, and I can’t say I’m super keen on the white backing for the PS5 parts of the sleeves. The spines for Valhalla and Legion do look nice, given that’s all people will see 90% of the time I guess it’s OK.

[Happenstance]

They should go back to this.

[Julius]

Looks like Hungary have jumped the gun, because we've got our first TV Spot: Welcome To A New World. 

The Champions League final is this Sunday, and as sponsors of the competition, that seems like the place they might want to premiere this as.

Price and date has to be coming soon - as in by-the-end-of-August soon - surely?

UPDATE: up officially now. 

I would have never known it was a dramatisation if not for that being mentioned at that start 

Also, some developers have shared what they think of the haptic feedback and adaptive triggers. 

Edited August 20, 2020 by Julius

[Julius]

Pre-order registration has just gone up in the US...

Apparently PS+ members are getting free shipping, and it makes sense that Sony might want to cut out the middle man to some extent to help avoid scalpers...or perhaps more accurately, just get the box in the hands of their fans.

Some FAQ stuff for pre-orders directly through Sony:

Quote

Who will be selected to receive an invitation?

Our selection is based on previous interests and PlayStation activities.

When will I know if I’ve been selected or not?
If you are selected, we will contact you via email before pre-orders start. If you do not receive an email, you were not selected.

If I receive an invitation, am I guaranteed to be able to pre-order a PS5 console?
No. Each invitation is open for a limited time and quantities are limited per PSN ID per transaction:
1 PS5 Console or 1 PS5 Digital Edition
2 DualSense wireless controllers
2 DualSense charging stations
2 Pulse 3D wireless headsets
2 Media remotes
2 HD Cameras
PS5 console pre-order reservations will be first come first serve.

In order to pre-order, do I have to pre-order everything?
No. As long as your product selection falls within unit limits, you may pre-order as many or as few products as you’d like.

How long will I have to make a PS5 console pre-order reservation?
If selected, the expiration date and time will be included in your selection notification email and while supplies last.

Can I reserve more than one PS5 console pre-order?
Due to limited quantities and high demand, we will be limiting PS5 console pre-order reservations to 1 per PSN ID.

Will other PS5 products be available for pre-order?
Yes. Although these will be open to the general public for pre-order, only PS5 console reservations will be limited to those invited to pre-order.

What if I receive a “Sold Out” message?
All available PS5 consoles have been reserved.

I currently reside outside the US. If invited, can I still make a PS5 console pre-order reservation?
If you receive an invite and units are still available, as long as you ship to a US based address, your pre-order reservation will be allowed.

Any orders that contain a non-US based address will be cancelled.

SOON™. 

But seriously, surely it has to be in the next week or two with this out there now, right? RIGHT?!

Edited August 26, 2020 by Julius