The biggest announcements from Sony’s PlayStation 5 reveal event

Major details about the PlayStation 5 were revealed on Thursday, including the design of the hardware — both the standard and discless Digital Edition models — as well as some of the games that will be available alongside Sony’s launch of the next-gen console this holiday season.

Sony was careful to note that everything after the initial Grand Theft Auto 5 reveal had been captured on PlayStation 5 systems. The vast majority of the event was made up of footage of games running on Sony’s latest hardware, giving us at least a small glimpse of what the system can do.

First revealed in an interview with Wired magazine in 2019, the PlayStation 5 will offer a large leap in terms of processing power over its predecessor, placing it in direct competition with Microsoft’s next console, the Xbox Series X.

Today’s event marks the first time we’ve seen a game release slate for the PlayStation 5, as well as a look at the console itself. Previously all we had access to were hardware specs and a rundown of the new controller’s design.

In case you missed the event, here’s a rundown of all of the biggest announcements.

PlayStation 5 hardware

Image: PlayStation/Twitch

This is what we were hoping to see, though we were skeptical Sony was going to give up the goods at this point. But here it is, in all its glory, and it’s coming in two versions: one with a Blu-ray drive, and one without. Sony also showed off the PS5’s new official headphones, and the entire package looks surreal — almost fake-looking in its break from the traditional PlayStation visual language.

I’m going to to go out on a limb here and say one simple thing: I love it.

Resident Evil Village

Image: Capcom

Resident Evil 7 gets a direct sequel, and Chris Redfield is there for some. The evocative trailer shows a whole bunch of scary stuff, but very little is known about this one for now.

Grand Theft Auto 5 is coming to PS5

Grand Theft Auto 5, including Grand Theft Auto Online, will be “expanded and enhanced” for its launch on PlayStation 5, and Sony has promised that GTA Online will be free for all PlayStation 5 owners.

Spider-Man: Miles Morales is on the way

This holiday season, Spider-Man: Miles Morales will launch on the PlayStation 5, following up on the hit PlayStation 4 game Marvel’s Spider-Man, and seemingly exploring what happens after Miles Morales officially becomes your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.

Gran Turismo is back, baby!

Gran Turismo 7 is coming to PlayStation 5, and it looks great running on the new system. Expect detailed cars and realistic tracks in the latest game in Polyphony Digital’s storied franchise.

A new Ratchet & Clank is on the way

Image: Insomniac Games/Sony Interactive Entertainment

The gameplay demo for Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart showed during the event showcased the expanded graphical capabilities of the PlayStation 5, but mostly just proved that this series still has some life in it, especially with the new portal-style locomotion system.

Project Athia

Image: Luminous Productions/Square Enix

Sony also showed up a brand-new game designed exclusively for PlayStation 5 called Project Athia. Some aspects of the short teaser shown were reminiscent of the Unreal Engine 5 demo that was recently released.

Stray

The world needs more cat games, especially when the cat seems to be living in a world ruled by robots.

Returnal

Image: Housemarque/Sony Interactive Entertainment

The latest game from Housemarque, the company that made a big splash with Resogun at the launch of the PlayStation 4, is back with a game that seems to be about a pilot who has to fight for survival, changing in some way every time she dies.

Sackboy: A Big Adventure

Image: Sumo Digital/Sony Interactive Entertainment

The hero of the LittleBigPlanet franchise has been given his own platforming game, and it looks adorable. This is yet another PlayStation classic franchise that is being brought out of moth balls for the PlayStation 5.

GhostWire: Tokyo gameplay revealed

We finally get an actual look at the game play of GhostWire: Tokyo in this trailer.

Hitman 3

Image: IO Interactive

Death awaits in January of next year, according to the ad copy, but it’s nice to know everyone’s favorite bald assassin is coming back. The reveal also included a nice look at the actual gameplay, and it looked great running on PlayStation 5.

Demon’s Souls being remade for PS5

A classic PlayStation 3 game, originally released in 2009, is getting a remake for PlayStation 5. Very few other details were given, but the idea itself is more than enough to get us excited.

Deathloop

Image: Arkane Studios/Bethesda Softworks

Arkane Studios, the creator of the Dishonored franchise, is back with another adventure game in which your ability to hunt others through what seems to be magical powers is central to the game play. I’m not complaining, though; this is a formula with legs.

Horizon Forbidden West

Image: Guerrilla Games/Sony Interactive Entertainment

A follow-up to the exquisite Horizon Zero Dawn, following the game’s hero as she treks westward on what looks like a grand adventure.

All this considered, this was a solid lineup of games, and a much closer look at the PS5 itself than we were expecting. The ball is in your court now, Microsoft.

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