PS5 Release Date
This is surely the question on everybody's lips: when will the PS5 come out? Sony, as you'd expect, is tight-lipped on the matter, but it has confirmed a "holiday 2020" release window for the PlayStation 5. The company has been no more specific than that--Microsoft has also provided the same vague window--but historically, November has been a frequent month for console releases in the past. Pre-orders are unlikely to go live until a release date and pricing information are revealed, but you can sign up for pre-order notifications from several major retailers now.
PS5 Price
Again, Sony has not stated how much its new console will cost, but it did say that the PS5's price will be attractive to gamers. "I believe that we will be able to release it at an SRP [suggested retail price] that will be appealing to gamers in light of its advanced feature set," said Mark Cerny, the lead architect of the PS4 who's currently working on its successor.
Of course, you wouldn't expect Sony to say anything different, but one gets the feeling the company has learned from the PS3's exorbitant price tag--and the console's subsequent struggles--and the PS4's more reasonable cost and subsequent successes.
Will PS5 Be Backwards Compatible With PS4 games?
Cerny also confirmed the PS5 will be backward compatible with PS4 games, as the two consoles are built upon similar internal architectures. This will be welcome news for those who were disappointed by the PS4's lack of backward compatibility with PS3, PS2, and PS1 games.
In terms of which games players can expect to play, the full list hasn't been confirmed. However, Cerny noted that PS4's 100 most played games will be playable on PS5 at launch and all will run even better than before. "Running PS4 and PS4 titles at boosted frequencies has also added complexity," Cerny said. "The boost is truly massive this time around and some game code just can't handle it. Testing has to be done on a title by title basis. Results are excellent though. We recently took a look at the top 100 PlayStation 4 titles as ranked by playtime and we're expecting almost all of them to be playable at launch on PlayStation 5."