7 Things WE Want From the New Playstation 5 (PS5) .

It’s hard to believe, but the PlayStation 4 is already in its fifth year on the market. In that time, Sony’s fourth home console has become one of the best-selling gaming platforms in history and built up an impressive library of games, quite a few of which can only be played exclusively on it. In 2016, Sony released the PS4 Pro — a hardware revision that boasted an upgraded CPU and GPU in order to support 4K gameplay, but a console that nevertheless more of a half-step upgrade rather than a new standard.

1 . LOWER PRICE -  

Launch pricing is always a difficult, extremely important component of any new console release that can make or break a system right out of the gate. Sony nailed pricing when it came to the PS4, famously “mic-dropping” $399 at E3 2013, a full $100 cheaper than what the Microsoft had priced the Xbox One at. Assuming the PlayStation 5 is released before Microsoft or Nintendo’s next console, which seems like a given at this point considering the latter two companies both released new hardware in 2017, Sony will have most powerful console on the market and all that power will come with a high price tag.

That being said, it’s hard to see Sony ever repeating the absurdly high “you’ll need two jobs to buy this” pricing debacle it had with the PS3 and in order to avoid such things, the PlayStation 5 can’t exceed a launch price of $500 USD. This is the same price the Xbox One X launched at and it was billed as being a premium console for those who want the best visuals and performance on consoles. Hitting this price point could prove difficult for Sony, but one way to get around this would be to have multiple SKUs. For instance, a disc-less model with a smaller hard drive could be the base model at $500, with a “premium” version selling for $50-$100 more.
Whatever the PlayStation 5’s final cost, it has to be both affordable and competitive but given how much success Sony had with the PS4’s launch pricing structure, it’s a safe bet they’ll do something similar with its successor.

2 . 4K Blu-ray Support

                             Assuming the PS5 actually ships with a disc-drive, Sony only needs to implement one minor, but important upgrade: 4K Blu-ray support. For some unfathomable reason, Sony opted to forgo putting a 4K drive into the PS4 Pro, a perplexing choice considering Sony was the company that spearheaded Blu-ray’s popularity in the first place with its adoption back on the PlayStation 3.While 4K adoption is still relatively niche, it’s becoming less so with each passing day as the cost continues to come down, which makes it all the more disappointing that you can’t watch the best quality physical media on any Sony console. Microsoft managed to support 4K Blu-rays with the Xbox One S, which isn’t even the premium version of the console, so it’s kind of embarrassing that Sony can’t say the same thing. If Sony is sticking with physical media on the PlayStation 5, it’s essential that the console supports 4K discs.   

3 .A Disc-Free Model

Physical media is becoming increasingly obsolete as download speeds and streaming quality have continued to improve and by the time the PS5 is released, there will be even less reason to purchase Blu-ray discs. That being said, it would come off as a pretty anti-consumer move if Sony were to ditch physical media altogether with its next console, but it could have the best of both worlds were it to release an optional disc-less model of the PS5.Not only would this drive down the cost of production, but those savings could be passed onto the consumer, with the disc-less model retailing for a lower price — a budget model with no compromises on actual performance. This way, the collector’s market and anyone who takes advantage of the used game market won’t have to give up their love of physical media, while also still being able to play all their Blu-ray movies. Plus, this would prevent Sony from having a monopoly on game sales, which should theoretically keep pricing competitive.

4. Wireless Charging Controllers

              The DualShock 4 is — in my opinion — already one of the best video game controllers ever made, so Sony really doesn’t need to tweak much when it comes to the DS5. That being said, one improvement that could be made to Sony’s controller line is to introduce wireless charging capabilities. More and more smartphones are offering this feature, so there’s no reason Sony shouldn’t be able to implement this small, but important quality of life upgrade.Having the ability to plug a cord into your wireless controller is already pretty handy, sure, but how cool would it be if you could just plop your controller down on top of your console between gaming sessions in order to juice it up? That isn’t to say Sony should ditch cables altogether though, as wireless charging is the kind of feature that could suddenly end up not working properly and it would suck to not have another way to charge your controllers. A provided USB-C cord would do just nicely in this regard.

5. Cross-Platform Gaming 

                   One of the biggest drawbacks of having multiple gaming platforms on the market is that it segregates players into separate online ecosystems. While there are millions of people to play with on Steam, PSN, and Xbox Live, no matter which system you’re using, you’re missing out on millions more players by default thanks to the nature of gated communities. But with Microsoft embracing cross-platform play between Xbox and PC in recent years, and even Nintendo allowing cross-platform play on the Switch version of Rocket League, Sony’s hardline stance on blocking such things comes off as out-of-touch and anti-consumer. Even worse is the fact that Microsoft — whose Xbox One console has been outsold by a ratio of more than 2:1 by the PS4 this generation — has repeatedly reached out to Sony about making cross-platform play happen, to no avail.Sure, I can understand not wanting to make certain games cross-platform with PC given the inherent disadvantage console players would have against those with a mouse and keyboard setup, but not wanting to let PlayStation players face off against Xbox? That’s just silly, especially when you consider that cross-platform play could potentially extend the lifespan of many online-focused games, given the increase to the player pool. It’s hard to see Sony reverting on this stance anytime soon but with the PS5, it would be great if they did.

6. Download Options With PlayStation Now 

                         In theory, PlayStation Now should be a service every PS4 owner has a subscription to. With access to hundreds of PS4 and PS3 titles, PlayStation Now should be akin to the Netflix of gaming. Unfortunately, Sony made a mistake in building PlayStation Now around cloud gaming. Streaming movies and TV shows works well for a service like Netflix, but that’s because those are non-interactive mediums. Any bit of noticeable latency has a negative impact on gameplay and while PlayStation Now is a quality service for the most part, game streaming simply isn’t at the place it needs to be yet to measure up to actually running a game off your console.As Microsoft has shown with its similar Xbox Game Pass service, the ability to download a game to your hard drive can make all the difference and it’s about time that Sony followed suit. If PlayStation Now can be revamped for the PS5 so as to allow for both streaming and game downloads, it really could become a must-have app instead of sitting there largely ignored in the PSN Store. That being said, having more and better games on offer would also help substantially in this regard.

7. Keep Those Great Exclusives Coming 

                 One reason Sony has been able to dominate this generation is its steady stream of quality first-party content. While Microsoft has continued to struggle to have any exclusives at all (if it’s also available on PC, it ain’t exclusive), Sony has practically made the PS4 a must-own console with a handful of truly extraordinary games. Titles like Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, Bloodborne, and Horizon Zero Dawn are some of the best games of this generation and are only available on PlayStation.Of course, Sony has always placed an emphasis on internal development, so it’s hard to see anything changing when it comes to the PlayStation 5, but it bears repeating that Sony needs to maintain the same pace of exclusive releases to give its next console the best change of repeating its predecessor’s success.