PlayStation 5: Sony PS5 event gives first look at games, specs price

Sony has given a sneak preview of the games coming to PS5 over the next few years as it prepares for an end of year launch.

Sony has given a sneak peek at some of the games that will be sucking us in when the next generation PlayStation 5 console goes on sale, which is due to be later this year.

The prerecorded stream went live at 6am on Friday morning, after an event originally scheduled for Thursday last week was postponed to give space to the BlackLivesMatter protests.

The event began with a montage of past games to show the history of the platform.

Particular attention was paid to reflecting on Grand Theft Auto 5, which some have estimated is the most financially successful piece of media of all time, that sold over 120 million copies since launching in 2013.

It was then announced GTA Online will be free for PS5 owners at launch in 2021 and PS4 players will get $1 million in-game money every month until it does.

It’s understood that launch date is in reference to GTA Online and not the console.

Sony Interactive Entertainment president and CEO Jim Ryan finally confirmed “we’re launching later this year” at the end of the video.

Sony also showed what the console is going to look like.

The PS5 will launch with a disk drive enabled model and an all digital model.

The PS5 and some of its accessories.

“It was great to kick today off with a look back at just some of the seminal moments of the last 25 years, and what better way to bridge our past and our future than with a game that’s graced every PlayStation console: Grand Theft Auto. It’s been a privilege partnering with Rockstar games for many years now, and we’re thrilled to open today with the news that partnership will continue with PlayStation 5,” Sony Interactive Entertainment president and CEO Jim Ryan said.

“It’s now just over a year since we began sharing technical details of PlayStation 5, but today’s the day we’ve been looking forward to for years, where we get to show you just some of the games that demonstrate our belief that PlayStation 5 marks the biggest generational transition our industry has yet seen,” he added.

“Enough from me, we’re going to have our games do the talking.”

The game footage shown off was all captured from a PlayStation 5, Sony claimed, not rendered to wow crowds as has been the case in some previous gaming unveils.

Grand Theft Auto won’t be the only iconic franchise to return on PlayStation 5.

Gran Turismo will return for a seventh game.

Webslinging is back on the new console.

A long awaited new game in the Ratchet & Clank franchise, as well as a new Gran Turismo game, were also announced during the event.

Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales led the game showcase, showing off an upcoming game featuring the reimagined Spider-Man from 2018’s

Into the Spider-Verse movie.

A look at Gran Turismo’s next instalment followed, bringing with it the same iconic race tracks and cars we’ve come to expect from the franchise. It will probably have to wait until launch to see how the game leverages the new console.

Some of the cars that will be available in Gran Turismo 7.

Ratchet & Clank will make a proper return on PlayStation 5 as well.

The iconic franchise landed one game on the PS4: a re-imagining of the original game to tie in with a movie based on the franchise.

Ratchet and Clank: Rift Return promises to bring a new story and some sizeable changes, with one sure to raise the ire of the gaming community.

It appears a female Ratchet will appear in the next video game.

Ratchet with his familiar sidekick.

Clank’s new buddy.

It’s hard to get the full details from the brief preview shown during the launch event, but the game appears to centre around Clank falling into an alternate reality or timeline ala Rick and Morty, where he is teamed up with a female character who looks suspiciously like Ratchet, but claims to not even know who he is.

Reuniting Ratchet and Clank will likely involve playing as both characters, but the story may also be somewhat ancillary to the gameplay.

The next instalment will look familiar to those who have played the games in the past.

Square Enix showed off a look at Project Athia, which will be a PlayStation 5 exclusive.

That game appears to be a bit of a mish mash in gameplay of the Tomb Raider series with some more supernatural elements, though details are still pretty scant.

Project Athia involves magic, platforming gameplay and a rich world.

Project Athia was followed up by a first look at Stray, which appears to place gamers in the paws of a stray cat in some sort of tech dystopia future.

The game looks like an edgy cyberpunk reimagining of the PlayStation 2’s Dog’s Life, where you played as a dog.

Details on the game were similarly scant but gave an opportunity to show off some pretty impressive hair effects (keep in mind this is a screenshot of a video so doesn’t do justice to how it will actually look on console).

Improvements in graphics on the new console should create more lifelike characters.

Like many great games of the past: Stray puts you in the shoes of a character that’s largely overlooked by those around it.

Next up was Returnal, a third-person adventure shooter. Gamers play as a space craft pilot who crashes on an alien planet, only to find she is continually reborn into a slightly different version of the planet every time she dies.

Returnal puts you through a cycle of death and rebirth.

Groundhog Day meets Mass Effect in Returnal.

But it’s not all doom gloom and fighting aliens on the new console.

As a much needed palette cleanser after the intensity of the Returnal preview, Sony offered a look at Sackboy: A Big Adventure.

The game is a continuation of the Little Big Planet puzzle platformer series first seen on PlayStation 3.

Sackboy returns with a game of his own on PS5.

This was followed by Destruction Allstars, a demolition derby involving vehicular and hand-to-hand combat in an arena, similar to Rocket League but with a focus on fighting rather than football.

The action-adventure game Kena: Bridge Of Spirits showed off its environment and world though details on the game are still fairly cryptic.

Destruction and mayhem reigns supreme in Destruction Allstars.

Kena: Bridge Of Spirits looks to bring the familiar protagonist and sidekick dynamic from many other games.

As if you needed further proof that video games have come along way from your standard military shooter, sports games and platformers, next up was Goodbye Volcano High, which looks closer to a teen angst coming of age movie than a video game.

It’s hard to tell right now what you’ll actually do in this game but it’s art style and furry-esque character design could appeal to many.

Goodbye Volcano High looks far removed from the typical games we’ve seen in the past, but whether or not taking those risks pays off will have to wait and see.

Things continue getting weird with the preview of Oddworld Soulstorm, and while the gameplay looks like a simple platformer it seems like there’s a fair bit going on under the surface.

Ghostwire Tokyo hands over Japan’s biggest city to gamers for this supernatural open world game, with the magically-endowed going up against faceless monsters and other creepy characters.

Jett: The Far Shore comes from the developers behind wildly successful 2011 indie game Superbrothers: Sword & Sorcery EP and takes on the mystery and complexities of space exploration.

Oddworld Soulstorm has alluded to some sort of overarching story.

Having a big sword and fighting monsters is a familiar video game staple and despite its trailer’s soundtrack claiming “we are not the same”, Godfall will probably have to back that up with its gameplay and story (if there is one) in order to be successful.

This was followed by a similarly brief and mysterious look at Solar Ash, from the team behind 2016’s Hyper Light Drifter.

Godfall is a familiar formula but could remain fun.

The “dramatic conclusion” of the Hitman series is also promised for next year with Hitman 3 giving Agent 47 his “most intimate mission yet”.

Fans of the franchise will probably already know what to expect in regards to that, but the things that made the Hitman franchise great look to be returning.

Early gameplay shows 47 pulling a Tom Cruise and climbing what appears to be Dubai’s Burj Khalifa as part of a mission. Similar set pieces are to be expected but if it’s anything like past games you should have plenty of freedom in how you want to tackle each mission.

Agent 47 scaling the Burj Khalifa in Hitman 3.

Brief looks at Astro’s Playroom and Little Devil Inside followed, before NBA’s heir incumbent Zion Williamson appeared to provide a first look at the NBA 2k21.

With the COVID-19 pandemic halting the league for months, as well as forcing developers to send staff to work from home, some had wondered whether there would in fact be a new NBA 2k game this year.

The incredibly brief preview didn’t do much to dispel those doubts either, showing about 45 seconds of pre-alpha footage of an animated Zion Williamson shooting around in a gym, alone.

Williamson’s animated avatar actually looked more lifelike than his introductory video, which he appears to have shot on his phone and sent in, but given everything that’s going on we’ll forgive them that.

Zion Williamson showed up to give a brief intro to an even briefer preview.

As is increasingly common in sporting games the graphical focus is on sweatiness.

Creators of the indie game Octodad, where players assume the role of an octopus posing as a human man with a normal human family, will be bringing to PS5 the similarly strange Bugsnax, featuring an Aussie-accented character that appears somewhat based on Steve Irwin.

Aside from that it’s hard to really tell what Bugsnax players will actually spend their time doing, but we’re sure the people behind the octopus posing as a human man game can come up with something.

It’s hard to tell what you’ll actually do in this game.

Bugsnax was followed by a first look at Demon’s Souls, another “big sword and monsters” game you might mistake for another even while you’re playing it.

Arkane Studios, the team behind atmospheric hits like the Dishonored franchise and Bioshock 2 showed off a game that appears to combine elements of both.

Deathloop revolves around an assassin who has eight targets to kill before midnight, and a rival assassin seeking to stop them.

Previous Arkane games have provided multiple storylines and characters and it looks like you might get to play as both of these assassins too.

Another instalment of the Resident Evil survivor horror franchise is also bound for PS5, with Resident Evil: Village coming to the console next year.

Space exploration is a recurring theme with Returnal and Jett: The Far Shore. Pragmata takes things in a slightly different direction, bringing the outer space to Earth.

We’ll have to wait until 2022 to actually play it though.

Pragmata looks to turn the space genre on its head a bit.

Horizon II: The Forbidden West rounded out the games showcase, giving a preview of the follow up to 2017’s Horizon: Zero Dawn.

While 4K, 60 frames per second (fps) gaming is the target for next-gen consoles, the stream was presented at 1080p, 30fps to make it easier to produce during work-from-home changes stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Earlier this week, a leaked Amazon UK listing suggested a price of $1090 in Australia for the console, but it could be slightly cheaper as UK shoppers tend to pay more for electronics, if that price is even accurate.

An earlier version of this article suggested the console might not be available until 2021. Sony has promised release later this year but no firm date is currently set for launch.

Originally published as PlayStation 5: Sony PS5 event gives first look at games, specs price