Sony’s PlayStation division showed off the new look for its upcoming PlayStation 5, as well as new games including Gran Turismo 7 and Hitman III.
Last week, Sony’s finally revealed the PlayStation 5 in full. It showcased a fresh white design alongside a new suite of games that includes the return of familiar characters interspersed with entirely new titles, some of which looked dazzling.
The games were shown alongside the new look for the device, which is tall and thin and colored white on its front and back, with blue light and black accent colors on its sides. The company said it will reveal a price and launch date for the PS5 later. The company also said there will be a discless “all digital” version, which had been reported about since 2012.
Sony is also calling in its friendly neighborhood Spider-Man to help launch its next generation PlayStation 5 video game console later this year. Spider-Man: Miles Morales will launch alongside its new PS5 console in time for the holiday shopping season, Sony said. The game will focus on Morales, a mixed-race character at the center of the hit 2019 movie, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse.
The announcement was part of an event Sony held on June 11 to discuss the new titles. The company had delayed the event after protests erupted around the world in response to the killing of an unarmed black man, George Floyd, while in police custody.
Thursday’s event is the latest planned by Sony and Microsoft ahead of the launch of their respective PlayStation 5 and upcoming Xbox Series X consoles. The new devices, which are the first major new consoles since the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One were released in 2013.
Microsoft has another event planned for July, when it plans to show off new games from its own development studios — including 343 Industries, makers of the hit Halo space combat series and its newest title, Halo Infinite. Sony’s said it has more events planned, but hasn’t yet said when they’ll be.
A look at the PS5 from the top.Sony/Screenshot by CNET
PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan touted Thursday’s event as a first look at games that’ll be made for the console. It was to be held entirely online and last about an hour.
“We wanted to do something that was bold and daring almost,” said Sony’s PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan in an interview with CNET following the company’s reveal Thursday. “We wanted something forward facing and future facing, something for the 2020s.”
Ryan declined to say how much the PS5 will cost, whether the discless all-digital version will be cheaper, or exactly when they will be made available. But he did say manufacturing remains on track despite the coronavirus pandemic, which has upended businesses around the globe as it infected more than 7.4 million people and killed more than 420,000 patients.
Sony reiterated that more events are planned between now and the PS5 launch this fall, including when it’ll discuss pricing, launch date and other details. Ryan declined to discuss the future of Sony’s PlayStation VR virtual reality headset, its PlayStation Now streaming service, and whether Sony would offer a disc trade-in program for people who buy the all-digital PS5, saying more details will be revealed at later events.
Sony showed more than two dozen games Thursday, nine of which were built by its game studios, including Insomniac Games, which made Spider-Man and the upcoming Spider-Man: Miles Morales.
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