Sony’s Mark Cerny has shared details on what the manufacturer’s next generation console will bring to the table. In an interview with Wired, Cerny has emphasized that the PS5 (not the official name at this point) will “allow for fundamental changes in what a game can be”.

What’s in the PS5?

In the interview, the system architect gave multiple details as to what technical changes the PS5 will come with. Improved CPU/GPU/Ram compared to the PS4 of course, but not only.

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“The CPU is based on the third generation of AMD’s Ryzen line and contains eight cores of the company’s new 7nm Zen 2 microarchitecture. The GPU, a custom variant of Radeon’s Navi family, will support ray tracing.” (Peter Rubin on Wired)

Cerny also confirmed the existing PSVR headset will be compatible with the console, and that the next generation console will be backwards compatible with PS4 games, because it is based on the existing PS4 architecture.

Cerny spent some time demonstrating a specialized (proprietary?) SSD that could improve loading times by a factor of 15 in some cases for some games. He demonstrated Spider Man’s “fast travel” feature taking 15 seconds on the PS4 to load a new area, versus less than a second on the PS5.

PS5 Release date when

Sony haven’t given a date for the PS5 yet, but simply stated it will not be released this year. It is also known that they have started sending devkits to developers a while ago.

PS5 and hacks

Some of this information could be interesting for the hacking scene. First, knowing that the PS5 is based on the PS4 architecture, even with significantly different hardware, could mean that existing hacking techniques, or (one can dream) that undisclosed PS4 exploits have the potential to work on the PS5 on the day of its release.

Even if it doesn’t share much with its older sister, PS4 backward compatibility could also be a route hackers will be looking into, in order to exploit the PS5 when it comes out.

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It is of course too early for hack speculation… or is it? Since devkits are already shipping, and knowing that many console hackers have close ties with the gaming industry, isn’t it possible that some tinkerers already got their hands on devkits and are secretly documenting all of their findings?

As far as I’m concerned, the PS5 will probably be a “day 1 purchase” for me. What about you?