The last trailer shown in the Future of Gaming event was for Horizon: Forbidden West, the much-anticipated follow up to 2017’s Horizon Zero Dawn. The trailer promised great things to come, with new diverse and vast lands awaiting the player’s exploration. It was a strong finish, or so we thought.
A strange, fluctuating monolith made up of tiny, individual swirling beads filled our screens. The music built, the foreboding column split, and the lights went down. Pause. Snap. Reveal. The PlayStation 5. It was an impressive and nerve-tingling cinematic experience.
Instantly, it’s clear that Sony has diverged significantly from its traditional matte and piano black aesthetic. The PS5 white and black contrasting design is striking, though not unsurprising since the DualSense controller reveal some months ago. What remains a shock, however, is the fact the reveal didn’t only show us one console, but two. Arguably, the most noteworthy reveal of the console is that there’s a second, Digital Edition of the console being released alongside the traditional and expected physical disk edition.
Meet the family
Considering we weren’t even sure that we’d get to see the console, Sony went over and above to showcase the entire PS5 range, accessories and all. These extra peripherals in the PS5 family include the DualSense controller, a DualSense charging station for two controllers, HD camera, Pulse 3D headset, and media remote.
Watch the PS5 console reveal below. We’d recommend getting some headphones on, too.
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What does the Digital Edition mean?
After the initial delight at seeing two new consoles, we quickly considered the effect and meaning of its existence. There are two ways to look at the Digital Edition, and there’s a chance they both have some credence. One is that Sony is slowly trying to their players accustomed to a digital-only future and the complete discontinuation of physical media. A testament to technological progress, but a potentially terminal development for the trade-in market place.
The second is that the Digital Only console, which will almost certainly carry a lower price tag, will draw more sales and potentially offset the effect of a potentially high price on the standard PS5 console. As Sony has yet to release a price for the console, we can only speculate.
It will be interesting to see if this affects anything that Microsoft is planning, especially surrounding the Project Lockhart rumours.