PS5 previews show off console size and select games, but no UI yet

Outside of its big PlayStation 5 Showcase in September, Sony has been relatively quiet on the PlayStation 5 as of late.

By contrast, Microsoft has been providing a variety of media — including MobileSyrup — with near-final builds of the Xbox Series X to preview.

That said, Sony is now starting to let media get their hands on the PS5 — in Japan, at least. Notably, the only time we’ve seen the PS5 in the wild outside of renders was when Taiwan’s National Communications Commission leaked images last month.

First and foremost, see below for a lengthy preview video from a man named Natsuki Hanae:

While we knew the PS5 would be big, seeing it near a hand, DualSense controller and TV help put into perspective just how large the next-gen console really is.

Media were seemingly only allowed to play select PS5 launch titles like Astro’s Playroom and Godfall, as there doesn’t appear to be any footage of Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales or Demon’s Souls.

That said, images from 4gamer reveal a mysterious latch/bolt hidden in the top-right of the console. It’s unclear what this is used for, although it’s possible that it could be how the PS5 will support regular SSD drives, as Sony has confirmed but not yet detailed.

However, the previews noted that they weren’t able to get a look at the PS5’s UI. So far, Sony has shown off very little in this regard, outside of an ever-so-brief tease in June.

Sony's small PS5 UI teaser there pic.twitter.com/D7m6SrVfCk

— Tom Warren (@tomwarren) June 11, 2020

Otherwise, Matt MacLaurin, vice president of UX design at PlayStation, mentioned in June in a since-deleted Linkedin thread that the PS5 will offer “very interesting evolution of the OS” that’s a “100 percent overhaul of the PS4 UI and some very different new concepts.”

For now, we’ll have to wait for Sony to show more in the coming weeks. The PlayStation 5 launches in Canada on November 12th for $629 CAD for the standard model and $499 for the disc-less ‘All Digital’ model.

Source: Natsuki Hanae, 4gamer