But by 2020, when the X Series and PlayStation 5 arrived to signal the dawn of a new generation, those expectations had changed somewhat. The PS5 may have launched with a dozen titles, but almost all of the stars, from Spider-Man: Miles Morales at Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla, can be played on PlayStation 4 or other platform. On paper, it could have been disappointing. Bear in mind, however, that the best PS5 games weren’t here to be exclusive; they were there to be showcases.
People could roam Manhattan as Miles Morales on their PS4, but they couldn’t travel quickly through the city in seconds unless they’re on a PS5, with its solid-state drive that kills load time. They could enjoy the scenery on the PS4, but they couldn’t see Miles’ reflection in buildings and puddles as they passed ray tracing effects that the PS5 has activated. “When you can see real reflections in a video game, it’s a pretty spectacular moment for gamers,” says Ted Price, Founder and CEO of Spider Man developer Insomniac Games.
Beyond focus and eye intensity, these early titles also became a barometer by which Sony Interactive could gauge how developers were using the new features made possible by the PS5 – not just ray tracing or SSD, but 3D audio capabilities or robust haptics. DualSense controller and its “adaptive triggers” which can provide variable pressure. Just because a machine can doing something doesn’t mean that developers will benefit from it, either immediately or not at all. But last summer, at a console reveal event, Sony showcased a double handful of titles that would be arriving for the PS5, six of which featured ray tracing. “It’s amazing,” says Cerny. “I thought ray tracing was something that would be used in second and third generation titles. I thought maybe a first title could show the potential a little bit, and that would be one of those things that you wondered about, as someone involved in creating the material, Was it worth putting in place, given the cost associated with silicon? And to have answered that question the very first time that any titles were released in public was incredible.
Amazing because some console tech never realizes, either because it’s just not intuitive (Cerny quotes the PlayStation Vita’s rear touchscreen) or because it takes time to learn the intricacies of a new machine. Whenever a new console is on the horizon, and again upon its release, Cerny travels the world to talk to studios about his abilities, and he’s heard it all – including literal boos, like when he told an unnamed developer years ago that the next PS4 strength use some flash memory to help cache data. (The boo worked; Sony strayed from that architectural choice.)
Cerny’s last developer tour went virtually, of course, but he was surprised by what he found. “Conversations can be very controversial,” he says. “I’m actively looking for people who will have strong opinions, who clearly articulate any issues they have with the hardware, so that we can think about how we can resolve them in the future.” The architecture of the PS3 made it difficult to set up a graphics pipeline; the processor in the PS4 was not as powerful as people had hoped. The PS5, says Cerny, miraculously found little recoil.
Now six months after launch, a new phase of PS5 games began: titles that harness the capabilities of the console to push before. The first was Return, an exclusive console from Housemarque, the same studio that created the PS4 star Resogun. The scary roguelike shooter received praise for its reverse storytelling techniques and atmospheric gameplay – gameplay that taps into 3D audio and PS5 haptics like never before. As players walk through an overgrown biome on a hostile alien planet, the raindrops sort of feel like they are passing through the controller itself. Aiming your weapon at an attacking creature is a two-part process: your trigger stops halfway to use your regular handgun, and pushing it further unlocks the weapon’s secondary function. (Astro Games Room, a cute platformer from Japan Studios, which came preinstalled on the PS5, also shows the haptics of the DualSense, but it works as much as a tech demo as it does a game.)
