Sony has been touting PlayStation 5 to radically change how next-generation games are going to be downloaded and played in the near future. Presently, players are forced to download the entire game even if they’re not interested in the assorted expansion packs or modes. Sony looks to remove these limitations by allowing them to choose what to download and what to not.
Recalling the exclusive Wired interview from a few months back, system architect Mark Cerny did mention that PlayStation 5 will allow “finer-grained access” instead of “treating games like a big block of data”. The goal being modular downloads where players can choose to either download the single-player or multiplayer, or one expansion pack out of five, or even download the entire game and uninstall the single-player after completion.
The whole concept leads to several advantages in the upcoming next-generation. For starters, freeing up storage space on PlayStation 5 will become easier. Secondly, pre-loading will become faster and of course, players get to save money on their bandwidth. These are some factors that journalists like Jason Schreier of Kotaku believe will be the top selling points of PlayStation 5.
Not coincidentally, "play right away, download just what you need, no load times" will be some of Sony's top selling points for the PlayStation 5 https://t.co/9dH03f9h3m
— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) November 18, 2019
To further understand how modular downloads will work, an existing patent was recently updated by Sony for PlayStation 5 and related services. The abstract clearly describes a method where an application software is split into multiple portions, giving users the freedom to not only download but also execute a particular portion of the application software.
Such a method could also allow players to download the single-player campaign, for example, and start playing while the multiplayer components are being downloaded in the background.
Methods and apparatus provide for downloading application software from a server, including: downloading the application software from the server, where a first application software file contains only a portion of the application software, and a second application software file contains more than the portion of the application software; executing the application software and generating application images based thereon, where execution of the first application software file contains enough of the application software to execute a limited amount of the application software; and displaying the application images on a display screen based on the execution of the application software, where the acquisition unit begins downloading the second application software file in a background process after downloading the first application software file and at least partially during the execution of the first application software file.
PlayStation 5 has been confirmed to launch in the holidays of 2020 alongside a new controller. DualShock 5 will feature new adaptive triggers that offer varying levels of resistance for immersion, and improved haptic feedback that will work in tandem with the adaptive triggers to respond to every in-game action for what Sony calls “astonishing effects” on PlayStation 5.
The best part is that PlayStation 5 developers will have the freedom to program the adaptive triggers and haptic feedback based on need and imagination. For example, the new DualShock 5 controller can be programmed to give a distinct sense of what it feels like running through grass or mud, or crashing a car into a wall, or tackling someone on the football field, or slipping on ice.
