PS5 Has Been ‘Special’ Thanks to SSD, DualSense Features Rather Than Visuals

So claims Astro Bot chief developer

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• by Liam Croft Yesterday, 4:30 PM

Video game graphics have quite comfortably reached the stage of diminishing returns, making the conventional transition from PS4 to PS5 less apparent.

To counter this, Sony dedicated resources to a significant SSD and DualSense controller characteristics as distinguishing factors, and the Team Asobi studio director Nicolas Doucet feels these are the aspects that render Sony’s latest console “unique”.

In conversation with The Game Business, the Astro’s Playroom and Astro Bot lead discusses how, to the “unskilled observer”, it may be challenging to discern the difference between the graphics of a late-generation PS4 game and a PS5 launch title. Consequently, to differentiate its offerings from those of the previous generation, Team Asobi focused on these innovative features.

While experimenting with prototypes for the DualSense controller, they “endeavored to grasp what could be unique about having this type of trigger, allowing you to simulate pulling something, or breaking something, or squashing something… We explored all of that”.

The trials yielded two of the finest applications of the PS5 pad this generation, and this is where the generational advancement is likely most strongly felt, states Doucet. “There are some advancements, but they might be less apparent than when we transitioned to HD graphics. That’s something you can simply gaze at the screen for a few moments and comprehend. With the controller, you need to hold it and experience it.”

He adds: “I genuinely believe the PS5, thanks to the DualSense and the SSD, has brought something remarkable. With the SSD… I’m envisioning scenarios like the Souls games, where you frequently die. And when you die, you previously had to endure a lengthy wait before you could try again. With the SSD, that process becomes extremely rapid. Therefore, in terms of sheer enjoyment of gameplay, that’s truly enhanced.”

Such special, distinctive features are what Sony must contemplate even more as it progresses towards a forthcoming PS6. Speculated to arrive in 2027, the graphical leap between a PS5 and the next generation will be even less significant than that from the PS4 to the PS5. One way Sony is presumed to be justifying its next device is through a handheld capable of playing certain games. The new Power Saving mode on PS5 appears to be paving the way for that feature.