The recent Summer Games Fest event was a unique one in that it was Geoff Keighley’s impressions ongoing hands-on with the PlayStation 5 and more specifically, the DualSense controller. During the event, Geoff interviewed the Worldwide Head of Marketing, Eric Lempel. During the interview, they talked about PlayStation’s approach to next-gen, some of the new features of PlayStation 5, and how they will announce pre-orders for the new console.
During the event, Geoff talked about his time with PlayStation 5 and the new DualSense controller, going hands-on with a demo of Astro’s Playroom. After showing off the game and explaining what the controller is doing as he is playing, he gave his impressions, saying: “After watching the event and seeing the games, I was excited, but the gameplay feels like a whole other dimension to the experience with what’s happening with the adaptive triggers and the haptics and everything.”
Discussing on what went into designing the new PlayStation controller with all the bells and whistles that the DualSense comes with, Eric Lempel said: “With PlayStation 5, it’s a brand new generation, and we believe in generations. So we want to evolve every part of the experience. And the controller is really the most intimate part of the experience, it’s the extension of the player. So we thought a lot about this, and one of the things we could have done is just iterate on the DualShock. We’ve done that for many years. The gamers absolutely love the DualShock, they tell us it’s the best controller we’ve ever made, the latest edition. But we thought, no, let’s go a step further. Let’s see how a new generation can express a whole new feeling, and that’s where the DualSense came about.”
One of the biggest differences between Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 is the differences in focus that Microsoft and Sony have taken regarding the next-generation of gaming. Recently, Microsoft revealed that all of their games coming out in the next two years will be cross-gen on the Xbox platform. Sony is taking a more traditional approach when it comes to the PlayStation 5.
“Specifically for us, a big pillar of our company is innovation, it’s a pillar of Sony corporation, it’s also a pillar of the PlayStation company,” Lempel said. “And we are always trying to push the boundaries. We push the boundaries of play, that’s what we say internally, we want to excite gamers, we want to deliver new experiences. So as we go into a new piece of hardware, it really has to check the box on a lot of different areas to fulfill those promises.”
Earlier in the week, an Amazon page for PlayStation 5 got everyone excited because it seemed that news about potential pre-orders was coming. However, this wasn’t the case and Eric Lempel set the record straight. ” I think it’s safe to say we’ll let you know when pre-order will happen. We will let you know, it’s not gonna happen with a minute’s notice, we’re going to at some point let you know when you can pre-order a PlayStation 5. So please don’t feel like you have to go run out and line up anywhere until you receive an official notice on how that’ll work.”
The PlayStation 5 is set to release in the Holiday season later this year.