Major OEM Sony is arguably known more for the PlayStation brand of game consoles than its smartphone lineup, and according to leaked specs allegedly obtained SemiAccurate, the next generation of that lineup, the PlayStation 5, may be waiting in the wings for a 2018 release with a custom AMD chipset in tow. The upcoming PlayStation 5 will reportedly have a custom- made AMD Zen chipset on the Navi architecture, a successor of sorts to the very gaming-friendly Ryzen chips that spent the last couple of quarters giving Intel’s Core series a hard time in the PC space. There is not much to suggest that it could be coming this year, aside from the rumor that a large number of development kits have allegedly gone out to game makers. SemiAccurate was notably proven correct in similar leaks surrounding the PlayStation 4, Microsoft XBOX One, and Nintendo Switch. Even so, as with any unofficial report with little corroboration, this news should be taken with a hefty dose of skepticism.
The AMD chip that’s supposedly going to be in the PlayStation 5 will reportedly hold some benefits for VR on a deep level, making it easier to develop VR content for the platform. While this will be an architecture jump from the PlayStation 4 and its Pro variant, it does not represent any significant jumps such as a die shrink or skipping generations; the Zen cores in this new processor are the same ones in the Ryzen processors out now for PCs, and are a direct sequel to the Jaguar cores that the PlayStation 4 debuted with in 2013.
Essentially, there is no indication that the PlayStation 5, power-wise, would be anything more than an evolutionary step up from the PlayStation 4 Pro. With that being the case, if all of this information is real, it’s quite likely that Sony will be including some kind of gimmick, optimization, or unique perk to set the console apart. Given that the Zen architecture is compatible with its predecessor, backwards compatibility with PlayStation 4 games is quite likely. This goes double for the fact that if the information is real and the console does release in 2018, PlayStation 4 games will still be coming out for some time. After all, the PlayStation 4 Pro just released two years ago. That all, of course, is just speculation.