Sony reveals PlayStation 5 will offer heretical no-optical-disk option. And yes, it has an AMD CPU-GPU combo

There's a standard edition with a Blu-ray and an SSD-only digital edition. Price remains secret

Sony has revealed the fifth iteration of its PlayStation gaming console – and this time it comes in two variants.

One is the "standard" model and will include an Ultra HD Blu-ray disc drive. The other is disk-free.

Removing optical disks entirely would have been a very bold move because it would have limited backwards compatibility for the many millions of old games. If Sony does the right thing and lets owners of the new console write new games onto third-party storage devices, instead of locking them into expensive Sony kit, the digital edition may not be an annoyance to those without old games and/or willing to hang on to older PlayStations for their retro fixes.

Both of the new models are shiny and white, as depicted above. As are some new peripherals, namely a "PULSE 3D wireless headset" that offers 3D audio support and dual noise-cancelling microphones, an HD camera, a remote control that includes a microphone, and a charging station for PlayStation controllers.

The PlayStation 5 and its peripherals ... Click to enlarge. Source: Sony

But Sony hasn't revealed what either of the two new models, or the peripherals, will cost. We've all been promised "pricing and additional details for PlayStation 5 at a later date."

The waiting world was told about some new games coming to the new console. Among the titles to lure you into splashing out whatever the new box costs are CoronavirusTetris, Supercolossal Cave Adventure and Leisure Suit Larry Gets Woke.

Actually we made those up to make a cheap gag. The list of games Sony wants you to get excited about includes new cuts of Hitman, Gran Turismo, Ghostwire, Spiderman, NBA 2K21 and Grand Theft Auto. The latter will also offer an online game that Sony will make free for all PS5 owners within first three months of its launch sometime in 2021.

All that fun will be made possible by an eight-core custom AMD Ryzen processor clocked at up to 3.5GHz, accompanied by an AMD Radeon RDNA-2-based graphics engine with 36 compute units clocked up to 2.23GHz, 16GB of GDDR6 RAM with a total memory bandwidth of 448GB/s, and an 825GB SSD.

Sony has stuck to previous promises that the device will be in stores for 2020's holiday season, and made no noise about virus-vandalised supply chains messing up that plan. ®