Sony backtracks on its bullish PS5 promise after three years

You'll no longer see Sony advertising one of the PS5's features on the retail box

(Credit: Sony)

• 👋 You’ll no longer see one of the PS5 features advertised on the box

• ✏️ Sony has removed the 8K logo from the retail box

• 🤷‍♂️ Only one PS5 game is capable of 8K, but it only outputs at 4K

• 🫣 Sony never enabled 8K support on PS5, despite advertising it for three years

Sony has quietly removed a PS5 feature that has never come to fruition despite being labeled on the console’s retail box.

New PS5 boxes will now only include the 4K/120fps and HDR tags and will no longer advertise the PlayStation 5 as being able to output to 8K.

Currently, the only game capable of hitting an 8K resolution on PS5 is The Touryst. But because Sony hasn’t enabled 8K support on its console, it downsamples to a 4K output.

Before launching the PS5 in 2020, Sony said: "PS5 is compatible with 8K displays at launch, and after a future system software update will be able to output resolutions up to 8K when content is available, with supported software."

That update never materialized, leaving those with 8K displays stuck using the PS5 at a lower resolution.

The old PS5 box versus the new one.

Microsoft’s Xbox Series X is also technically capable of outputting at an 8K resolution. But unlike Sony, the Redmond-based company didn’t advertise it on the front of the console’s retail box and also never made 8K support official.

Fundamentally, though, neither console is anywhere near powerful enough to push four times the pixels of 4K in all but the rarest circumstance. It’s something that even the most expensive graphics cards struggle to do, but it’s an area that Sony might return to with the PS5 Pro.

If Sony’s new upscaling technology dubbed PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution can output at 8K convincingly while running at a much lower resolution internally, perhaps it can put the 8K logo back on the box. I wouldn’t count on it, though.

One area that both Microsoft and Sony have delivered on is 120fps games. There are plenty of PS5 120fps games and Xbox Series X 120fps games to choose from, but you’ll need a compatible display to enjoy them.

Adam Vjestica is The Shortcut’s Senior Editor. Formerly TechRadar’s Gaming Hardware Editor, Adam has also worked at Nintendo of Europe as a Content Marketing Editor, where he helped launch the Nintendo Switch. Follow him on X @ItsMrProducts.