Though Microsoft has remained tight-lipped about the next Xbox's name, performance capabilities, and unique features, Sony has been surprisingly forthcoming about the PlayStation 5 (PS5). It's already confirmed a number of features and hardware details – according to the company, the PS5 will feature support for 8K graphics (presumably at lower FPS), backward compatibility with PlayStation 4 (PS4) games, and even real-time ray tracing capabilities.

From a hardware perspective, things are a bit more vague, but Sony has still dropped a few interesting bits of information. For example, we know the PS5 will house an 8-core Ryzen chip running on AMD's 7nm Zen 2 microarchitecture, as well as a Navi GPU.

Now, ahead of E3 2019 (to be clear, Sony will not be at the conference), CEO of PlayStation Jim Ryan has confirmed a few other hardware and software details. First, Ryan says Sony is hoping to offer up "cross-generational play" to its customers. Unlike mere backwards compatibility, cross generational play will let gamers play a compatible game on their PS4, switch over to the PS5 to continue their save progress, and then switch back to the PS4 again to continue.

Ryan seems to feel this will prevent customers from having to make the choice between upgrading their system and leaving their PS4 buddies behind, making the transition more seamless than its been in the past.

Getting to the hardware details mentioned before, Ryan informed CNET that the PlayStation 5 will include an SSD as the "default" option; it won't be an upsell and customers won't be forced to make do with a slow HDD on the next-gen console.

PC gamers, in particular, may be interested to learn that Ryan's team is aiming to bring 120Hz, 4K gaming to the PS5 as well. Given that most consoles run games at a maximum of 30 FPS, this could be just the incentive some PC players need to switch over; or at least own both platforms.

Naturally, even with top-of-the-line hardware, it's unlikely that the PS5 will actually hit 120 FPS on a 4K display. To speculate, though, perhaps console gamers will finally get access to graphical settings for the system itself or its titles, letting them lower the resolution to boost FPS or raise the resolution to pretty up visuals (at the cost of FPS).

Our thoughts aside, we're excited to see what the finished version of the PS5 will look and feel like – what do you think of the information we've learned so far? Does the PS5 sound like something you'd be interested in buying, or will you be sticking to your current platform?

Image credit: PlayStation 5 by Steel Drake