It appears that Sony has given up on referring to PlayStation 5 (PS5) as an “8K” gaming console. The company has stripped the mention from the box, leaving “4K@120” and “HDR” in its place. A decision that was likely made since there aren’t really any games on the PS5 that offer 8K (outside of one).
This doesn’t mean the console no longer supports 8K as the option should always remain in the settings. As mentioned, there is a single game on the console (Touryst) that can take advantage of it. However, Sony has never released another game since or before that. Leaving users wondering if 8K will ever be a thing with this console.
Sony isn’t alone in this, as Microsoft’s Xbox Series X console also suffers from a lack of 8K content. You can stream content online 8K (ie, YouTube), but when it comes to gaming, none of the developers are focusing on 8K content since very few users actually have 8K-capable screens. It just isn’t worth it for these companies to spend the time and resources enhancing their graphics to a resolution that only a (very) small minority is going to be able to enjoy. So the focus continues to be on 4K content.
This is also a solid sign that you can probably assume that there won’t be any additional 8K titles coming to the console in the future. So this would be the end of 8K (in gaming) for now. At least until 8K becomes more of a norm for TVs sold in stores. Something that is likely to begin happening as soon as later next year.
Assuming that manufacturers won’t eventually decide to give up on 8K and move toward something better (since 8K just feels a bit bland compared to 12-16K when it comes to where we should go next). Its taken this long for networks to make the move to 4K, thus it’s going to take a major enhancement to convince them to upgrade anything yet again. If the major broadcast networks don’t make the jump, there will once again be a very limited amount of content in 8K. Making it the next 2K.
There is also the chance that Sony is looking to come up with every reason possible to advertise the coming PlayStation 5 Pro console. If there isn’t enough of an upgrade between the consoles to brag about, then it will be hard to convince gamers to upgrade. Suddenly dropping 8K from the PS5 and moving it over to the PS5 Pro so that it can say 4K vs 8K, could provide a major spec comparison between the two consoles. Not that it would be much of a success this round since it’s not like everyone is going to suddenly forget that the PS5 was advertised as an 8K system to begin with.
Both the PS5 and Xbox Series X are (technically) capable of 8K. However, the technology is still in its infancy and users would have to have an 8K screen with HDMI 2.1 cable to make it all happen. Not to mention an 8K title to take advantage of. So, for now, it doesn’t seem like anything beyond 4K will be happening within this generation of gaming.
If anything, this generation and the next, will be more of a push toward other technologies that could potentially make gaming more enjoyable. Like integrated AI technologies, enhanced support for things like FreeSync/G-Sync, variable refresh rates (VRR), higher refresh rates, HDR and Dolby Vision, and more. 8K+ resolutions will likely be the last thing companies will be concerning themselves with (for the time being).
