PS5 week in review: First TV spot, killer DualSense features and a big game tease

Another week has gone by without a PS5 price or release date, but there’s still some new information to share about Sony’s upcoming console.

This week, we got three substantial PS5 reveals, all directly from Sony. On TV, we saw a commercial that explores the breadth of games planned for the PS5. On the PlayStation Blog, we learned how specific games will leverage the DualSense controller’s haptic feedback. And in an interview with a Sony executive, we learned that the PS5’s launch library will apparently be the “best” that a PlayStation console has ever offered.

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First PS5 commercial debuts

While Sony has drummed up most of its PS5 buzz online, there are still plenty of folks who watch TV. As such, there are still plenty of folks who watch TV commercials. Sony’s latest advertisement for the PS5 is a good, old-fashioned TV spot, which you can watch below:

In it, a woman travels through a variety of exotic environments, including an icy, kraken-filled lake, a remote outpost in a warzone and a foreboding cave. The idea is that the DualSense will make games of any genre more immersive thanks to haptic feedback and more subtle button responses. While the TV spot doesn’t show us any game footage, it’s at least a creative way of conveying how playing with a DualSense might “feel” different from a DualShock 4.

Killer DualSense features revealed

As a companion piece to the TV advertisement, the PlayStation Blog ran a piece on how the DualSense would enhance a variety of different PS5 games. From Spider-Man: Miles Morales, to Deathloop, to Horizon Forbidden West, a number of developers weighed in on the DualSense’s haptic feedback, and how it differs from the simpler vibration offered by current controllers.

Some accounts were more precise than others. Among the more interesting features, we learned that Deathloop can lock up buttons if your gun jams, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart’s guns can consume different amounts of ammo depending on trigger pressure and Astro’s Playroom can differentiate between different walking surfaces (metal, plastic, water) through subtle feedback.

PS5 launch lineup could be the 'best ever'

Finally, we got an intriguing promise from Eric Lempel, senior vice president and head of global marketing at Sony Interactive Entertainment. He claimed that the PS5 would have “the best line-up that we’ve ever seen in the history of PlayStation,” taking into account both first- and third-party titles. He also hinted that we’ll learn about more launch titles between now and when the PS5 launches (most likely sometime in November, although late October or early December would not be impossible.)

While Lempel’s assertion is a bold one, it’s also worth keeping in mind that the PS4 was perhaps the only PlayStation console with a stellar launch lineup — and even that one looks a little less impressive in retrospect. If we get two or three solid exclusives, that would already put it high in the running for the best PlayStation launch lineup ever.

Marshall Honorof was a senior editor for Tom's Guide, overseeing the site's coverage of gaming hardware and software. He comes from a science writing background, having studied paleomammalogy, biological anthropology, and the history of science and technology. After hours, you can find him practicing taekwondo or doing deep dives on classic sci-fi.