Two years later, and Sony’s PlayStation 5 still lacks its advertised 8K support

Sony’s failing to deliver the PlayStation 5’s advertised feature set – Where is the system’s 8K support?

Two years have passed since Sony launched their PlayStation 5 console, a system that lists “4K 120”, 8K, and HDR on its box as advertised features. The problem with this is that Sony’s latest console does not support 8K displays, and Sony has not revealed any plans to support 8K resolutions in the future. 

FlatPanelsHD has recently questioned Sony about this omission from the PlayStation 5’s feature set, and so far Sony has not responded. This is hugely disappointing, as while 8K monitors and TVs remains uncommon, Sony should not be advertising a feature that their product does not support. 

Currently, one PlayStation 5 game is designed to run at 8K 60 FPS on Sony’s console. That game is The Touryst, which can run at 8K 60 FPS but downscales the game to 4K 60 FPS due to the PlayStation 5’s lack of 8K resolution support. In this instance, Sony’s inability to enable an advertised feature of their PlayStation 5 console is holding The Touryst’s visuals back.

Today’s gamers are mostly opting to purchase 4K 120Hz TVs that support HDR and Variable Refresh Rate technologies, rather than higher resolution 8K screens. 8K televisions are not selling well, and streaming services are not planning to support 8K content in the near future. This has allowed Sony to avoid supporting 8K resolutions on their PlayStation 5 console with few consequences, but it has also meant that all of Sony’s PlayStation 5 consoles ship in boxes that lie about the system’s current feature set. No PlayStation 5 console currently supports 8K resolutions, and Sony needs to address this discrepancy. 

Sony could enable support for 8K resolutions with a simple firmware update for their PlayStation 5 console, but they haven’t. 8K support is clearly not a priority for Sony, despite their willingness to advertise the “feature” on the box of their systems. It is hard not to label the PlayStation 5’s “8K support” as false advertising, and it is honestly strange that the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has not questioned Sony about this yet. 

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