The PS5 finally has 8K play, but there’s a catch

PS5 owners may recall that the console box boasts of having the ability to display 8K games. Today, a game can finally put the full power of the PS5 to the test, finally, in a way. The Touryst is the first PS5 game to claim to display at 8K, 60fps, although Digital Foundry has pointed out that this is not technically what is happening.

While the Touryst internally renders at 8K resolution (or 7680×4320 for people who like really big numbers), the PS5 doesn’t actually support this output via HDMI 2.1. Instead, according to the Digital Foundry report, developer Shin’en Multimedia uses an extreme upsampling technique to down-sample every pixel on any connected 4K TV, resulting in apparent 8K output. The developer also promised that if Sony were to eventually enable 8K output on a PS5, it would release a patch that would allow The Touryst to display without downsampling on an 8K TV.

As Digital Foundry notes, an update for the PS5 or Xbox Series X that allows consoles to display at 8K is unlikely to come anytime soon. 8K devices are far too rare in mainstream markets, and the number of games that actually support this kind of release is, at the moment on PS5, just one.

While a fix to enable 8K outputs on the PS5 isn’t likely in the near future, gamers can finally expand their console storage with the latest console system update. Users who download the update can open their PS5 and install an M.2 SSD, although the drive must meet a set of required specifications.