The PS5 is out in Europe on Friday (November 19), but for those who are haven’t ordered one, can’t find stock or can’t afford to, game developer Alex Grade has created a free PS5 simulator.
The developer wasn’t able to afford the new console, and so they set out to recreate the experience of unboxing and setting up the new console.
Unboxing is a fairly popular form of content around new console launches, but with Sony struggling with stock of the PS5 and the staggered global rollout, there are sure to be a lot of people missing out, so Grade stepped in to make it real.
In an email to Polygon, Grade wrote that: “I can’t afford it any time soon, but I really want to have a PS5, so I made a game just for myself where I can imagine that I’m having a PS5.”
Features of the game include requiring you to figure out who to route extension cables to your PS5, and requiring you to charge your DualSense controller before you can use it.
PS5 Simulator is available for free on itch.io, and features “realistic graphic with RTX”, physics almost everywhere” and “worst cable management – just like in real life”. Alex’s game has since gone viral, with over 3000 downloads.
Game just hit 3k downloads and 13k views JUST TODAY (and still growing) and seems like only @IGN haven't wrote an article about it. pic.twitter.com/sO5pUGaDBc
— Alex Grade (@alxgrade) November 16, 2020
NME played the simulator and found it fairly accurate to the experience of getting a new console – Newton bothering wire physics aside.
The game is sadly missing out on the features we covered in our real-life PS5 review, so it’s a shame there’s no way of experiencing the PS5’s DualSense controller which NME‘s Jordan Oloman said was like “ASMR for your hands”.
However, with Steam already implementing basic controller support for the DualSense, it is hopeful that even non-PS5 players will eventually get to experience the haptic triggers outside of the console ecosystem – and maybe even while playing the PS5 Simulator.