PS5 Virtual Sound Won’t Support TV Speakers at Launch

As the PlayStation 5 nears its release, there are still several things we don’t know. How does backwards compatibility work? What is the extent of support for PlayStation Plus Collection? One thing is for sure though – virtual sound via the new Tempest 3D AudioTech won’t support TV speakers at launch.

In a new PlayStation Blog post, SIE peripherals marketing and licensing senior director Isabelle Tomatis talked about 3D audio via headphones on the PS5. It was once again confirmed that players could simply plug in their headphones via the DualSense’s 3.5mm jack and experience it for themselves. Tomatis then followed up by stating that the team is still working on implementing virtual surround sound via TV speakers.

“Although TV speaker virtual surround sound won’t be available on launch day for PS5, it’s still a feature we are extremely excited about, and our engineers are hard at work on bringing it to PS5 in the future.” How much time it will take remains to be seen and just how much this impacts your experience will depends on your audio setup. If you mostly game with headphones, then the answer is: Not much.

The PS5 is currently slated to release on November 12th for the United States, Canada and Japan while the rest of the world will get it on November 19th. It retails for $499 while the digital edition costs $399. Stay tuned for more details in the coming weeks.