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  The box is cool, sure... [credit: Sam Machkovech ]

This morning, the PlayStation 5 arrived at the Ars Orbital HQ, which means we're allowed to say a few things—emphasis on "few"—as the new console's November 12 launch date draws nearer.

First off, take a look... at the box! You can look as long and hard at the console's box as you wish. As part of our console review agreement with Sony, we're not allowed to share photos of anything inside the box yet, but we are allowed to confirm that there is indeed a working PlayStation 5 console in there. ( Not cake .)

But we really can't say anything else about its contents. Anything that resembles an "impression" is off limits at this point, so if your many questions haven't already been answered by a Sony promotional video or social media post, we can neither confirm nor deny. (Our box absolutely pales compared to one of Sony's lead hardware engineers tearing an entire PlayStation 5 apart .) At the very least, we can zoom in on the box's fine text, which you'll find in the above gallery.

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  On-screen help and tips to get through tricky levels? Pretty smooth, PlayStation...

Sony's drip-feed of PlayStation 5 information continued on Thursday with a surprise reveal of the upcoming console's "Control Center" interface. Sony has typically been bullish on updating its system menus between console generations, and PlayStation 5 is clearly no exception.

The biggest feature revealed in this week's video is "Activities," a system-level companion to most consoles' "trophy" or "achievement" lists. In the case of PS5, when you're playing a supported game, you can tap into the Control Center to see levels, quests, or objectives that are available in your game (meaning, content you've already reached or unlocked, not spoilers). The idea being, you might have blown through a platforming level from start to finish, but missed hidden items and collectibles needed to unlock a PS5 trophy.

Enlarge (credit: Aurich Lawson / Sony)

After tearing the PlayStation 5's guts apart earlier this week, Sony confirmed nearly everything we'd like to know on Friday about how its new console, launching November 12 , will interface with PS4 games via backward compatibility .

We should probably start with the big news that Sony has not cleared up just yet.

Today, we received our first indication that PlayStation 5 will ship with something known as "Game Boost," which its Friday news post suggests "may make [select] PS4 games run with a higher or smoother frame rate." This suggestion doesn't come with a handy footnote pointing us to a list of affected games or features, however.

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  The PlayStation 5 comes with everything seen here. Some assembly required. Batteries not included. From Sony! [credit: Sony / Youtube ]

We're still a bit over a month away from the official launch of the PlayStation 5, but we've already got the first public teardown of the console hardware, courtesy of Sony itself.

The Japanese video (with English subtitles) Sony posted Wednesday morning answers quite a few nagging questions left from previous announcements and recent hands-on time from some Japanese press .

Chief among them is a demonstration of how the system's circular black stand works. When the PS5 is placed vertically, the stand is held in place with a single large screw. When that screw is removed, it can be stored in a compartment in the base itself, and a small cap fills in the screw hole in the system itself.

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  The world-warping content in today's Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart demo came in two forms. First is a sort of quick-lasso system that lets you warp within a given battling arena. Here's the "before"...

Ever since the hype campaigns began for the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 , we've gotten apparent teases of real-time next-gen gameplay, enough to convince us that these systems are adequately powerful. But the full-blown execution of what "only on PlayStation 5" can look like finally crystallized for the first time on Thursday. It came in the form of six uninterrupted minutes of live gameplay from Insomniac Games' Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart , which will debut on the PS5 during the console's "launch window," we learned today.

Sony couldn't have rolled out a better, more convincing sense of what top-to-bottom next-gen gaming architecture can deliver than this shiny, explosive, SSD-powered sequence—and so far, it's more stunning than anything we've seen from Xbox Series X-exclusive fare.

Portals far beyond Portal

The new Sony console's first sales point is illustrated in the top gallery, though merely looking at the images misses a key part of the equation: miniscule load times between insanely complicated sequences.

Enlarge / This credit card doesn't exist, but if it did, we're not sure it'd count as "previous interests and PlayStation activities" in terms of jumping the PlayStation 5 pre-order line. (credit: Aurich Lawson / Getty Images)

Want to be first in line to preorder PlayStation 5? In a rare move for a console's launch, Sony has led the charge by announcing a direct-sales program—one that bypasses typical retail channels—before the upcoming system's price, release date, or other details have been announced.

Starting today, prospective buyers can go to Sony's official preorder site to express their interest in purchasing a PS5. Users only need to enter one piece of information into the form: their PlayStation Network ID. And... that's it.

Your allegiance will be tested

From there, Sony will determine exactly who will be deigned worthy of a shot at purchasing a PS5, and this will be based on "previous interests and PlayStation activities." Exactly what that information is, and how it will be weighted, is currently unclear. Years of membership? Number of games owned? Whether the account in question pays for subscription services like PlayStation Plus or PlayStation Now, or merely uses a wholly free PSN account? Sony has yet to clarify this point.

Enlarge / The PlayStation 5's new gamepad is called DualSense and sports a bold two-toned design. Did Aperture Science make this? (credit: Sony / Aurich Lawson )

Nearly three months after laying out some of the PlayStation 5's technological underpinnings , Sony today offered a first extended look at actual games running on the upcoming hardware during a live event.

The event started off with a glimpse of an "expanded and enhcanced" version of Grand Theft Auto V , which is coming to the PlayStation 5 in 2021, in case you need an excuse to buy the game again. PlayStation 5 owners will also get GTA Online free at launch in 2021, while PS4 owners of GTAV will get $1 million in monthly online GTA Cash every month until the PS5 version launches.

A follow-up to last year's Spider-Man featuring Miles Morales will be hitting the PS5 in Holiday 2020. "A hero is just someone who doesn't give up," an unseen narrator says over the footage. "Your dad said that. He was right. Now it's your turn. Go be a hero Miles"