A trademark filing by Sony Interactive Entertainment in Europe suggests that the company might have developed a new PlayStation engine or be working on an unannounced first-party project. Sony has already revealed that it will be accelerating its rollout of first-party exclusives with the launch of the PlayStation 5. That will involve acquiring additional developers to work on fresh franchises, giving Sony more games to release alongside the likes of Spider-Man: Miles Morales and Demon's Souls.
This is just the latest possible revelation about the PS5 that has come out in the last few days. Reports emerged yesterday suggesting that the SSD expandable storage solutions for the PS5 could launch with a price of $115 before tax. While this is significantly cheaper than the proprietary solution offered by Microsoft for the Xbox Series X, it is unclear whether this is an official Sony product or a third-party solution. That price is also only for a 500 GB SSD model, rather than the 1 TB expansion card Microsoft will release.
Related: PS5's '1TB' SSD Actually Only Gives Players 664GB Of Storage Space
A new trademark that Sony has filed for the "Soho Engine" in Europe has been discovered by Gematsu. The listing doesn't give any details about what the Soho Engine is or how it will be used, leaving open the possibility that it could be anything from a new game to a proprietary engine developed by Sony for its first-party developers. The PlayStation centric site PSU speculates that the name could refer to an internal engine that is meant to be used with upcoming PS5 titles. However, it is also possible that the name might refer to a previously unknown series that is being developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment.
With the launch of the next-gen consoles now just a few weeks away, more information is coming out about them. Most recently, Dirt 5 developer Mike Moreton has confirmed that the differences in GPU power between the PS5 and Xbox Series X won't matter all that much for players. The developer explained that the hardware is so similar between the next-gen consoles that the GPU will have little noticeable effect. However, he did concede that it might make optimizing a game slightly easier on the Xbox Series X.
Until Sony officially reveals what the Soho Engine is, it is impossible to know exactly what it could mean for the PS5. The trademark could also come to nothing, with technology companies often filing trademarks for future products that never materialize. But it will no doubt lead to speculation that Sony is working on a brand new engine for its studios or is working on a game that has yet to be announced.
The PlayStation 5 is set to launch on November 12 in selected territories before becoming available in the rest of the world on November 19.