The PS5 Pro is nothing more than a rumor at the moment but a recent report has suggested it could arrive in late 2023 or early-to-mid 2024.
The report comes from the RedGamingTech YouTube channel (via GamesRadar). In the report, the RedGamingTech channel host, Paul Eccleston, claims that, based on information from sources, a PS5 Pro is in development and that it has “some significant improvements over the base system.”
In terms of release, RedGamingTech says that the PS5 Pro “is possibly targeting sometime in late 2023 or sometime in 2024”. Though Sony hasn't confirmed any plans with regards to any mid-generation upgrades just yet, a three-to-four year timeline would be a fairly neat mirror of the three year gap between the base PS4 and the more powerful PS4 Pro.
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The report also touches on potential performance of a new iteration of the PS5, pointing to twice the speed in standard modes over the “vanilla PlayStation 5” and 2.5 times the speed with ray-tracing active. The report also suggests that the new iteration would be designed to provide an even better experience with PlayStation VR. While PlayStation VR 2 has been confirmed, its release date hasn’t.
As Eccleston himself points out, of course, rumors “can be wrong” and, in the tech and gaming industry, projects and plans can get cancelled or changed “with alarming regularity”. As such, we’d recommend taking such reports with a pinch of salt until such times as Sony confirms any plans for a new iteration on the base PS5.
Analysis: What’s the PS5 Pro?
Well, at the moment, the PS5 Pro is speculation and rumor and nothing more, as no successor to the PS5 has actually been officially announced by Sony. A mid-gen console upgrade would not, however, be the biggest surprise given the PS4 Pro was a pretty successful launch for Sony back in 2016, 3 years after the launch of the base PS4.
This isn’t the first report we’ve seen on the unconfirmed console, either. It was only earlier this month that a collection of international shipment records spotted by TweakTown sparked speculation over the development of the PS5 Pro. The records showed Sony Interactive Entertainment (the branch of Sony that handles PlayStation) has shipped thousands of boxes of development kits to the US over the past few months. Most shipments originated in Japan and Korea, while other listings showed Sony exported a shipment labeled “video game console [sic] (prototype)” from the UK to the US last November.
It’s the word “prototype” that caused a flurry of excitement, with some speculating that the mysterious item could be new iteration on the PS5, but it all seems a little optimistic, and there’s little to suggest with any certainty that these shipments actually contained complete prototype models. We could also be looking at something to do with the PSVR 2 or even the original PS5.
Still, while it feels like there’s a strong chance Sony could release a PS5 Slim or PS5 Pro at some point down the line, with its decision to release two mid-generation console upgrades for the PS4 proving successful, current shortages make it feel unlikely that Sony will rush into anything. As it is, it’s best to wait for official confirmation from Sony before getting too excited.
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