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Rumor mill: The reveal of an upgraded PlayStation 5 console, which Sony has not acknowledged, is rumored to be imminent. Although leaks have made estimating the device's performance upgrades possible, critical details regarding the launch date, price, and support for optical media remain elusive.
Established leaker Billbil-kun from French outlet Dealabs recently released an image of the alleged final PlayStation 5 mid-generation refresh design. The latest information indicates that Sony will release the upgraded console before the end of 2024.
Dealabs claims to have seen the retail packaging for the device and reports that it will unsurprisingly be named the PlayStation 5 Pro. However, the outlet only released a sketch based on the box for legal reasons.
The drawing doesn't depict a disc drive, and it remains unclear whether Sony plans to launch a variant of the PS5 Pro that supports optical media. Assuming the company maintains its practice of releasing two versions of each PS5 model, Dealabs might have only seen the package for the cheaper digital model.
Furthermore, it wouldn't be surprising if the PS5 Pro supported the attachable disc drive that Sony released for the PS5 Slim. Indeed, Dealab's PS5 Pro sketch closely resembles the digital-only variant of the Slim.
The only noticeable differences are a slight increase in thickness and three black stripes on both sides of the console's midsection. The device comes in white and features two USB-C ports on the front.
GPU enhancements based on AMD's RDNA 3 architecture could boost the console's rasterization performance by roughly 45 percent and ray tracing performance by up to 400 percent. Additionally, a new AI upscaling technique will improve the image quality of low rendering resolutions.
Sony is expected to ship the PS5 Pro this year. Game developers already possess kits, and at least two discussed their plans for the console at the recent Gamescom 2024 event in Cologne, Germany. According to Giant Bomb's Jeff Grubb, Sony might confirm the console's existence and reveal its plans during a State of Play presentation sometime in September.
For those willing to take a large pinch of salt, a leak from 4chan states that the company will reveal the machine on the PlayStation Blog on September 9 with a launch planned for December 6. Sony previously revealed the PS5 Slim and PlayStation VR 2 on its blog.
The upgraded hardware will likely cost significantly more than the base model. Prices between $500 for the digital-only version and $700 for the disc drive model have been floated.
