After Sony released the powerful PlayStation 4 Pro late last year, gaming enthusiasts started speculating about the PS5. Turns out, the Japanese company has something more up its sleeves. A new report coming out of Taiwan claims that Sony is planning to release a new “thinner” PS4. That’s interesting considering Sony already has a low-cost, sleek PS4 Slim in the market.
The PlayStation 4 Pro feels a bit clunky
Citing supply chain sources, the well-connected Taiwanese publication DigiTimes reports that Sony is working to launch “a thinner version of its PlayStation 4.” Bringing a new slimmer PS4 just a few months after the launch of PS4 Slim doesn’t make sense. It’s quite possible that Sony would release a thinner variant of the PlayStation 4 Pro to compete with Microsoft’s upcoming Project Scorpio, which is dubbed as the “world’s most powerful gaming console.”
Though the PlayStation 4 Pro is incredibly powerful, its design feels a little clunky. A redesign and competitive price could help it take on the Project Scorpio. Some experts might argue that the Japanese company is releasing too many consoles. Fortunately for Sony, the new iterations are boosting its sales rather than hurting them. Sony said the December quarter was the best ever in PlayStation history.
The company hasn’t just been updating its gaming hardware. Sony is equally aggressive on the software front. Recently, it pushed out the 4.5 software update with a new Boost Mode. The Boost Mode significantly improves the performance of older PS4 games on the PlayStation 4 Pro. It enhances even those games that were not patched by developers to take full advantage of PS4 Pro’s capabilities.
Will Sony launch PS5 next year?
Sony is expected to release the PlayStation 5 in the second half of 2018. The current PS4 versions are already selling well, but Macquarie Research analyst Damian Thong says the PS4 Pro will no longer be the most powerful console once Project Scorpio arrives. Thong had made accurate predictions about the PlayStation 4 Pro and PS4 Slim, which means the analyst knows what he is saying.
Previously, there were speculations that the PS5 wouldn’t arrive until 2020. Damian Thong says Sony will release the next-gen console in 2018 to consolidate its user base and prevent its customers from switching to Project Scorpio. Macquarie Research predicts that the PlayStation 5 will have ten teraflops of processing power, significantly higher than the Project Scorpio’s six teraflops.
Damian Thong pointed out that the current gaming consoles provide 4K support by upscaling 1080p or 2K output. The Project Scorpio and PlayStation 5 would feature native 4K streaming. By the time the PS5 comes out, 4K would have become the standard TV definition. Sony may also introduce the second iteration of PlayStation VR alongside PS5 next year.
Sony hasn’t yet released the full list of PlayStation Plus April 2017 titles. The only thing the company has told PlayStation users is that Drawn to Death would become available to PlayStation Plus subscribers in April. The Japanese company has traditionally released the list six days before the titles are scheduled to go live. Since we know that Drawn to Death will be available to PS Plus subscribers on April 4th, we can expect the company to announce the full list on March 29th.
Nintendo Switch expected to ship 10M units in the first year
DigiTimes also reported that Nintendo could ship as many as 20 million units of its Switch console, which was released earlier this month, during the first year of launch. However, its suppliers were conservative, forecasting to ship only ten million units. Foxconn, Misumi Electronics, and Hosiden are responsible for manufacturing Nintendo Switch.
Microsoft’s Project Scorpio will reportedly be manufactured by Pegatron and Foxconn, the same companies that made previous generations of Xbox consoles. Project Scorpio will go on sale ahead of the holiday shopping season this year.
