Sony will be unveiling a new PlayStation 4 standard model in September alongside a new, upgraded PlayStation 4, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal. Citing sources "familiar with the matter," the report alleges that the two new consoles will be introduced in a bid to "maintain demand" for the PlayStation 4.
The timing lines up with the PlayStation event Sony has scheduled for September 7 at 3PM ET. The presentation will be held at PlayStation Theater in New York, although the company has not disclosed what exactly it will be showing. This new information lines up with previous reports that the a new PS4 model would be revealed at a PlayStation 4 event in September. GameSpot reached out to PlayStation for comment, and a spokesperson for the company responded, "Sony Interactive Entertainment does not comment on rumour or speculation."
Sony hasn't revealed much else about the Neo, opting not to talk about the console at E3 this year. However, the PlayStation event takes place just a week before Tokyo Game Show, which starts on September 15. Analysts have previously suggested that new PlayStation 4 models would be launched before or during Tokyo Game Show.
All PS4 games will be playable on both the existing PS4 and Neo. Sony has said it will take a "small but manageable" amount of effort for developers to get games working on both versions of the PS4. Since the announcement of Neo and Scorpio, a number of publishers have spoken positively about this type of mid-cycle hardware upgrade.
Rumors regarding upcoming hardware releases from Sony, including both an upgraded PlayStation 4 Neo console and a slim version of the existing PlayStation 4 platform, have been swirling since prior to E3. Today the Slim half of those rumors grows quite a bit more substantial. Several NeoGaf users hunted down and collected online auction listings for what was said to be a retail versions of a slimmer PlayStation 4. Their efforts produced enough evidence to show that this is likely no rumor or fake.
By contacting the owner of the auction listing, NeoGaf was able to produce several photos of the new PlayStation 4’s retail box. Later on, they even persuaded the seller to open the box and take photos of the new console itself. The more squarish, matte console and all of its fine details look persuasive. While a 3D printer could certainly produce such a construct, the various plug-ins — USB, ethernet, power — show a much more thorough construction.
Later images were produced from other sources who also claimed to have their own updated slimmer PlayStation 4. Some of those photos even compared the sizing of the new PlayStation 4 to the old, to an extent. The slim version appears to be just as wide from the front, but shorter from back to front and from top to bottom. The hard drive expansion bay remains, via a slot in the back of the console. Across the bottom of the console are small spacers which will hopefully prevent the tilting issues that the current PlayStation 4 suffers from.
There are some additional considerations to keep in mind regarding the listing, as well. For instance, the boxing of the new PlayStation 4 simply lists the updated version as the “PS4” and not a “PS4 Slim.” That could likely imply that Sony will be halting production on the old version of the platform in favor of the new one. That makes extra sense when considering that the rumored PlayStation 4 Neo will be supplanting the standard PlayStation 4 as the core modern PlayStation platform.
Also, one has to wonder how exactly these shady fellows acquired an as yet unannounced and unreleased slim PlayStation 4. More than that, these are quite clearly retail versions of the console and so they’re either being shipped out to retailers or already sitting in back rooms waiting to be sold. In either of these cases, it wouldn’t be surprising that a few slip through the cracks and end up in the hands of some not-quite-so trustworthy employees.
What the evidence at hand shows is that Sony must be precariously close to announcing and launching this updated, slim PlayStation 4 model. They’d probably do it at some significant event, perhaps like the upcoming PlayStation Meeting on September 7. What a coincidence!
Stay tuned for news from Sony’s September 7 PlayStation Meeting, including any news on this slim PlayStation 4 or the in-development PlayStation 4K, in the weeks ahead.