PS4 Slim leaks out – 2 consoles to be ‘announced’ next month

Sony’s September event was already being looked to for the official announcement of the PS Neo, but now it looks like there’ll be a PS4 Slim to talk about as well.

The PS4 gets a re-design

In terms of leaks, this is a pretty major one.

Shots of a ‘slim’ version of the PlayStation 4 leaked out the other day, in a story that had someone posting pics of the unit on Twitter. Somehow apparently, this gamer had come into possession of the unit. Still, there was heavy speculation that the whole thing was a prank, and that the console wasn’t real. Maybe it was a 3D printed mockup? We didn’t report on it.

Well guess what? It’s real.

What you’re seeing in the shot above is a 500gb unit. The LED strip of lighting on the face has been removed, and physical power and eject buttons have taken the place of the touch-sensitive ones that adorn the current model. And, of course, it’s smaller than the current SKUs. It kind of wouldn’t be ‘slim’ if it wasn’t.

There’s even a video of the system booting, thanks to website EuroGamer. They went to the Twitterer’s house and recorded it, along with taking some snaps of their own. You can check all that out at this link.

Dueling SKUs

So why two SKUs then? Well it looks like Sony is simply following the trends. Streamlined consoles are nothing new, with all the major manufacturers having engaged in the practice over the years. Sony in particular has done more than a few remodels on its line of systems.

And with the Xbox One S landing (and proving to be a pretty big success), the smaller PS4 only makes more sense. As for the heavily-rumored PS Neo reveal on the 7th, that’s more than likely a part of what was to be a two-pronged attack. There is an interesting question that comes up now though. That being whether or not the Neo will be hitting this year at all.

Everyone was so sure that there was only one new PS4 coming, that there wasn’t much consideration for a plan that might include the slim this year, with the Neo hitting in 2017. So that could be the plan, which would make sense excepting one thing – PSVR. Remember that Sony’s virtual reality headset hits retail this Fall.

The beefier PS4 could be almost a necessity to experience the ‘best’ that the PSVR headset can deliver. While Sony doesn’t really acknowledge that, there’s a good deal of thought that neither the current PS4 nor the Xbox One could really do VR justice. PC gamers know that you need a powerful system to run VR hardware/software. Microsoft apparently believes that so much that they’re not even going to bother with VR till the steroid-injected Xbox Scorpio lands next Holiday Season (2017). So keep that in mind.

Either way it goes, there’s only a few weeks left till we find out for sure. In the meantime, enjoy ogling the PS4 Slim.

Source: MCV