PlayStation 5 Slim In The Works From Sony?
Microsoft’s legal hurdles surrounding the Activision Blizzard King acquisition provided the gaming community with a glimpse of the things happening behind the curtains of the gaming industry. Some news was big reveals previously unknown to the public, and others were well known, but the most recent reveal is that a PlayStation 5 Slim model might be in the works at Sony—at least according to Microsoft.
According to VCG, in the documents published as parts of its legal battle with the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Microsoft revealed that it expects Sony to launch a PlayStation 5 Slim model later this year.
The new model would cost the same as the existing PS5 Digital Edition console, which retails at $400. However, the company also revealed that Sony is preparing to launch a PlayStation 5 Pro console, giving its current hardware a significant performance boost.
Documents presented as part of Microsoft’s legal case against the Federal Trade Commission show that the company expects Sony to release a PlayStation 5 Slim model later in 2023.
This somewhat coincides with the previous rumors suggesting that Sony is preparing to launch new PlayStation 5 models, as well as discounts currently taking place in Europe, which could signal that the company is clearing its stock for the new batch of consoles.
PlayStation 5 currently ships in two different varieties, the Standard Edition featuring a Blu-Ray drive for physical media and a Digital Edition console that lacks said drive. However, recent discoveries made by the gaming communities regarding physical media could tip the scales in favor of Digital Edition consoles.
Namely, most gaming releases that come on physical media, even those that aren’t exclusive to the PlayStation 5 console, mostly contain segments of the game and a download key that signals that you’ve bought the game.
Most of them don’t contain the whole game, which ultimately defeats the purpose of physical editions—unless you’re a collector, in which case physical editions are somewhat justified.
Of course, gamers are rebelling against such practices, bringing physical editions into question and focusing more on digital editions of the game rather than physical ones.
Just because Microsoft believes the competition is doing something doesn’t necessarily mean it’s true.
This doesn’t necessarily tie into the PlayStation 5 Slim and Pro models, but the previous rumors suggested that Sony is making a new PlayStation 5 model with a detachable drive that could be connected through the console’s extra USB-C port.
The drive would be sold separately from the console, but it would allow Sony to streamline console production, reducing it from two different models to only one, at least from the hardware architecture standpoint. This could effectively reduce the console’s volume by some margin, effectively making the PlayStation 5 slimmer.
However, Sony could go the other way around and keep the volume of its existing PlayStation 5 Standard Edition and use the extra space to equip the console with more powerful hardware, leading to the creation of the Pro model.
Sony has done this before; the PlayStation 4 had its Pro revision, though it increased the overall physical size of the console while retaining the Blu-Ray drive. Ultimately, this should all be taken with a grain of salt.
Just because Microsoft believes the competition is doing something doesn’t necessarily mean it’s true. The flaws of PlayStation 5 are becoming apparent with each new gaming release.
The PS5’s Flawed Cooling System
The revised cooling system proved less efficient when it comes to gaming releases with high graphical fidelity, as exemplified by the console’s overheating problems when playing the recently released Final Fantasy XVI. Sure, Sony could make the system marginally smaller by making the power supply external, as it did with PlayStation 2 Slim model.
This could provide more space for a more efficient cooling solution that would keep the PlayStation 5’s thermals under check while also sporting a more miniature design, even with the detachable Blu-Ray drive, which, honestly, isn’t such a bad idea.
Too bad the competition already tried it; Xbox 360 HD-DVD external drive was a commercial failure, and given the rise of digital editions, and an increased animosity towards so-called physical editions of gaming releases, it’s likely for Sony’s external drive to be less successful as well.
