PS5 Pro vs PS5 Slim 2023 release likelihood: Sony executive's comments spark speculation for former while tipster's PlayStation 5 hardware roadmap suggests latter

The PlayStation 5 rumor mill is back in serious action, thanks to recent reported developments made in regard to a modular variant of the popular Sony console. However, it seems that is not enough for expectant fans, and now there are whispers of both the PlayStation 5 Pro and PlayStation 5 Slim consoles spreading like wildfire online. While expectations of the former may certainly be premature, especially considering the context of the source material that sparked the latest rumors, there seems to be a better likelihood for the appearance of the latter console variant at some point in 2023.

Starting with the PS5 Pro, rumors about this beefed-up console have been reignited due to an interview between Famitsu and Sony’s Senior Vice President of Platform Experience, Hideaki Nishino. The part of the interview that has some PlayStation fans worked up is as follows (machine translated from Japanese):

Famitsu: The PS5 is now entering its third year. PS4 Pro was released three years after its release, but we would like to hear about your future prospects.

Nishino: We believe that cumulative sales will exceed 37 million units by the end of FY2022, and this will be a very important period for our platform. We won't talk about anything specific this time, but we hope you can look forward to more next year (2023).

It appears because the interviewer specifically mentioned the PS4 Pro that some have interpreted Nishino’s answer as hinting at the PS5 Pro release date, coming in 2023. However, the executive could have been thinking about the modular PS5 console, the PSVR2, new exclusive games, or something completely different. While talk of a PS5 Pro model may be somewhat premature, a popular industry observer seems to believe the above comment was more likely a reference to the PS5 Slim.

Back in May, Zuby_Tech offered a reasonable prediction (not a leak) of the PlayStation 5 hardware roadmap, with the PlayStation 5 Pro console with 5 nm or 4 nm processor appearing in November 2024 and a PlayStation 5 Slim with 5 nm chip coming in September 2023 (the current PS5 consoles feature a custom 7 nm chip from AMD). It has already been stated that the modular PS5 with removable disk drive is not going to be the PS5 Slim, so it is a more likely argument that Sony is preparing a slimmed-down model with chip refresh for the lucrative holiday season, with September 2023 being almost three years since the release of the PlayStation 5 (November 2020).

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