Sony is likely to launch PS5 Pro this year, analysts say
It will want to “have a great piece of hardware ready when GTA 6 hits”
A number of games industry analysts have reportedly said they’re expecting Sony to launch a PlayStation 5 Pro console later this year.
It was recently claimed that the platform holder is planning to release a PS5 Pro console in late 2024, and that it will feature a proprietary DLSS-like solution.
And analysts have now reportedly told CNBC that Sony is “likely” to launch a refreshed version of the console in the second half of this year.
“There seems to be a broad consensus in the game industry that Sony is indeed preparing a launch of a PS5 Pro in the second half of 2024,” said Serkan Toto, CEO of Tokyo-based games consultancy Kantan Games.
“And Sony will want to make sure to have a great piece of hardware ready when GTA VI hits in 2025, a launch that will be a shot in the arm for the entire gaming industry.”
Retailers are currently offering the first major PS5 Slim discounts in Europe. Having launched last November for £479.99 / €549.99, the new model’s price has temporarily been reduced by £70 / €75 in a number of countries.
While Sony had previously hoped to ship a record 25 million PlayStation consoles during its current fiscal year ending in March, it said last week that it now expects to miss that target by four million units.
A new report calculates that Sony‘s value dropped by around $10 billion last week, following its revised PS5 sales forecast but also partly due to a drop in operating margin in its gaming business.
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George Jijiashvili, senior principal analyst at Omdia, told CNBC this could mean that Sony won’t cut the price of the current PS5, as has traditionally been the trend in the past, when the Pro model launches.
“Therefore, a scenario where Sony launches a PS5 Pro, but still experiences declining year-on-year hardware sales is very much within the realms of possibility,” he said.
