On February 20, the media revealed that Sony is expected to release the PS5 Pro this year in order to cope with the decline in sales and provide hardware upgrades for the GTA6.。Sony had no immediate comment.。

Post-epidemic era gaming industry "cold" Sony wants to upgrade hardware to boost sales.

In the post-epidemic era, the game industry has lost its "home dividend," and it is an indisputable fact that the whole industry is cold.。

According to data released by the Entertainment Software Association and Circana, U.S. consumers spent $57.2 billion on video games last year, only 1% higher than the $56.6 billion in 2022 and down from $60.4 billion in 2021.。Kotaku.So far, at least 6,000 people across the gaming industry have been laid off。

With the industry in the cold, Sony has cut its PS5 sales forecast for the fiscal year ending March 2024 last week, from 25 million units to 21 million units.。Capital markets, on the other hand, reacted negatively to the forecast, with Sony shares plunging after the forecast target was cut, and the company's share price has evaporated by about $10 billion since the PS5 forecast was cut.。

Sony senior vice president Naomi Matsuoka admitted that the PS5 will "enter the later stages of the life cycle" and that Sony will emphasize profitability rather than unit sales, so the PS5's sales pace will decline from the next fiscal year.。

In multiple console lifecycles in the past, gaming companies have boosted sales by introducing upgraded hardware。For example, Sony launched the "Pro" version about three years after the previous mainframe PS4 hit the shelves.。To turn the corner, analysts now expect Sony to launch PlayStation 5 Pro。

Last year, Sony introduced a slightly upgraded PS5, as well as a streaming handset called the PlayStation Portal, but the PS5 Pro is expected to bring a much bigger upgrade。

Despite rising expectations for new consoles, Sony faces a major challenge: Profit margins in its core gaming business are near a decade low.。During the earnings call, Sony's management said the goal of its games business is to "optimize sales and focus more on profit balance."。

George Jijiashvili, senior principal analyst at Omdia, said this could mean that even if the PS5 Pro is released, Sony will not reduce the price of the existing PS5 as it has in the past.。Gijashvili said: "Therefore, Sony launched the PS5 Pro but the possibility of a year-on-year decline in hardware sales is very high.。"

The PS5 Pro is expected to go on sale in the second half of this year with a digital version as low as $500.

Although rumors of the PS5 Pro have been widely circulated in the industry, as of now, no one can give a definite release date or a vague release window。Sony has also remained silent on the product, and the Tokyo-based gaming giant has never officially confirmed or announced the PS5 Pro。

Serkan Toto, CEO of Kantan Games, a Tokyo-based gaming consultancy, said: "The gaming industry generally believes that Sony will launch the PS5 Pro in the second half of 2024.。With the release of GTA 6 in 2025, Sony hopes to have strong hardware to meet this work that will boost the entire gaming industry。"

Insider Gaming's Tom Henderson has also repeatedly claimed that the PS5 Pro will launch in November 2024.。As a well-known whistleblower, Henderson has a track record of exposing Sony hardware devices。For example, in his first report on the PS5 Pro, he also revealed details about the PS5 Slim and the PlayStation Portal (which was not announced at the time).。

Another promising clue comes from game personality Jeff Grub。In a recent Game Mess podcast, Grubb pointed to his sources indicating that the PS5 Pro will launch in September 2024.。It's worth noting that Grubb also had an accurate leak record, but his record wasn't flawless。

At this point, the PS5 Pro's time to market is almost certain to be in the second half of 2024, but we still need to note that Sony is likely to want to allow an appropriate time interval between PS5 Pro and PS6。

In the U.S. Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) trial of the Blizzard (Actionvions Blizzard) case, Microsoft released a document showing that Sony's next-generation console will be launched in 2028, and Sony's documents submitted during the trial also showed that the company has no plans to launch a next-generation flagship console before 2027。

In terms of timing, Sony launched the PS4 Pro at the end of 2016, just three years after the PS4 came out.。So if the PS5 Pro can be launched this year, it's likely to become the most powerful PlayStation console on the market in four years or so, the same time the PS4 Pro has been at the top of the chain.。

In terms of price, the well-known whistleblower Moore's Law is Dead (Moore's Law is Dead) said in his latest video that the PS5 Pro digital version (without optical drive) model is expected to sell for as low as $500, and its production cost "will not be much higher than the PS5."。

He also said, "From what I've seen and what I know, I mean (the PS5 Pro) still only has 16GB of RAM, not even 20GB, so they can choose the cheapest memory, which may cost less than when the PS5 was launched.。He believes that the price of the PS5 Pro will rise a bit, but not significantly.。"I haven't seen anything on this console that would make it more expensive than the PS5.。"

MLID anchor Tom said that the PS5 Pro will use the same processor architecture as the PS5, which will simplify backward compatibility on the one hand and reduce costs on the other, so that more money will be invested in the development of the PS6.。Although the PS5 Pro processor will also use the customized version of the Zen 2 processor, the PS5 Pro will have a significant performance improvement compared to the PS5 thin and light version。