It’d be pretty bizarre if Sony didn’t announce a PlayStation 5 Slim within the coming months. The console might be three years outdated by then, and that’s usually the sample. However it’d positively very bizarre if as a substitute Microsoft have been the corporate to disclose it. Which is likely to be what simply occurred.
In accordance with court docket paperwork, launched as a part of the FTC trial relating to Microsoft’s apparently everlasting acquisition of Activision Blizzard, the Beast of Redmond is anticipating Sony to launch a PS5 Slim “later this yr,” and even names a worth: $399.99.
In a piece of the doc tantalizingly subtitled “The Console Market Should Embrace Nintendo,” Microsoft is taking subject with the FTC’s place that Xbox and PlayStation are in a two-horse race as a result of “they’re provided at the same worth.” This, they are saying, is “unpersuasive,” on the premise of earlier Supreme Court docket rulings (uh-oh), but additionally that the FTC’s evaluation “considers solely the high-end fashions of Xbox (Collection X) and PlayStation (normal version), thereby ignoring the differentiation inside Xbox’s console traces.” They make the purpose {that a} Collection S and a Swap price the identical, and their funds mannequin is fifty bucks lower than a Swap OLED.
However then, with a canny dismissiveness, they throw in on the finish of the paragraph:
PlayStation likewise sells a cheaper Digital Version for $399.99, and is anticipated to launch a PlayStation 5 Slim later this yr on the identical decreased worth level.
The road comes with a footnote including, “Sony can also be anticipated to launch a handheld model of the PlayStation 5 later this yr for below $300.”
This might be Sony’s Challenge Q, for which they’ve revealed nearly nothing, not to mention a road date or worth!
A short time later, Microsoft additionally throws within the reveal of a PS5 Professional for good measure.
PlayStation, in the meantime, at present presents two totally different variations of the PlayStation 5—one with a Blu-Ray participant for bodily media (Customary) and one with out (Digital)—and is anticipated to launch additional differentiated Professional and Slim fashions within the close to future.
Whereas anybody making an informed guess would possibly anticipate at the least an announcement of newer fashions of the PS5 this yr, it’s Microsoft’s naming a worth that makes the remarks appear so emphatic—egregious even.
We have now in fact contacted Sony to ask in the event that they’d like to substantiate Microsoft’s announcement of their subsequent consoles.