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With Microsoft planning to launch three brand-new Xbox consoles in the coming weeks, the rumour mill has been suspiciously quiet on the as-yet-unannounced PlayStation 5 Pro. But that just changed.
Whispers of a more powerful model of the best-selling PlayStation 5 have been circling for over a year, with analysts predicting that Sony will debut a beefier games console ahead of the Christmas shopping rush to capitalise on interest in Grand Theft Auto VI, which will launch sometime in the new year.
Sony redesigned its flagship PlayStation 5 console last year with two new models — the Standard model with an optical disc drive to play games and Blu-rays (pictured above) and the Digital Edition, which drops discs in favour of a slimmer design
SONY PRESS OFFICEAnd now, an exclusive leak to Insider Gaming suggests that Sony has set a deadline for all developers to submit their software for approval before July 30. Anyone who misses this deadline — locked-in by the teams at Sony some 18 months ago, according to sources — will not be able to sell a PS5 Pro version of their game this year.
According to internal documentation, Sony will strong-arm all developers planning to release a new game for the PlayStation 5 after September 15 to add support for PS5 Pro-specific features. However, this does not guarantee a PlayStation 5 Pro release date of September 16, 2025, Insider Gaming reports.
Instead, we're more likely to see a PS5 release in the second half of November, it adds.
This would fit with previous release strategies we've seen from Sony. The Japanese gaming giant announced the PlayStation 4 Pro on September 7, 2016. It started to land on store shelves on November 10 that same year.
With the July 30 deadline for code submissions, we're starting to see references to the PS5, which is developed under the codename "Trinity" within Sony, crop-up in beta versions of existing games. A game developer known under the pseudonym ThatBomberBoi shared screenshots of code on X, formerly Twitter, with a reference to the internal codename.
#NoMansSkySpoilers Graphics Preset Options for "Trinity", the apparent internal codename for the PS5 Pro. Standard PS5 Graphics Preset for comparison. pic.twitter.com/yY4eBQSbNV
— ThatBomberBoi (@bomber_that) July 20, 2024
It appears the reference to "Trinity" hints at new graphics presets, with multiple toggles bumped from "High" to "Ultra" and the dynamic resolution scaling increased too. This tallies with previous rumours about the boosted performance of this reworked PS5 console.
Insider Gaminghas been at the forefront of a number of PlayStation 5 Pro rumours, reporting that the forthcoming PS5 Pro has been designed to offer consistent frames-per-second at 4K Ultra HD resolution, a new “Performance Mode” that upscales game footage to an 8K resolution, and improved ray tracing. The latter calculates realistic lighting in real time, dramatically improving visuals.
There's no word on whether the PS5 Pro will offer native 8K support, something that was promised on the packaging of the standard PlayStation 5, but was quietly removed by Sony in recent weeks.
Interestingly, the chipset powering the PS5 Pro will be identical to the original console, which launched back in 2020. However, the Pro will offer a “High CPU Frequency Mode,” that can take the CPU up to 3.85GHz — a 10% increase over the standard console.
Instead, the extra oomph comes from a more powerful GPU, which is purportedly up to 3x faster for certain tasks than existing PS5 consoles, sources say. It keeps the same 1TB SSD drive introduced with the revised slim model of PS5 and PS5 Digital Edition, launched last year. This was an increase from the 825GB that launched with the original console, of which 667.2GB was usable space.
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Of course, it’s worth taking all the above with a pinch of salt until Sony announces its revised console. These are only rumours and plans could see last-minute changes.
