This new PS5 leak is to be taken seriously.
For the last three generations of PlayStation consoles, Sony has maintained a design philosophy of cutting down on real estate while providing more (or varied) benefits.
And for most of their console manufacturing timeline, the Japanese giant has managed to maintain or improve the performance and lifecycle, price and build quality of their consoles with next to no compromises made.
But these changes, including the PlayStations 2 and 3 Slim, and the PlayStation 4 Slim and Pro versions, are generally made towards the later stage of the development and manufacturing cycle.
This time, the conditions are different, and a new SKU unit may already be on its way to store shelves as we speak.
PS5: The Past and The Future
Initially released in 2020, the PlayStation 5 line contained two editions: one with a disk drive and one without.
With no internal changes, both consoles are incredibly powerful with their custom AMD chips and were met with heavy fanfare and with equally heavy demand, making them prime real estate for scalpers to hit.
As of right now, getting a PS5 anywhere in the world is a gargantuan task, and the global shortage of semiconductors is what Sony cited (more details follow).
The PS5 LeaK
Recently, a tweet was released, detailing the possible existence of a new SKU (initially on display on Sony’s official website in Japan) to be launched in the near future, with the only revision known to be the weight reduction, going down by 300 grams.
Any other revisions to the new PlayStation are as of right now, not revealed. This unit, the CFI 1100BO1, could be the Slim iteration that Sony is going for this time around.
As it stands, there are a couple of reasons that this PS5 leak sounds viable.
Sony is still having manufacturing and supply-related difficulties shipping the PS5 to customers, as the recent pandemic has ravaged the manufacturing processes of the AMD semiconductors that power the beast.
This, coupled with AMD’s predictions that general supply will be hit until at least 2022, things are not looking good for existing PS5 sales.
Any new potential customer or tech-savvy individual knows exactly how difficult it is to procure a model right now.
The second reason is an internal refresh.
According to multiple sources, the production of the new PlayStation 5 iteration will kick off in 2022 with a new chipset based on the 5nm process, making it even more powerful and the redesign even more viable than just a design refresh.
To add to that, Sony believes that a system refresh is in order for them to meet their sales goals moving forward.
There might be more than some truth to these rumors, but we will only know once Sony decides to release official word about the refresh.
That said, any refresh might not be viable at all, as Sony is visibly struggling to get PS5s into the hands of the average consumer on a regular basis.
