Sony's Rumored PS5 Revision Would Be A Slap In The Face To Gamers
A new leak suggests Sony is getting ready to release another PlayStation 5 model, but if the preliminary details turn out to be correct, the upcoming revision is nothing to get excited about. Just the opposite, we suspect Sony will end up enraging some of its fan base. The reason? It's said the upcoming model will downgrade the internal storage while keeping the price the same.
To be clear, nothing is yet official. If a lower storage model at the same price does come to fruition, however, it would be a bit of a double whammy, with Sony having recently hiked MSRPs across the board on its PS5 lineup. In the U.S., official pricing for the regular PS5 is now $549.99, which is $50 higher than before the price hike. Same goes for the PS5 Digital Edition and PS5 Pro, which saw their MSRPs increase to $499.99 (up from $449.99) and $749.99 (up from $699.99), respectively.
According to Dealabs, Sony is getting ready to release a revised PS5 Digital Edition in Europe and Japan labeled as CFI-2116. It's not yet clear if the updated model will also head to U.S. shores, but in Europe, it's claimed price will remain at €499 while downgrading the storage from 1TB to 825GB. This supposedly only applies to the Digital Edition, with the site reporting that a 'Chassis E' revision for the disc drive model will stay at 1TB.
It's really more of a triple whammy, considering the PS5 Digital Edition originally launched at €399 in Europe back in 2020, then went up to €449 and now sells for €499. So that's two price hikes, followed by a reduction in storage if the latest rumor pans out.
The value proposition keeps getting worse, and adding insult to injury, it's happening towards the latter stage of this console generation's lifecycle. Sony launched the PS5 nearly five years ago in November 2020, seven years after the launch of the PS4. It's entirely possible that we'll see a PS6 released in the next couple of years, with rumors suggesting a massive performance uplift. There's also unofficial chatter of a PS6 handheld being on the horizon.
On the bright side, the aforementioned price increases are still not yet reflected at every retail listing, at least in the U.S. For example, we found the following listings clinging to 'old' prices...
- PlayStation 5 (Slim): $498 at Amazon
- PlayStation 5 (Slim): $499.99 at Target
- PlayStation 5 (Slim): $499 at Newegg
- PlayStation 5 Digital Edition (Slim): $449 at Amazon
- PlayStation 5 Digital Edition (Slim): $449.99 at Target
- PlayStation 5 Digital Edition (Slim): $449.99 at Newegg
- PlayStation 5 Pro: $699.99 at Target
If you're concerned about the rumored revision with less storage and/or want to get ahead of the recent price hikes, now is the time to pounce. While the above listings still reflect the now-old MSRPs, we saw plenty of retail listings at the recently adjusted MSRPs, such as the PS5 Pro selling for $749.99 at Best Buy.
The caveat is that the holiday shopping season is right around the corner, and it's not unusual to see deals emerge around Black Friday and Cyber Monday. It's no guarantee that better bargains are around the corner, but it's possible. Are we having fun yet?
