Sony could reportedly release a Pro version of the PlayStation 5 later this year to help PS5 sales find a second wind in the latter half of the current console generation. The PS5 has sold over 50 million units since its launch in November 2020, but the sales for the console are slowing down. Sony is set to miss its PS5 sales target for fiscal year 2023, with the Japanese electronics giant expecting to sell four million units fewer than its 25-million goal for the year.
Industry analysts told CNBC that Sony will likely refresh its PS5 lineup in 2024. The Pro version of the console would come with updated hardware capabilities and would likely sell at a higher price point than the base PS5. “There seems to be a broad consensus in the game industry that Sony is indeed preparing a launch of a PS5 Pro in the second half of 2024,” Serkan Toto, CEO of Tokyo-based games consultancy Kantan Games, told the publication.
The analyst added that a PS5 Pro would be aimed at getting an updated console ready for the launch of Rockstar Games’ Grand Theft Auto 6, set to arrive sometime in 2025. GTA 6, one of the most hotly anticipated games of all time, is likely to be a surefire hit, bringing a necessary boost to the gaming industry in general. The game will launch on current-gen consoles and with no PC release confirmed yet, GTA 6 is expected to invigorate PS5 and Xbox Series S/X sales.
Sony launched a slimmer and lighter version of the PS5 with slightly bigger internal storage and a detachable disc drive in November last year. The PS5 slim retains the original console’s processing power, graphical capabilities and pricing. A PS5 Pro would bring considerable upgrades to the console hardware, likely promising better framerates at higher resolution.
It’s also worth noting that Sony launched a pro version of the PS4 around three years after the original PS4 launched in November 2013. The higher-end PS4 Pro featured an upgraded GPU and supported 4K resolution.
Last week, Sony cut down its full-year sales forecast for the PS5 at its earnings call, revising its estimates to 21 million units, down from 25 million units for the fiscal year 2023. The company also said it expected PS5 sales to gradually decline from the next financial year, with no major franchise titles planned for 2024. Sony sold 8.2 million PlayStation 5 units in the third quarter of 2023, but operating profit at the company’s games business fell by around 25 percent.