Did Microsoft Simply Announce A PlayStation 5 Slim And Professional?

It’d be pretty bizarre if Sony didn’t announce a PlayStation 5 Slim within the coming months. The console will probably be three years previous by then, and that’s typically the sample. However it’d undoubtedly very bizarre if as a substitute Microsoft had been the corporate to disclose it. Which is likely to be what simply occurred.

In response to 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 Embody Nintendo,” Microsoft is taking situation with the FTC’s place that Xbox and PlayStation are in a two-horse race as a result of “they’re provided at an analogous worth.” This, they are saying, is “unpersuasive,” on the idea of earlier Supreme Courtroom rulings (uh-oh), but additionally that the FTC’s evaluation “considers solely the high-end fashions of Xbox (Sequence X) and PlayStation (normal version), thereby ignoring the differentiation inside Xbox’s console traces.” They make the purpose {that a} Sequence S and a Change price the identical, and their finances mannequin is fifty bucks lower than a Change OLED.

However then, with a canny dismissiveness, they throw in on the finish of the paragraph:

PlayStation likewise sells a inexpensive Digital Version for $399.99, and is predicted to launch a PlayStation 5 Slim later this yr on the similar diminished worth level.

The road comes with a footnote including, “Sony can be anticipated to launch a handheld model of the PlayStation 5 later this yr for beneath $300.”

This may be Sony’s Undertaking Q, for which they’ve revealed nearly nothing, not to mention a avenue date or worth!

A short time later, Microsoft additionally throws within the reveal of a PS5 Professional for good measure.

PlayStation, in the meantime, presently 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 may anticipate at the very 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’ve got in fact contacted Sony to ask in the event that they’d like to verify Microsoft’s announcement of their subsequent consoles.