Report: Sony to Announce Two New PlayStation 4 Consoles

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Sony will announce two new PlayStation 4 consoles in September. One will be a reduced-cost version of the current console, the other a higher-end model.

Reports about Sony churning out a more powerful PS4 have of course been making the rounds all year. In fact, it’s worth remembering that he heard about these plans before we heard about Microsoft doing the same with Xbox One.

So let’s revisit that quickly. Back in March, I noted that Sony was essentially adopting the “tick-tock” methodology Intel used to use, but for console releases. It would keep a normally-aspirated PS4 model in the market as an entry-level offering, but would also offer a so-called “PS4K” with “increased graphical power” and support for 4K gaming.

“This has to be the plan for Xbox One,” I wrote at the time. “It has to be. It’s a good plan, and it can—will—work. Now I can’t wait to hear how Microsoft addresses this change, since this new half step in this console generation gives the software giant a chance to catch up—dare I say, even surpass—Sony as well. And that would be amazing.”

Indeed it would. Since then, of course, Sony publicly revealed that it would not announce new consoles at the E3 trade show in June, though it admitted to working on at least one. But Microsoft did: It announced the cost-reduced Xbox One S console, which is now shipping. And the higher-end “Project Scorpio” console, which will ship for Holiday 2017.

The WSJ report doesn’t really expand on what we know about Sony’s plans per se, beyond a date for the announcement: September 7, in New York. But it says that the cost-reduced model will be slimmer and less expensive (sounds familiar), and it is cutting production of the current model ahead of that release (also familiar). I guess we’ll need to wait and see how the higher-end model compares.

Still, very interesting.