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Report: PS4 Slim and PS4 NEO to be Unveiled Next Month, Sony Phasing Out Original PS4

RIP original PS4?

ps4, PlayStation 4.5, Sony, console

Rumors of a possible PS4 slim model have been floating around the Internet over the past weekend, and it looks like those rumors just might turn out to be true after all. In a report posted by the Wall Street Journal, Sony will be showing off a new “PlayStation 4 standard model alongside a high-end version next month.” This can only mean that Sony intends to unveil both the possible PS4 slim model and the PS4 NEO at their upcoming event in September.

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‘Sony Corp. plans to introduce a new PlayStation 4 standard model alongside a high-end version next month, people familiar with the matter said, in an effort to maintain demand for the best-selling videogame console.

With the release of the two models, Sony hopes to attract hard-core fans and more casual users to its videogame platform, analysts said. The company has been trying to build a community of users so that it can earn consistent revenue from subscriptions and software downloads.

Sony has said that it would hold a news conference at the PlayStation Theater in New York on Sept. 7. A Sony spokesman said the company would talk about the PlayStation 4 business at the news conference.

Sony said in June that it planned to introduce a high-end version of PlayStation 4 with enhanced graphics capabilities, but it hasn’t publicly discussed plans to refresh its standard model.’

In addition to the reveal of these new models, it’s also sounding a lot like Sony might be phasing out the original PS4 model as well. The report from Wall Street Journal goes on to state that the company is “limit[ing] production.” Several e-commerce sites have also reported that they’ll soon stop receiving stock for the original model, as “the item is simply not in distribution channels.”

While the NEO model will be more well-equipped to handle PSVR titles, we should also mention that the original model will have no problems handling upcoming VR games too, as confirmed by Sony CEO Shuhei Yoshida a while back.

It’s worth noting that the report doesn’t confirm if the new PS4 standard model will be a slim version or not, but considering how the PS3 received a slim model halfway through the life cycle of the previous generation, and Microsoft announcing a slim version of its own Xbox One, it does seem likely that the PS4 will be going down this route as well. We’ll keep you updated as more information about the NEO and the new standard model comes our way.

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About the author

Zhiqing Wan

Zhiqing is the Reviews Editor for Twinfinite, and a History graduate from Singapore. She's been in the games media industry for nine years, trawling through showfloors, conferences, and spending a ridiculous amount of time making in-depth spreadsheets for min-max-y RPGs. When she's not singing the praises of Amazon's Kindle as the greatest technological invention of the past two decades, you can probably find her in a FromSoft rabbit hole.

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