If you have not gotten a PS5 but, it may be greatest to attend a number of months.

Sony will reportedly launch a powered-up “Professional” model of the console as quickly as this yr. To be clear, there hasn’t been quite a lot of strong, dependable reporting on the subject simply but, however rumblings of a PS5 Professional have solely gotten extra intense as time has gone on.

However what would a PS5 Professional really entail? Let’s dig in.

PS5 Professional launch date

The one (and I imply solely) actual proof that now we have of the PS5 Professional’s existence comes from Serkan Toto, a gaming business analyst from Kantan Video games. Toto just lately instructed CNBC that he believes a revamped PS5 may very well be within the works for launch in late 2024. A part of the reasoning for that is that Sony reduce its gross sales forecast for the following fiscal yr, maybe signaling that the PlayStation model may use a lift within the close to future.

Credit score: Sony

Toto additionally talked about the approaching launch of Grand Theft Auto VI in 2025 as a superb cause for Sony to get new {hardware} in individuals’s leisure facilities.

These are merely the phrases of an analyst who does not work for Sony, so it is honest to take them with a grain of salt. Nonetheless, the prediction considerably strains up with Sony’s previous actions with the PlayStation model. For instance, the PS4 Professional got here out in 2016, three years after the launch of the PS4. Late 2024 will mark 4 years for the reason that launch of the PS5.

As we enter the latter half of the PS5’s life cycle, 2024 often is the solely yr the place it is sensible to launch the PS5 Professional.

PS5 Professional worth

That is the place the shortage of strong reporting on the PS5 Professional’s existence turns into tough to cope with.

Credit score: Sony

Since we do not even know that the PS5 Professional exists, it is unimaginable to say how a lot it might price. All we are able to actually do is look again on how Sony dealt with the PS4 Professional, which is definitely considerably encouraging. The upgraded PS4 launched at $399 — the identical worth the unique PS4 launched at three years prior. Maybe Sony will drop the value of the usual PS5 and launch the Professional at $499, the present PS5 worth within the U.S. for the mannequin with a disc drive.

Making this just a little extra sophisticated is the truth that Sony barely hiked the value of the PS5 in different markets in late 2022. Sony must work out a method to promote the PS5 Professional at a considerably honest worth with out dropping a ton of cash within the course of.

PS5 Professional design

That is one other space the place all we are able to do is speculate.

Credit score: Sony

Sony has already frivolously revised the PS5 post-launch, with the discharge of the PS5 slim mannequin late final yr. That made the console barely shorter and thinner, nevertheless it’s nonetheless the identical fundamental design. In all probability, a PS5 Professional would go in the wrong way and be even bigger than the already very giant customary PS5. That is the value of accelerating horsepower.

A method Sony may alleviate that is by eliminating the disc drive and forcing prospects to purchase the separate, removable disc drive that is accessible for the PS5 Slim. That would not precisely be supreme, nevertheless it would make the console a bit smaller.

PS5 Professional controller

When Sony launched the PS4 Professional, it made zero adjustments to the PS4’s customary DualShock 4 controller. In any case, it did not actually need any. I’d count on the identical method to be taken with the PS5 Professional.

Credit score: Sony

The PS5 DualSense controller is superb as is, except inevitable analog stick drift. I’ve personally gone by like three of the dang issues since launch. In an ideal world, Sony would bundle the PS5 Professional with the costlier DualSense Edge controller, which permits customers to simply swap new analog sticks out and in as an alternative of shopping for an entire new controller when drift develops.

That appears unlikely based mostly on previous precedent, however hey, a person can dream.