The PS4 Pro and Xbox One X set a bit of a precedent halfway through the previous console cycle, refreshing the console generation with more powerful hardware that not only lengthened the consoles’ lifecycles, but also led to much better looking games. There’s been plenty of speculation that both Microsoft and Sony will repeat that with their current generation of hardware- and as per a new report, that hardware is already out there.
As per known Rockstar insider Tez2 on the GTA Forums, development kits of the PS5 Pro (or whatever it ends up being called) and the mid-generation Xbox Series hardware upgrade are already out there and in the hands on developers. When asked if that was speculation or based on concrete details, the insider suggested it’s the latter.
Developers do tend to get development kits of upcoming hardware well ahead of their official releases quite often, so it wouldn’t be a surprise if this were indeed the case. If, presumably, these hardware upgrades launch sometime in 2024, that would be a roughly similar gap between the PS4 Pro and Xbox One X and their respective base consoles.
Interestingly, in his report on Insider-Gaming, journalist Tom Henderson says that this alleged PS5 Pro console is not the same as the one rumoured to launch next year, which will add detachable disc drive to the device. In a recent report, Henderson also claimed that Sony expects that new PS5 model to be the main driver behind its reported projection of 30 million shipments in the next fiscal year.
Interestingly, earlier this year, tech company TCL Technology suggested that the PS5 Pro and new Xbox Series model are expected to launch either in 2023 or 2024. Read more on that through here.