Well this is a bit of a bizarre story – according to an earlier report from the WSJ, people “familiar with the matter” had confirmed to them that come September, Sony would be unveiling not one, but two new PS4 units. The first of the two machines is PS4 Neo, the 4K variant and more powerful PlayStation that was even previously confirmed to exist by Sony. The other of the two machines seemed more of a mystery, until now.

Chris Pereira writing for GameStop:

 Eurogamer reports that it’s visited the home of the person who claimed to have purchased the console through Gumtree (think UK’s version of Craigslist) and verified the remodeled PS4 is real. Not only that, but it’s shared a video of the console booting up. 

To backtrack a bit, this whole thing started when photos made their way onto NeoGAF of what appeared to be a slimmer PS4 and while we’ve yet to see any other leaks about the console, the move makes sense. With nearly every PlayStation, including the original model, Sony would eventually introduce a slimmed down model that includes a twist on the original design and all new components. After all, after a few years on shelves, not only have internal component prices been reduced, but also their footprint as tech advances.

This means that, while during the initial first few years Sony has some room to do price drops, it’s not until their refreshed model which takes advantage of new internal parts and designs that Sony is able to properly command and change the pricing of it as they see fit. In short, Sony releasing a PS4 slim, despite it not having leaked until now, makes sense as it’s something they’ve done with every iteration.

For me, the more bizarre aspect of this story is how it leaked online. As far as I can tell, only one such model has leaked and it was purchased from Gumtree. For a product that has yet to be spoiled by the FCC or internal documents and have it be sold online in its retail box is especially suspect as it’s obviously a stolen model.

The big difference between typical leaks (which are photos from the factory or early review units) and this is that much like the iPhone 4 debacle from what is now an eternity ago, clearly there was an exchange of money for a stolen good. The difference is that in the case of the iPhone, it was Gizmodo who paid for the stolen goods where in this case, it appears to be an average Joe and simply the folks at Eurogamer went to confirm the story which is just fine. However, I’m curious to see the course of action Sony takes with this but that perhaps is a bit more insider baseball with the bottom line for many of you reading this being that we can expect a PS4 slim to be announced in two weeks time with a lower price tag.

Side note: somebody needs to charge their battery.

Discuss:

Does a PS4 slim interest you or are you all about PS4 Neo?