The incoming battle between the Sony PS5 and Xbox Series X consoles has recently been thought to be a straight two combatant fight, with the already unveiled Series X squaring up against the yet-to-be unveiled PlayStation 5 at launch later this year.
However, if recent comments by a respected industry insider are to be believed, it might not be so clear cut after all. That's because according to the leak there is going to be not just two new PS5 consoles launched, but two new Xbox consoles as well.
The tip-off comes from NeoGAF member VFXVeteran, who is listed as a "Industry Professional (Vetted)" on the site. VFXVeteran then proceeds to explain that, from what he/she has heard "there are 2 consoles per company", with Microsoft and Sony's mid-gen refresh consoles "introduced at release so that these consoles run the entire 7yr cycle".
VFXVeteran then follows up with some additional comments:
"Sony is releasing 2 PS models. The base PS5 is 9TFLOPs . Their other one is also top of the line to compete with XSX top dog.
This all makes sense now as to why people are getting mixed numbers for each of the platforms.
I also heard that the top of the line models will be expensive. No pricing but I would guess around $600.
Also no dates on when the top models will come out for PS5.
My guess is that they are going to release both models at the same time.
This is ALL I know and won't be fishing for anymore info."
Now, this isn't the first time we've heard of a dual console release for either system, with respected Japanese journalist Zenji Nishikawa calling a dual new PS5 console release back in September last year.
In addition, the idea that there was going to be more than one new Xbox Series console has been circulating for over a year now. Indeed, famous Microsoft insider Paul Thurrot stated that there was going to be multiple new Xbox consoles as far back as December 2018.
And, when you consider that companies launch products directly to compete against specific rivals, it makes sense that Sony would counter, say, an Xbox Series S and Xbox Series X double launch with a PS5 and PS5 Pro double launch.
And if both companies were to follow the same naming conventions that they have employed during the current console generation, that means we would see a PS5 going up against an Xbox Series S, and a PS5 Pro going up against the Xbox Series X.
Obviously, though, nothing is yet confirmed, so all gamers can hope to do right now is start putting coins in the piggy bank and dream of the sweet PS5 games or Xbox Series X games they are going to play.
Here at T3 we're desperate for some sort of official PlayStation 5 unveiling, and after the no-show in February, hopefully we can look forward to an announcement sooner rather than later.
