A collection of recent international shipping records has sparked speculation about the development of the PS5 Pro.
As spotted by TweakTown, import logs show that Sony Interactive Entertainment (the branch of Sony that runs PlayStation) has shipped thousands of boxes of dev kits to the US in recent months.
Most of the shipments came from Japan and Korea. Other listings show that Sony exported a shipment labeled “game console (prototype)” from the UK to the US last November.
The mention of console prototypes delighted many fans that these shipments contain the first models of Sony's upcoming hardware platform. Presumably, this would be the PS5 Pro or PS5 Slim, which Sony is expected to release at some point in the current generation of consoles.
TweakTown also notes that the prototype console shipment is marked with an HS code of 981700, which is sometimes used in global export systems to designate shipments containing parts for video game-related products.
Analysis: is this the first sign of the PS5 Pro?
It's tempting to assume that dev kits and prototype consoles are the first PlayStation hardware models to arrive. With the PS5 launching over a year ago, Sony is likely looking for the next phase of its flagship console. The content of the shipments could also relate to the upcoming PSVR 2, Sony's next-generation VR headset.
But speculation does a lot of work here, and we advise you to lower your expectations until more information emerges through official channels. It's unclear why Sony would ship PS5 or PSVR 2 dev kits from Japan, Korea, or the UK to the US. It's highly likely that all of the prototype models will be made in China before being shipped worldwide.
More importantly, there is no suggestion that these shipments contain full prototype models. It's possible that the hundreds of shipping boxes mentioned in the records are filled with individual pieces of PlayStation test kits, rather than complete designs. There's also little to suggest that dev kits are PlayStation's next hardware, rather than the older kits still floating around from the PS5's launch in 2020.
Sony will most likely release a PS5 Slim or PS5 Pro in the future, and its decision to release two mid-gen console upgrades for the PS4 has proven successful. But it's probably too optimistic to think that these shipping logs give us an indication of its development status.
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