Sony’s PlayStation 5 shed weight in its latest iteration, released earlier this month, and a new rumor says the console will slim down even more next year.
A slimmer PS5 will arrive in September 2023, according to a report from Insider Gaming on Monday. The new console is rumored to come without a built-in disc drive. Instead, it will have a detachable disc drive that connects via USB-C in order to keep the aesthetics skinny. Internally, the console will otherwise have the same hardware.
The detachable drive will also be available to purchase separately in case the original gets damaged, according to Insider Gaming’s anonymous sources. The current PS5 is available with or without a disc drive, so gamers who bought the cheaper, discless Digital Edition could add the functionality with a USB-C drive.
Sony didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
November 2023 will mark three years since the release of the PS5, and it is possible Sony will release new hardware at around that time. The PlayStation VR 2 headset will release sometime in 2023, and the previous version of the virtual reality headset came out in 2016, just weeks before the release of the slimmed-down PS4.