Sony’s got a media event coming up next month, and all signs point to it being the unveiling of the new, more powerful PlayStation 4 “Neo.” That might not be all they’ve got in store, though, as this past weekend saw the leak of images of a purported PS4 “slim,” and now a report on the Wall Street Journal seeks to confirm the new model as Sony remains silent.

Images of the PS4’s supposed evolution showed up first on auction site Gumtree (the listing is down now) and were quickly spread around on NeoGAF. As usual, there are plenty of forum posts beneath the images decrying them as fake, but since then, a gamer on Twitter claiming to have bought one of the consoles on auction has provided additional photographs adding to its veracity. Eurogamer has also reported that a staffer paid a visit to one of the console owners and confirmed that it is, indeed, real. (They also recorded video, which you can see above.)

Indeed, if the new form factor will be unveiled alongside the Neo next month, it’d be more surprising if we didn’t get a leak right around now—not to mention that the PlayStation 3 got more than one design revamp, so this move is pretty much expected. What we don’t know is whether this sleeker design will also be the design of the Neo, but I’d have to imagine that the increased power of that upgraded hardware wouldn’t also come in a smaller case than the original.

We also don’t know what the price will be on either one, but the Wall Street Journal report has an analyst predicting that the “slim” model will come in under the current PlayStation 4’s $ 349 price tag—a similarly expected move to introducing the smaller model in the first place. A lower price should provide additional incentive to buy the lower-end model over the more powerful Neo, since price is really the only reason you’d go for the weaker one to begin with. All the details should become clear during Sony’s PlayStation Meeting in New York on September 7 at 3PM.

(featured image via screenshot)

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