PlayStation 4 Slim images appear weeks before Sony press event

Several images and videos of a slimmer Sony PlayStation 4 console have surfaced online, weeks ahead of its expected announcement.

Images first appeared earlier this month on an online auction site. It showed a PlayStation 4 with smaller dimensions and rounded edges, as well as a slightly redesigned controller, complete with packaging showing the new model.

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Gaming site Eurogamer "visited the person who claimed to have bought the console" from the auction listing,taking photos and video of the new model. The site briefly posted the video, before taking it down "upon taking legal advice." But the images remain online.

Twitter user @shortman82 posted several photos of the PS4 Slim, including some alongside the current PS4 model as a size comparison.

The Wall Street Journal corroborated the rumours and images with its own report, saying that a refreshed PS4 would indeed be announced alongside the PS4 Neo, a more powerful version ableto play games at 4K resolution.

Sony is widely expected to announce the PS4 Neo at a press event Sept. 7 in New York the same day that Apple is expected to launch a new iPhone at a similar event.

Freelance games journalist Laura Kate uploaded a video of her own on Tuesday, showing another model with the same form factor and redesigned controller. She also hooked it up to a television to confirm it was a working console.

Sony hasn't commented on any of the rumours or images of the PS4 Slim.

Console revamps

The console gaming market has been in the middle of a refresh, three years after the launch of the PlayStation 4 and Microsoft's Xbox One machines.

Microsoft announced a more powerful version of the Xbox One, codenamed Project Scorpio, designed to play games at full 4K resoluion (a step up from the standard 1080p resolution), while still making games compatible with existing Xbox One models.

It launched the Xbox One S, a slimmed down version of the standard Xbox One earlier this month.

If reports of the PS4 Slim and PS4 Neo play out as expected next week, Sony will be on similar footing with Microsoft's product line refresh.

Meanwhile, Nintendo is keeping mum about its latest console, codenamed NX. It's rumoured to be a brand new console that takes cues from its current Wii U and 3DS machines, but isn't backwards compatible with them. The NX is due out in March of next year.