There's a rumour doing the rounds online that says Hideo Kojima himself is teasing the PS5 Pro — the upgraded console that Sony is supposedly set to launch later this year. With additional September State of Play rumours swirling, it's easy to understand why this latest bout of speculation seems to have caught on — but we're struggling to place any meaningful faith in it.
It all stems from a photo taken by Kojima's assistant. The image shows him sitting at a desk, playing what is presumably a development build of Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, with a DualSense controller in his hands. Nothing too out of the ordinary there, but eager fans have been quick to point out an object on the right of the picture, which is covered by some kind of black sheet. It's obviously the PS5 Pro, and this is obviously some kind of mad Kojima-style tease (despite it not being posted on his own account to begin with).
Now, granted, you've got to ask why Kojima's getting his photo taken with this blanketed object in clear view. If it is a tease, then it makes some sense — but then it feels like we're all jumping the gun. Does it really matter if it is the PS5 Pro? It's fairly common knowledge that the dev kits are out there and have been for a while — you'd assume that Kojima's pretty familiar with the device at this point.
Basically, we're saying that this could be the PS5 Pro dev kit — that would explain the cover — but we'd be shocked if there's anything more to this story.
Death Stranding 2 is due to launch in 2025, while, as mentioned, the PS5 Pro is heavily rumoured to be dropping before this year is over. Still, it's not crazy to imagine that Kojima's next adventure could be used to promote the supercharged system over the coming months.