PlayStation Officially Releases Major PS5 Redesign With Key Changes

Published Oct 2, 2026, 11:01 AM EDT

Ben Brosofsky has been writing for Screen Rant since 2022 and editing since 2024. He graduated from Vanderbilt University with a Bachelor's in Cinema & Media Arts. Writing serves as a much-needed distraction from tackling a backlog of Steam games that will never be surmounted.

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The PlayStation 5 costs more now than it ever has before, and at a retail price of $649.99 for a console with a disc drive, you'd hope that you're getting something that's as good as it could be. That hasn't always been the case, but a new redesign of the system seems to address the PS5's biggest historical problem.

Up to this point, the PS5's only obvious overhaul was the release of the PS5 Slim model, which moderately reduced the console's footprint, turned the disc drive into a detachable component, and improved the system's cooling. It's had some quieter changes over the years as well, though, and the latest follows that tradition of unannounced updates.

X user Modyfikator89 opened up the new Wolverine edition of the PlayStation 5 to assess the internals, and a number of significant adjustments have been made. Most exciting is the adjustment to the cooling system, which seemingly hews closer to the PS5 Pro's approach and should make for a more effective use of its liquid metal cooling. Ideally, this will benefit the console's longevity and result in fewer examples of overheating over time.

Another appreciable upgrade is the inclusion of a replaceable CR2032 battery, which is also a significant boost to the potential for longevity. CMOS batteries found on motherboards handle aspects like timekeeping, but they don't live forever, and dying used to prevent a PS5 from actually playing digital games. While that limitation has since been addressed outside of PlayStation Plus games, making the battery more easily replaceable is an undeniable win for consumers.

Other changes have less of a direct effect on buyers, like layout changes that are more efficient in nature but should have no impact on performance or longevity. Nonetheless, it's interesting to see PlayStation continue to tinker, and some changes might help to keep the production cost from continuing to skyrocket without compromising the system.

Strangely, these updates are all hitting PlayStation consoles silently. While it's not historically surprising that Sony hasn't dropped a blog post to talk about them, Modyfikater89 notes that the documentation included with the console hasn't even been updated, making no mention of the new battery.

Although Marvel's Wolverine has been met with some mixed reactions, it's nice to know that those who shelled out for the themed console are getting some nice perks. Presumably, these changes will also be found in standard editions of the console going forward, but previous hardware revisions may still be occupying store shelves for a while.

No matter what updates are made to the PS5, it's still frustrating to see costs increase rather than decrease across the course of this console generation. If you're buying a PlayStation 5 for the first time to hop on Grand Theft Auto 6, though, at least you might have a few silent revisions to show for it.