Highly anticipated: Sony has already confirmed that a successor to the PlayStation 4 is in the works. With Sony electing to skip E3 2019 and these new photos surfacing, could an announcement be in the works for next summer?

Development kits for Sony's PlayStation 5 have reportedly been in the hands of third-party devs for the better part of 2018 and now, we're getting a glimpse of what the next-gen hardware may look like.

Update: False alarm... Rozetked is now reporting that it believes the photos are fakes.

Russian tech site Rozetked, which has an established track record for leaking tech gadgets, has published photos of an alleged PlayStation 5 prototype. The source who supplied the images claims it is running in bootloader mode.

Rozetked couldn't vouch for the authenticity of the images and the source reportedly said the appearance of the console may change before it ships.

If it is a fake, someone clearly put a lot of time into the hoax as the images are clear and the design looks polished.

Sony earlier this month confirmed it will skip E3 2019, one of the biggest gaming conventions in the world. This sparked talk about the potential for Sony to announce the PS5 at a separate gathering, perhaps a PlayStation Experience event.

The PlayStation 5 is rumored to feature an eight-core AMD Ryzen CPU and launch sometime in 2020 at a retail price point of around $500. A patent application continuation from earlier this month hints at the possibility that a future controller design could feature a touchscreen display.