Sony has announced the long-rumored PlayStation 5 Pro, but the company has yet to justify the upcoming hardware’s existence and price to players.
On September 10, the company held a Technical Presentation hosted by PS5 Lead Architect Mark Cerny to unveil an upgraded version of the PS5.
This shouldn’t come as a surprise. After all, the PlayStation 4 Pro released about three years into the PS4’s lifespan, and we’re approaching four years of the PS5 era in November. Plus, there were plenty of leaks and rumors about a possible PS5 Pro going back to last year.
Now, following the PlayStation 5 Pro reveal, Sony still has a big question to answer about the console – and it has nothing to do with GPU power or frame rate improvements.
Sony needs to give PS5 owners a reason to go Pro
Normally, when a new console is announced or teased, fans have a laundry list of requests for the hardware. Just look at the long-running conversation over the Nintendo Switch’s successor.
That’s not the case with the PlayStation 5 Pro. The PS5 certainly isn’t a flawless piece of technology, but it’s hard to pinpoint specific things that need the kind of work a mid-generation hardware refresh can deliver.
Compare that to the PS4’s upgrade. When it released in 2016, the PS4 Pro improved the original model’s GPU and CPU to boost performance and, for the first time, bring 4K resolution to some games on the platform.
In fairness to Sony, they did a good job of laying out their intentions and goals with the PlayStation 5 Pro. Console players do have to choose between graphics and performance modes in most major releases, sacrificing either visual fidelity or frame rate for a smooth gaming experience.
The PS5 Pro is powerful enough to deliver both, an impressive feat that rivals high-end gaming PCs and lays out a new standard for the next generation of consoles. The system will also enhance exisiting games, with over 8,500 PS4 games seeing improvements through Game Boost and over a dozen PS5 games confirmed to be getting dedicated updates that allow them to fully take advantage of the PS5 Pro.
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But while that sounds great, the difference isn’t dramatic in practice. The Technical Presentation showed a side-by-side of The Last of Us Part 2 running on PS5 in Fidelity Mode and on PS5 Pro, and the improvements are so slight that many viewers couldn’t tell the difference.
All this makes it unclear why the new hardware is necessary at all. The PS5 Pro’s improvements are not enough for most players to justify a brand-new console purchase – especially when that console costs $700 and doesn’t even include a disc drive.
There’s no outcry from PlayStation users asking for Sony to improve load times, graphics, or controllers like there is with Nintendo at the moment. On top of that, those who care enough about technical specs to consider buying an upgraded console probably have a PC that can accomplish what the PS5 Pro can.
Of course, the PS5 Pro is meant to be a higher-end model that appeals to the most hardcore audience rather than the average consumer. But don’t need to look further than Sony’s own PlayStation VR 2 to understand why such a limited audience isn’t enough to justify a new hardware launch, especially when that hardware comes at an incredibly steep price.
It’s no secret that PlayStation is in a bit of a slump right now. Actual console exclusives and first-party releases have been few and far between, which obviously isn’t ideal considering the platform dominated in the last generation thanks to games like God of War (2018), Bloodborne, The Last of Us Part 2, and Horizon Zero Dawn.
If anything, the success of Astro Bot proves that what the PS5 is missing is games, not technical prowess.
As it stands, there doesn’t seem to be a reason for anyone to upgrade, and Sony’s Technical Presentation did not do enough to prove to players that the PS5 Pro is worth their time and money.