Sony Disappoints Yet Again With Announcement Of PlayStation 5 Pro, New Console To Cost $699.99 And Require Separate Purchase Of Physical Disc Drive
As the current console generation reaches the middle of its life span, Sony has officially unveiled a more ‘streamlined’ model of the PlayStation 5 – and sadly, while it does offer slight improvements in processing power, everything else about its existence is painfully eye-roll-inducing.
Earlier this week, the rumor mill began to swell with the supposed news that a more advanced iteration of the now-four-year-old PlayStation 5 would soon be revealed to the public.
And ultimately, these rumors turned out to be true as, in their recent “PS5 Technical Presentation hosted by Mark Cerny“, the embattled video game company confirmed that a new model of said console, the PlayStation 5 Pro, was soon headed to store shelves.
Less than 10 minutes in total length and far from technical, the presentation saw Sony’s Lead PlayStation 5 Architect gush over the PS5 Pro’s capabilities while only briefly touching upon its actual hardware specifications.
In fact, more credence was given to the original PS5’s technical specs, which Cerny used as a springboard to discuss grievances game developers had with the first iteration of the console.
According to Cerny, developers wanted more graphical power, as opposed to being forced to split their development attentions between the console’s Performance and Graphics Modes, the former ensuring that a given game can run at 60 FPS and the latter capping them at 30 FPS in order to emphasize the fidelity of its visuals.
In light of both this feedback and the reality that three quarters of of the time, PS5 players chose to use its Performance Mode over its Graphics Mode, the Sony exec explained “Removing that decision, or at least narrowing that divide, is one of the key targets for PlayStation 5 Pro. We want to give players the graphics that the game creators aspire to, at the high frame rates players typically prefer.”
To do so, Cerny explained that the PS5 Pro will perform “substantially” better in three ways over the base model.
First there is a larger GPU, offering 67% more compute units, 28% faster RAM, resulting in rendering being 45% faster.
Next is Advanced Ray Tracing, with the major upgrades offering calculation of rays at double or even triple the speeds of the base PS5.
Finally, custom hardware for machine hardware is in the Pro. This is utilized for AI-Driven upscaling via an AI Library dubbed “PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution” (PSSR). Per Cerny, this process sees images analyzed “pixel-by-pixel” before applying an “extraordinary amount of detail” and boosting effective resolution.
Developers are already adding support for the PS5 Pro to new and existing titles, “with [updated] graphics showing something like [Graphics Mode] levels detail, but at double the frame rate.”
Per both the presentation itself and its related PlayStation Blog announcement, said PS5 Pro-optimized titles will include Alan Wake 2, Assassin’s Creed: Shadows, Demon’s Souls, Dragon’s Dogma 2, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, Gran Turismo 7, Hogwarts Legacy, Horizon Forbidden West, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, The Crew Motorfest, The First Descendant, and The Last of Us Part II Remastered.
These existing titles will have a free update, while new PlayStation games will note on the box if they support Pro’s technology.
Additionally, as exclusively mentioned on the aforementioned PlayStation Blog post, the console will also present players with the ‘PS5 Pro Game Boost’, a feature which will improve the image quality and performance stability of over 8,500 compatible PlayStation 4 games.
Further, the console will also support Wi-Fi 7 in supporting territories, as well as VR and 8K gaming, and feature a standard 2TB SSD.
After showing the PlayStation 5 Pro running alongside PlayStation 5 in both Performance and Fidelity modes, Cerny proceed to confirm the console’s release date and price tag: November 7th, 2024, for $699.99.
Alongside the base console itself, that egregious price tag will also entitle players to a DualSense wireless controller and a pre-installed copy of Astro’s Playroom pre-installed.
However, that’s about where Sony’s generosity ends, as players will have to pay extra for the console’s vertical stand – $29.99 – and its physical disc drive – $79.99.
This may be fitting with the increasing number of digital sales. Last year, digital downloads rose in the US by 13%, while 2022 saw 72% of all console games being purchased in digital form.
With all digital gaming revenue being $173.8 billion that year (compared to the $10.7 billion pulled in from physical sales), and an outpouring of think-pieces stating there’s “digital-only future and we can’t stop it,”, it’s not hard to understand why Sony chose to ship the PS5 Pro without a disc drive.
Notably, Sony is not the first major video game company to begin pursuing such an all-digital future.
Microsoft put their feet in both waters by offering disc and download-only consoles with Xbox Series X|S, but earlier this year began making drastic cuts to their physical release operations.
Likewise, speaking to the topic in January, Ubisoft Director of Subscriptions Philippe Tremblay lamented, “One of the things we saw is that gamers are used to, a little bit like DVD, having and owning their games.”
“That’s the consumer shift that needs to happen,” he declared. “They got comfortable not owning their CD collection or DVD collection. That’s a transformation that’s been a bit slower to happen [in games]. As gamers grow comfortable in that aspect… you don’t lose your progress. If you resume your game at another time, your progress file is still there. That’s not been deleted. You don’t lose what you’ve built in the game or your engagement with the game. So it’s about feeling comfortable with not owning your game.”
“I still have two boxes of DVDs,” Tremblay argued. “I definitely understand the gamers perspective with that. But as people embrace that model, they will see that these games will exist, the service will continue, and you’ll be able to access them when you feel like. That’s reassuring.”
However, it should be noted that despite the convenience offered by digital sales, the issues of DRM, revocable licenses, and forced censorship remain significant roadblocks in this method becoming adopted en masse by players.
In fact, so many players have found themselves so fed up with the industry’s power-tripping that they’re beginning to turn to the past in such massive droves that GameStop announced earlier this month that they would be bringing back the sale and trade-in of retro games and consoles (Just watch out for scratches and disc rot, gamers).
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