People are sounding off about the price of the PS5 Pro, and yes, $700 is a ridiculous jump from the current $450 PS5, but there's more to be concerned about than the price itself.
There are features you're gaining and some you're losing, and there's the price-to-performance ratio. Then there's the overall fallacy of attempting to keep up with frame rate and resolution standards.
Let's dive into why the PS5 Pro may have a tough road ahead.
PS5 Pro: Numbers aren't adding up
Let's get the price itself out of the way. Yes, the PS5 Pro is $700. That's $250 more than the PS5. More importantly, it breaks away from the PS4 Pro's setup, which sold at the same price as the PS4 when it launched. No matter how you spin it, that's a big ask from consumers.
Before we get to the graphics, let's get into the other hardware. The PS5 Pro doesn't have a disc-drive and it doesn't come with a vertical stand. Sony sells these two items separately for the original PS5, so we cannot guarantee the price would be the same for the PS5 Pro. Currently, the disc drive costs $80 and the stand costs $30. That puts the PS5 Pro up to $810, and that's before tax.
Then there's time. If the life-cycle of the current console generation persists with its predecessors, then you'll get at least three years out of the PS5 Pro. Maybe four years. It's likely that the PS6 will launch at a cheaper price, too. I cannot imagine a world where the standard game console rises to $700. At least I don't want to imagine it. Sony shot for a higher price with the PS3 and it's one of the reasons the Xbox 360 sold so well, it was cheaper.
But the price is just part of the problem.
PS5 Pro: The real problem
There's a fallacy in the video game industry that is perpetuated by increasing graphics and increased developer ambition. If you give the masses stronger hardware, developers will continue to push the envelope in terms of graphics and performance.
So where does that land us? At 30 frames per second. Think about it. Some AAA games are still capped at 30 fps, and even those that feature customizable graphics will cap you at 30 fps when on a higher resolution. The PS5 Pro claims to fix this issue with a 45% graphics boost and its PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR), which is an AI-driven technology that enhances resolution and image quality without sacrificing performance.
PSSR, like Nvidia's DLSS, can go a long way to improve performance. But how long will that last? We saw a demo of The Last of Us Part II running at a high resolution at 60 fps. That game launched four years ago. There was also Alan Wake 2, which was likely running at a similar speed, but again that game launched in 2023. Sure, it's recent, but that doesn't account for the development time, which takes years.
You might get a year or even two out of the PS5 Pro before games like GTA 6 break the console's ambitions. The only way to stop this is to put standards in place that make 30 fps the new 15 fps. Remember the Cyberpunk 2077 launch? It got stripped from the PS Store pretty quickly. We need to hold that standard when it comes to game development.
Developers being able to step back and focus on performance rather than fidelity is not only beneficial to the consumer but maybe also to the developers. I don't know what a development cycle looks like behind closed doors. But I'd like to imagine that if you're not focusing on the detail of every grain of sand, you'll have a more lax development process. Forcing people to work to the bone on something as simple as that is the reason why unions are popping off.
The PS5 Pro outlook
So, am I buying the PS5 Pro? Well... I want to, but it's tough. I'm an avid gamer; I play all of the PlayStation exclusives and I also play a ton of AAA games on my PS5. I'll get the most out of it in its lifetime. This way, I can use my original PS5 as a hand-me-down for my wife (sorry, not sorry).
However, not everyone is in my situation. I find it hard to believe that Sony is going to sell many PS5 Pros. The way these price increases stop is by speaking with your wallet. And if the PS5 Pro sees a small, niche audience, it could even see massive discounts in the new year.
