The price was revealed at the end of the video, both discreetly and quite obviously: the PS5 Pro will be sold for €800 in Europe. An exorbitant price that no one saw coming, not even the Madame Irmas of Twitter who were mocking Sony’s reasonable marketing. But what we must not forget is that the €799 requested at the checkout is for the all-digital model and therefore without a disc player. If the consumer wants to take advantage of a Blu-ray player, they will have to pay €130 more, which obviously increases the bill. And if you want to have the base, know that in the end, this PS5 Pro with its complete kit is close to €1,000. This is unheard of at PlayStation, it is also a first in the world of video games.
PS3 FLOP IS A THING IN THE PAST
And yet, Sony has already paid the price for prices that were too high for gamers’ purses, in 2007 to be precise, when the PS3 was released and the €600 that was already requested at the counter. At the launch, the PS3 was a real commercial failure, to the point where in front of the points of sale, on the evening of its release, on the Champs-Elysées, there was only one person who had braved the cold to be the one and only customer in a ghost queue. A mistake that was not repeated the next generation with the PS4, which arrived with an ultra-competitive price of €399. When you think back on it, and with the prices charged today, it is almost surreal to think that the PS4 was released for less than €400 in a market that is nevertheless competitive. By the way, 9 years ago, the PS4 Pro arrived in the middle of the generation for the same price, while the standard PS4 had seen its price lowered to €299, or €100 more. But today, in 2024, the PS5 Pro will be marketed at €800, double the price of the PS4 Pro at the time.
How did we get here? Looking back, it’s not really surprising. In recent years, Sony PlayStation has taken a fairly significant ‘Apple style’ turn that seems to be growing. Sony knows that its community loves the PlayStation brand, but is it ready to ruin itself for its pretty eyes, as is the case with Apple and its apostles? If we rely on the sales of the PS5, released in times of crisis and in the middle of COVID, Sony is hitting the nail on the head. But when we take stock of other products, such as its DualSense Edge pro controller and its PlayStation VR 2, we’re rather close to disaster in terms of sales. Could Sony be abusing this quasi-monopoly status? Since Xbox is no longer really there to rebalance things (the fault of its consoles that no longer sell), Sony is completely letting go, to the point of no longer touching the ground at times. Are they the only ones in this approach? Obviously not. Just take the telephone sector, the smartphone market, to see that prices have quadrupled in less than 20 years too. The latest cutting-edge iPhone in Max Pro mode and maximum disk space is €2,000 today. And let’s not kid ourselves: we all have our share of responsibility. Because a consumer who continues to buy at such indecent prices is a bad signal to manufacturers. So yes, the COVID period and inflation have caused prices to rise, but there is nothing that justifies a doubling of the price between the PS4 and PS5 generations, let’s be honest.
QUALITY OR AND PERFORMANCES
Except that Sony knows perfectly well what type of clientele it is targeting with the PS5 Pro, and unfortunately it is not the average gamer. When we know that the PS4 Pro represents 13% of sales of the PS4 generation, it is obviously a limited audience, the one who buys the high-end from PlayStation for the ultimate quality. We do not know if the Japanese manufacturer will be able to seduce a wider audience in the coming years, but it is quite obvious that with time, we will all forget this moment of grumbling. This is all the more true when the comparative performance videos come out and prove to us that no longer having to choose between ‘Quality’ and ‘Performance’ is a real gaming comfort. And then, should we remember that we are a year away from the release of GTA 6, the next game from Rockstar Games that will undoubtedly redefine a lot of things.
Well, it’s not all cabbage but you need meat with it. For €800, what do you get with this PS5 Pro? First thing to know is that the hard drive, or rather the SSD, goes from 1 to 2TB, which is quite comfortable when you see that big games now weigh between 80 and 150 GB. Black Myth Wukong is more than 150 GB on PS5 I remind you. But what you should especially remember about this PS5 Pro is that it will put an end to the famous dilemma of any gamer, when they have to choose between Graphics Quality or Performance for their games. Basically, the PS5 Pro will have an improved graphics processor, with 67% more computing units than the current PS5 console and 28% faster memory. Overall, this allows for up to 45% faster rendering for gameplay, which makes the experience much smoother.
WHAT’S NEW DOC?
We also have improved Ray-Tracing technology, which allows the console to offer more light reflection and in a more dynamic way. This allows the rays to be projected at speeds twice or even three times higher than those of the current PS5 console and the best example given during the video is on Gran Turismo 7 and the fact that the reflections between two cars are also present. A detail for some, an importance for purists, because we know, the devil is in the details. Another feature highlighted, the PlayStation Super Spectral Resolution or PSSR, which is a new technology driven by AI and which allows for ultra-sharp image clarity by adding a lot of detail and which is obviously reminiscent of DLSS technology on PC. All this aims to no longer make concessions between a 4K image and a frame rate of 60 frames per second. Will this apply to all games? The question is worth asking especially when we see that games are becoming more and more demanding and powerful. Still, on paper, it’s the promise, especially since a PS5 Pro Game Boost system is planned with the console and which will apply to more than 8,500 backwards compatible PS4 games that will be playable on the PS5 Pro.
This feature can stabilize or improve the performance of supported PS4 and PS5 games. Enhanced image quality for PS4 games is also available to improve the resolution of some PS4 games. All of these boosted games will also be identified by a PS5 Pro Enhanced label as was the case in the days of the PS4 Pro and we already have a list of games that will be compatible with this boost: 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, The Last of Us Part II Remastered, and many more. The PS5 Pro will also launch with the latest wireless technology, Wi-Fi 7, in territories that support this standard. VRR and 8K gaming are also supported, but hey, we know that’s marketing bullshit. As for the design, Dealabs’ info has been verified and we’re still on the same model as the PS5 and PS5 Slim, except that the three stripes are indeed there, which gives it a nice look and the nickname PS5 Pro Adidas.
In any case, the PS5 will arrive on November 7th, just before Thanksgiving and Christmas, and it will be offered at €800 in Europe, while in the United States, it is $700. Maybe this is the real deal…
