Playstation 5 Pro

[kamikazekeeg]

Damn, Sony is having a year.  From the Helldivers 2 mess, to the much bigger disaster of Concord, to a little bright light with Astro Bot, to announcing that the new Playstation 5 Pro is 700 dollars, with no disc drive that is sold separately, along with the stand, meaning the full setup would cost over 800 dollars.  It sounds even worse people outside the U.S. from what I'm reading. 

I'm both a console and PC gamer and as someone that just got a new PC, I have little reason to get this for the likely small performance boost it'll offer.  They talk up all the GPU and AI upscaling stuff, but I haven't played a game on PS5 so far that I'm like "Dang, I wish I had a better system for this". I don't even think they were taking full advantage of the PS5 to begin with as I think games nowadays are optimized super poorly.  They push to hard for graphic fidelity and not actual performance.

https://www.gematsu.com/2024/09/playstation-5-pro-announced-launches-november-7-for-699

[telekill]

Yeah. There's no way in hell I'm buying a PS5 Pro. Even here in the States (we're not united anymore so no point in putting that part in), it's $700 which is paltry in comparison to the $880 expected from those living in the EU.

1. No disc drive. (seperate cost of $80)
2. Devs can't even max out the PS5 as it is.
3. Little to no discernable difference in visuals.
4. Few games of interest for the entire generation.
5. No games in the pipe that are must haves.

No thanks Sony. Take the PS5 Pro and shove it up your greedy asses.

[alligo]

At this price, you might as well stay on a PC or buy one for those who don't have one yet.

And yes it's worse for Europe, you have to pay more than 900 euros if you want the dis drive and the vertical stand.
I think in Canada it's even around 1,000 dollars.

No games, no disc drive, no vertical stand and no difference in the graphics (or at least very minimal).

They really cracked at sony and didn't learn anything from their mistakes with the PS3
I hope it's a big flop.

This opens the door to all kinds of abuses, the industry is doing very badly.

[weirdfeline]

$300 more (~$400 if you want a disc drive) than the digital PS5 for what exactly? Better PS4 backwards compatibility?

PS4 Pro was $400 (the price of a PS4) and they dropped the price of PS4 to reflect that.

I have now watched the actual presentation. So the main selling point is the main selling point as the original PS5 except now they are exaggerating slightly less than before? 4K 60fps gaming wooo!!! Oh whoops we forgot to deliver on that, here it is now for a few more games woo!! Oh and did Cerny really just admit more gamers choose performance modes over fidelity modes? That seems like a big thing to publicly admit.

My experience with ray tracing is that it makes things darker for realism. Comparing Fortnite on PS4 and PS5 it at times seems like a disadvantage on PS5 with how dark the shadows can be in buildings. I guess in single player games that isn't really an issue but being darker doesn't seem like a selling point.

CNET published an exclusive look at PS5 Pro and I honestly thought when comparing the Horizon Forbidden West gameplay that the PS5 Pro gameplay was the PS5 because it looked darker and less vibrant.

[kamikazekeeg]

$300 more (~$400 if you want a disc drive) than the digital PS5 for what exactly? Better PS4 backwards compatibility?

PS4 Pro was $400 (the price of a PS4) and they dropped the price of PS4 to reflect that.

Yeah I was surprised that I didn't see anything about a PS5 price drop, I thought that was the normal path, you drop the old system down abit, and then you have the new pro system be abit more costly with the extra hardware, but to have this be 300 dollars more outright than the previous versions is wild. 

It's kinda funny watching them try to justify the performance boost.  They start with fidelity mode on normal systems, because fidelity mode often runs kinda poorly to make up for visuals, but I think looks bad no matter what, so you compare it to that and it seems like a big boost.  The problem is the comparison between performance mode and Pro is minor and they have to show zoomed in, non-moving, gameplay to even make it seem like something that matters.  You will basically never notice the added fidelity in Spider-Man 2 on Pro while swinging and fighting compared to just playing on performance on a standard system.  I've seen far too many people say they can't tell the difference between 30fps and 60fps, which is insane to me lol, but the difference between Performance Mode and Pro is a much smaller gap than that.

*EDIT* An interesting sidenote as I didn't watch the actual presentation, but from someone else's video on it, was that on the PS5, 3/4's of players would use performance mode over fidelity mode.  It's very clear that I think people are far more interested in performance than overall fidelity and I wish Sony and other companies would take notice of this.  I don't think most people truly care how realistic Ellie's pores are, or how you can see every single strand of hair on Alloy's hair, when what matters most is always going to be how well it plays as a videogame. 

That also means that most people who would even get a Pro, aren't really going to see some huge leap in quality.  They were already playing Spider-Man or Last of Us at 60 fps, but now textures at a distance are nicer is hardly worth the extra cost of an upgrade, or justifying spending 300 more dollars over a Slim.  Why spend 300 bucks more, when a new customer could use that extra money to just buy a bunch of the best games they've been waiting to play?

[bikingjahuty]

I have a bit of a theory about the PS5 Pro beyond Sony trying to milk more money out of their aging platform. Between the announcement of no disk drive, the high price point, and Gamestop recently announcing they are going to put an emphasis on selling retro games, I think this is a dry run for next generation, at least from Sony's point of view. I think they want to see how well received a digital only, super expensive console will go over with consumers as a way of judging whether or not to continue using discs or not. Gamestop likely knew about this well before we did and have been preparing to pivot their focus on retro games as a way of preparing for the upcoming storm. I believe Nintendo confirmed their next gen console will still use physical media, but that console alone isn't going to keep Gamestop in business. As for Microsoft, I don't think there is any doubt their next gen XBOX will be digital only seeing how they've been actively phasing out physical games already this gen anyways. But back on point. The PS5 Pro is a test to see where the PS6 will go, and if people's general reactions so far are anything to go by, I think Sony will at least reconsider going digital only next gen, but we'll see.


On a personal note, the PS5 is already my least favorite Sony console, mostly due to the lack of worthwhile exclusives. Like previous Sony consoles, i just assumed the games were coming, however between most "exclusives" getting mutligen releases between the PS4 and PS5, as the PS5 exclusive games being somewhat sparse, I mostly regret owning a PS5. With that said, there's no way in hell I'd purchase a PS5 Pro, even if it had a disc drove or was prices around $500 or less. Not only that, but I noticed a marginal difference in performance during the tech demo video when comparing a standard PS5 to a Pro. Honesty, I can't justify a PS5 Pro purchase for anyone. I'm sure some Sony diehards will buy it anyways, but as for me I'll likely forget it even exists in a few months. Sony has really been shitting the bed this gen and as someone who has loved all the previous Sony consoles, it's sad to see.

[alligo]

$300 more (~$400 if you want a disc drive) than the digital PS5 for what exactly? Better PS4 backwards compatibility?

PS4 Pro was $400 (the price of a PS4) and they dropped the price of PS4 to reflect that.

Yeah I was surprised that I didn't see anything about a PS5 price drop, I thought that was the normal path, you drop the old system down abit, and then you have the new pro system be abit more costly with the extra hardware, but to have this be 300 dollars more outright than the previous versions is wild.

We are witnessing the worst gen in years, consoles are not dropping in price at all. They are increasing when it should be the opposite, but that time is over.

It's the same on the MS side, they released a new Series X at 650 / 700 euros~dollars while the base one is not selling.
Instead of lowering the price, they maintain the base one...

[Cartagia]

Chalk me up as another "$700 and it doesn't even have a disc drive?  GTFO." How would I play the 25-30 PS5 games I already own with paying an additional "fee?"

[dhaabi]

I suppose the practice of selling hardware at a loss with the intention to recoup profits with software sales has retired. I suppose both games and hardware needed a sharp price increase.

 Something else worth mentioning is Sony's decision (which was not publicly announced) to price DualSense controllers $5 more. I'm sure the controller's notorious stick drift problems aren't an issue anymore.

[justin8301]

I was very excited for the potential of a PS5 Pro and 100% ready to preorder on day 1.. till I actually saw what Sony is delivering... at this point im just gonna save my money for the Switch 2.

[zenimus]

I have a bit of a theory about the PS5 Pro beyond Sony trying to milk more money out of their aging platform. Between the announcement of no disk drive, the high price point, and Gamestop recently announcing they are going to put an emphasis on selling retro games, I think this is a dry run for next generation, at least from Sony's point of view. I think they want to see how well received a digital only, super expensive console will go over with consumers as a way of judging whether or not to continue using discs or not.

I think this is exactly right. It took a few years before I even got a PS5, since they were so hard to find at launch. I can't imagine wanting to replace it already for a Pro version without a disc drive.

I still only have 3 games for it: Elden Ring, Demon's Souls, and RoboCop Rogue City.

[bikingjahuty]

Supposedly PS5's with disc drives are sold out most places. I think this is a clear sign few people want a digital only platform. I know some people don't care and would rather not deal with the hastle of buying physical games from the store, but I believe these people are mostly in the minority, at least I hope so. Regardless this all seems promising in terms of Sony rethinking any idea of going digital only next gen.

[marvelvscapcom2]

I waited over a year for the ps5 pro. With the 600 dollars I expected to spend in my account


At this point? I have a moral obligation not just to myself but to all of you and gaming as an industry to not buy this. I am deeply insulted.

And its not just the price. If it were 700 dollars but featured full backwards compatibility up to PS2 and PS1? Id pay 800. If it were 700 dollars and had 2 controllers and the stand bundled with a new game like assassins creed. Maybe.  If it were 700 and had new user interface and 4tb storage with a 1 year subscription to ps plus premium bundled.  ANYTHING to incentivize.  But nope.

It's basically a slightly stronger PS5 with no disc drive for quite frankly double the price.


I cant tell any of you what to do. But the line has been drawn as far as im concerned. Im not bending over and letting Sony, Microsoft or Nintendo have their proverbial way with me because I have sworn servitude to them.


I am not paying them almost a used cars price for minimal effort and sloppy upgrades.


Sony has the lead.


In 2 years time we will be saying.


Sony HAD the lead.

Switch 2 is gonna drop in 2025. At a 300 to 400 price point. And absolutely stagger sony and xbox and they will scramble to make something ps6 by 2028. By then the world is gonna move on.  Mark my words.

[marvelvscapcom2]

Supposedly PS5's with disc drives are sold out most places. I think this is a clear sign few people want a digital only platform. I know some people don't care and would rather not deal with the hastle of buying physical games from the store, but I believe these people are mostly in the minority, at least I hope so. Regardless this all seems promising in terms of Sony rethinking any idea of going digital only next gen.

Sadly its also a clear sign thatp people are so brainwashed and enslaved by branding they are financially irresponsible enough to spend 825 dollars (the price of a car payment in the US) for slightly better tree fidelity on like 3 games. And not actually be sensible enough to prevent price gouging with their wallets.

It indeed shows we want physical. It also shows we are willing to be ripped off for it. Which is not ok. Sony knows it. Easy 80-150 dollars per customer just in disc drives. Time to stand ground already.

[telekill]

Supposedly PS5's with disc drives are sold out most places. I think this is a clear sign few people want a digital only platform. I know some people don't care and would rather not deal with the hastle of buying physical games from the store, but I believe these people are mostly in the minority, at least I hope so. Regardless this all seems promising in terms of Sony rethinking any idea of going digital only next gen.

Sadly its also a clear sign thatp people are so brainwashed and enslaved by branding they are financially irresponsible enough to spend 825 dollars (the price of a car payment in the US) for slightly better tree fidelity on like 3 games. And not actually be sensible enough to prevent price gouging with their wallets.

It indeed shows we want physical. It also shows we are willing to be ripped off for it. Which is not ok. Sony knows it. Easy 80-150 dollars per customer just in disc drives. Time to stand ground already.

Honestly, I think it's the scalpers buying all the disc drives so they can charge $1500 for the PS5 Pro with a disc drive on eBay. I hope people have wised up and refuse to pay scalpers, leaving them holding 20+ systems and being thousands of dollars in debt, but I also know people are incredibly stupid.