The PS5 pro was unveiled 3 weeks ago through Sony’s video where Mark Cerny, the lead architect behind the machine presented the technical improvements of the Pro version compared to the base model of the PS5. The Pro is set to launch November 7th of this year at a whopping seven hundred dollar price tag.
The Upgrades Of The Pro
The video starts of explaining the capabilities of the base PS5, showing off its capabilities in being able to keep up with hundreds of characters being shown on screen such as Dynasty Warriors, being able to render vast panoramas such as the breathtaking views in Ghost of Tsushima and making use of the fast read and write times of the SSD to render multiple worlds such in Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart and also being able to keep up rapid pacing in some of the in-game cutscenes such as in Spiderman 2.
Cerny then talks about the limitations of the PS5, where consumers have to choose between choosing performance mode or Fidelity mode, where the performance mode prioritizes FPS at the cost of graphics while the Fidelity mode does the opposite, stating that one of the main goals of the PS5 Pro would be to at least narrow the gap between these choices so consumers can get the best of both choices.
To tackle this issue the Pro model has been fitted with a larger GPU, advanced Ray Tracing and AI-driven Upscaling. The GPU of the Pro model has higher compute units and faster RAM which as a result increases the rendering times up to 45%. The ray tracing has been improved to be much faster at calculations and Cerny then stated that they added Playstation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR) as their take on AI-driven image upscaling, similar to what Nvidia’s DLSS is.
Its Too Much Money Sony
Following the unveiling of the price and specifications, people immediately responded in shock and general frustration. People were quick to call out that the comparisons made in visuals wasn’t as much of an improvement as the presentation made it seem. Moreover the comparison emphasized on parts of the game that people wouldn’t pay attention to in the midst of playing the game.
What the main issue that people had was the price point for the pro model. People in general felt that the seven hundred dollar price point didn’t justify whatever improvements were showcased and advertised. It became even less worthy when it was found out that the disk drive isn’t included and must be bought separately along with the stand.
New Games?! No, Have Remasters No One Asked For
Another point that was hammered home from the masses was the fact that there aren’t that many first party new titles to play and it has been 4 years since the release of the base model. There is Ratchet And Clank, God of War Ragnarok and Marvel’s Spiderman 2 and Demon Souls which is a remake.
Sony in the span of 4 years hasn’t kept up with trying to release exclusives that would justify buying this new model. They are falling back on remastering titles that don’t even need a remaster such as releasing a remastered version of Horizon Zero Dawn, Sony even infuriated people more when they realized that the price of the game was silently increased and those who already owned the game would need to pay an extra 15 dollars.
At this point it’s expected that when the PS6 comes out they’ll take some time to showcase how well The Last of Us runs on it or some other old title. This feels more like an effect of a much bigger problem for Sony, it feels like this is the effect the failure of Concord had on them. They chased trends and produced one of the most bland titles ever to grace our screens in 2024 and tried to compete in a highly saturated market with a 40 dollar price tag no less.
It won’t be the first time and it certainly won’t be the last when Sony gets told to stick to single player, first party IPs instead of trying to break into the multiplayer market. No one thinks of Sony when they think of Battle Royals or Competitive games, they think of Sony when they think of single player IPs with strong and complex storylines that more often than not leaves a mark on the player well after the credits roll.
