For a while now, industry analysts and gamers alike knew a PS5 pro was coming. According to Sony, this new premium console has been in the works for four years to continuously improve its performance and deliver a great experience for PS5 gamers.
The company says that the PS5 Pro was crafted with players and game creators in mind, because according to Sony, “many have asked for a console that runs even higher fidelity graphics with smoother frame rates at 60FPS.”
Sony claims that the PS5 Pro accomplishes this thanks to three main improvements: an upgraded GPU with 67 percent more compute units, advanced ray tracing, and AI-driven graphics upscaling.
Despite these enhancements, the gaming community has already voiced its concerns over a key aspect of the PS5 Pro, namely the price.
The Sony PS5 Pro will retail at $699.99, but why is it so pricey?
Sony’s PlayStation 5 Pro will make its debut as the company’s most expensive console ever at an astonishing $700 dollars. But this is not the first time Sony has experienced controversy over the price it sets for its consoles.
The PS3, which was released in late 2006, retailed at $599 when it first came out, which when adjusted for inflation, is roughly $779 – close enough to the PS5 Pro’s price point.
This is a clear sign that times are changing. Console gamers were used to being able to access high-quality gaming consoles at considerably lower prices, compared to what it would cost to build a powerful gaming PC.
It seems, however, that the era of consumer-friendly gaming consoles is slowly coming to an end. Both Microsoft and Sony have pushed the Xbox and PS5 to have far more capable GPUs reminiscent of those found on high-end gaming PCs.
The PS5 Pro seems to take this trend to another level. The new console retails without a disc drive, which will undoubtedly help steer gamers away from purchasing physical media but also joins computer GPUs with its sell points: new games hitting better frame rates and improving visual quality.
The new console is all about digital sales
Since the console does not ship with a disc drive, Sony is focusing its profit strategy through digital sales. The company will now get a 30 percent cut for all digital purchases made in their console.
Sony will also be able to profit if users decide to get the $80 disc drive they can buy with the console, given that it is sold separately.
This strategy seems to complement Sony’s approach of designing the PS5 Pro price to be profitable from day one. This is a big change from the way in which both Microsoft and Sony approached their price tags and console manufacturing itself.
The two gaming giants typically sell consoles at a loss initially to subsidize the hardware and grow the market for its next-gen consoles. Digital game revenues and in-game purchases initially covered these losses, but the PS5 Pro shows this is no longer the case.
It remains to be seen whether these changes will help improve the gaming experience of users or if it will make gaming more and more exclusive.
