Now thatPlayStationhas taken the PS5 Pro from theland of whispers and rumorsand made an official announcement, it’s time to ask some hard questions. The first of those questions has to be, was anyone really asking for this? Did anyone think the PS5 wasn’t already doing enough to get gamers' attention? For that matter, was the PS5 popular enough to need yet another iteration already?
Sony’sreveal of the new PS5 Proclearly shows that it will be atechnological upgrade of the PS5when it arrives later this fall. But another question that arises when considering what the new console is expected to offer is, “Will anyone really see or notice the difference?” Those questions and other factors make the announcement of the PS5 Pro one of the most tone-deaf reveals I’ve ever seen come out of an increasingly tone-deaf gaming community.
PlayStation 5 Pro
The PS5 Pro’s $700 price tag isn’t the real shock – it’s what you get for that
PlayStation 5 Pro is poised to improve game performance and visuals using three key new features.
The PS5 Pro is startlingly expensive
Sony is asking gamers to lay down a ton of cash for ‘not the PS6’
The first and biggest contributing factor to this reveal seeming incredibly tone-deaf is the price Sony is asking for the PS5 Pro. A slim version of the new console with no onboard disc drive carries a $699 price tag. That is a full $250 more than the current version of the PS5.
The price alone is striking, but the way that Sony has bucked its own trends is absolutely eye-popping. Keep in mind what the company has done with the PlayStation price pointsover the years.
There is only one version of the PS5 Pro, and it’s all-digital.
When the PS4 launched it carried a $399 price tag. The the PS4 Pro had the same MSRP mainly because the shelf price of the original console had gone done thanks to being on the market for quite a while. And then, when the PS5 launched, it came along with an identical asking price of $399 for the digital version. Yes, the disc drive version was $100 more, but Sony could at least explain that away as containing more hardware.
The price alone is striking, but the way that Sony has bucked its own trends is absolutely eye-popping.
But now we’re seeing a massive jump in the MSRP, especially in comparison. When you take into consideration that Sony is asking for another $80 for the attachable disc drive, you’re talking about $780 if you want to be able to play physical discs on the PS5 Pro. So a jump of nearly $300 from the most expensive PS5 currently on the market.
Which PS5 model should you buy in 2024?
There are four PS5 models in the wild right now with only subtle differences between them. This is the one you should buy in 2024.
Not all steps forward are positive ones
In this regard, going away from what Xbox is doing might not be great
One of the most interesting aspects of this announcement is that it comes at a time when Microsoft seems to be going out of its way to make it clear that it would rather therenever be another Xbox consolerelease.
There obviously will be one. Microsoft isn’t going to be able to lean on the Xbox Series X/S forever. Eventually there will be a need for a more powerful console, but it’s clear that the company is leaning heavily on letting Sony carry the load when it comes to semi-regular console generation launches.
While there are some who will see Sony as being the only “new” console out there as a positive, but with Xbox games arriving on other platforms more often, as well as game streaming through the GamePass subscription, there are now more ways than ever to save a few bucks, not engage in the console wars, and still be plenty happy playing a huge library of games.
Sony is running the risk of running its own customers off.
Sony is moving in the opposite direction, and doing it while asking for an amount of money that will give plenty of people pause. There is even a chance that offering up what is a technologically advanced console with that massive a price tag, when games are stillnot exactly screamingthat there is a need for what those advances offer, could even push people to side with Xbox. It’s hard not to argue this Sony is running the risk of running its own customers off.
4 reasons you shouldn’t buy a PS5 right now
Sure, you want to play the PS5 now, but waiting for the PS5 Pro could be the smarter move.
The gaming world is in a tough place right now
People are angry, and this announcement might make them angrier
Take all the factors mentioned above and add in the fact that things just seem sort of bleak in the video game community right now, and you have one of the most tone-deaf announcements in quite some time, if not ever. Chief among the reasons why the atmosphere is rather sour at the moment is the amount of layoffs that have hit studios this year.
We thought things were bad in 2023 when the video game community passed the grim benchmark of more than 10,000 layoffs. But it turns out that was sadly just a preview. By June 2024, layoff numbers had already topped that number—the same number of people losing their jobs in half the time.
It doesn’t help that Sony isn’t an innocent bystander in all of this. Earlier this year,PlayStation announced layoffsthat would cut its workforce by about 8 percent. Things in the entire video game industry aren’t slowing down either.
Embracer Group, one of the biggest offenders of the new trend of firing people in order to “restructure” laid off another 140 people at the start of September. All while video game companies are announcing what seem like insane profits to outsiders looking in.
Couple those layoffs with what has been a feeling of discontent in the games that are being released. Sony should be well aware of that. After all, it made the decision to shutter its Hero-based shooterConcord less than two weeksafter it was released.
Knowing all of that, it’s hard to make sense of the timing of the PS5 Pro reveal. Obviously, PlayStation wants to make sure this new console is out there by the holiday season. I just have to wonder if the tone-deaf way they went about this will make its new platform crash and burn in a Concord-like speed.
Does Concord’s delisting spell doom for live-service gaming?
Sony surprised the gaming community today, announcing it would take Concord offline later this week and offer refunds to those who bought the hero shooter. The game has had a disastrous launch, failing to attract any meaningful audience. It’s not the end of the road for Concord just yet, with Sony and the game’s developer, Firewalk Studios, promising to “explore options,” but I think it’s fair to say the game’s delisting says a lot about the state of the industry right now. By all accounts, Concord had little that made it feel unique. It felt like Sony was trying to add yet another live-service game to its stable, even though that’s a crowded market where a few big titles like Destiny 2 (incidentally, another Sony-owned property) dominate. Do you think Concord speaks to a broader disinterest in live-service games, or is this a case of a game that didn’t have a clear selling point? Was Sony wrong to chase a crowded market? Let us know what you think.
