Rumours of the PS5 Pro are hotting up at the moment and if we take them to be true then the only question anyone should have is: Why? All it shows is that Sony isn’t learning from the biggest lesson that this console generation provides.
Sony and Microsoft’s approach to this generation was similar in theory: they both acknowledged that fans were willing to make sacrifices to what their console provided in favour of a cheaper initial cost. The thing is, the two companies differed in what sacrifices they offered.
Sony decided to place their faith in the online generation, in that they offered a version of the PlayStation 5 without the disc drive and slashed the price by £90. To be clear, Sony’s cheaper offering was the same console merely without the disc drive.
Microsoft, however, had the Xbox Series S which also went with the no disc drive approach but expanded it, releasing it with lesser specs and lesser graphical capabilities than the Series X. However, Microsoft did have the benefit of a much cheaper price point, with the difference between their two versions standing at £200.
Now Microsoft seemed to have stumbled upon a great idea, the price point was significant and did a lot to make it more accessible.
Microsoft’s big problem was… Baldur’s Gate 3?
The problem is, 2023 happened or to be more specific: Baldur’s Gate 3 arrived. This is the first thing that should come to mind whenever anyone reads about the PlayStation 5 Pro.
See, Microsoft had a stance whereby every game that was released for the Xbox Series X had to be the same in terms of gameplay options when on the Series S. Baldur’s Gate 3 prompted them to break that. The game was released three months later on the Xbox following an attempt to make split-screen co-op work on the Series S, but it couldn’t be done. So Microsoft went back on their word and Baldur’s Gate 3 on the two Xbox consoles now has a definitive difference.
Sony should have looked at that because it quietly vindicated their approach: Microsoft’s current generation of Xbox is split whereby one side of it is significantly more problematic for developers than the other. Microsoft does have a strong preference for gameplay options to be the same on both Series X and S, this wasn’t the ideal scenario.
This means Sony should have realised that for developers the perks of the Series X are fairly redundant when they’re operating under the constraints of the S, which is also the better-selling console of the two. Sony didn’t split their generation in terms of specs, so there was no difference in quality or what the developers had to plan for when making a game for the PS5.
Their idea won, the PS5 has reportedly doubled the sales of the Xbox Series X/S. Keeping the differences simple and easier to assess from a potential buyer’s perspective and making it more straightforward for developers has paid off.
To revisit the question: after all that, why the PS5 Pro?
So, with that mountain of context out of the way, I again pose the question: why is Sony going to release what is ostensibly the PlayStation 5 Series X? What is the point? Developers will plan for the PS5, not the PS5 Pro. There will be benefits, but they will not be massively utilised.
It’s the prime reason consoles have generations: it makes a clear cut of what is available to do on the developer’s side of things and means they have a steady few years of working with the same equipment. The jumps in what can be achieved are infrequent but generally quite big, yet this keeps consumers in a position where they relax about not needing to worry about upgrading their tech for several years.
It might lead to haphazard advancement, but it also simplifies things a great deal.
Developers sure, will have a bit of fun with what new angles the different technology offers in a mid-generation hop forward, but they’re a business. Their baseline has to be what the majority have and are using, so they’ll specialise it towards the base level of the console: it’s the lesson Microsoft should have learned.
Yes, there is the PS4 Pro, but it strikes me as very odd that Sony would repeat the idea in a console generation that has indirectly argued so well against enhanced editions of consoles.
Time will tell how enthusiastically Sony goes on to pursue this, but after Covid and the significant delays that customers had in obtaining these consoles, this is a generation that feels younger than it is.
I don’t think anyone is in a particular rush to move on.
