PS5 Pro is hard to swallow – the potential of the current console generation remains untapped

When there's so much untapped potential left in the existing PS5 model, the Pro is bound to be a hard sell for most mainstream console players.

The prospect of a PS5 Pro still feels unnecessary due to the unfulfilled promise and potential of the consoles we already have.

Last month, architect of the PS5 (and ASMR professional), Mark Cerny, took to the web to finally lift the lid on PS5 Pro. Packing in a 2TB SSD, an upgraded GPU, and a new form of AI-driven upscaling known as PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (or ‘PSSR’ for short) all these additional features should have been music to the ears of console-playing diehards. Sadly, it was hard to celebrate these various benefits set to come on November 7, 2024 , due to arguably the most important factor of them all: price. At £699 / $699 / AU$1199 on day one, the PS5 Pro very much comes at a premium. And while I don’t doubt the souped-up console will be worth it for some, the truth is that those of us with a launch-model PS5 or a PS5 Slim have still been left waiting for this current console to truly begin anyway.

Initially this generation got off to a promising start. Back when the PS5 launched in 2020, players who picked up Sony’s new console at launch had a small handful of exclusives to dive into – namely Demon’s Souls, Marvel’s Spider-Man: Remastered, Godfall (remember that?), and arguably the best pack-in title of all time, Astro’s Playroom. It wasn’t a big selection of launch titles, true, but they were eclectic and exciting, spanning everything from gothic remakes of old-school PS3 classics to one of the most creative platformers ever. Since then, both PlayStation and Xbox platforms have struggled to maintain the first-party release schedule of past console generations, seeing the sudden gush of exclusives steadily transform into a slow drip.

I say this as someone who is obviously a huge fan of first-party PlayStation games in particular; the kind of player who enjoyed the feast of having three Uncharted games launch on PS3. It’s been a slow realisation to learn that we no longer live in that world anymore. Instead, the world we live is one where remakes and remasters of prior titles have become a huge crutch for most AAA publishers, we’re now lucky to get one truly new first-party release a year, and 2017’s Horizon Zero Dawn is seemingly deserving enough to get two remakes within two weeks of one another. Yes, you read that correctly. AAA development costs have soared so high that release schedules have had to slow down to keep up, resulting in platforms that haven’t been serviced as well as years past.

Rather than focus on making the console it already has the best, most exciting place to play, PlayStation – and likely, soon-to-be Xbox – will plough on to release ‘Pro’ versions of them. In the long-term I fail to see how this will improve the current state of video game releases, especially by way of first-party. Sure, textures might appear less blurry in The Last of Us Part 1 or Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart than they did previously; they might load better. But the truth is that most of these improvements will largely be incremental and secondary to more crucial game design aspects such as narrative, gameplay, and art design.

The state of play

It's certainly true that the PS5 Pro’s proposed enhancements can only assist in the betterment of these various factors. I myself am appreciative of what the new PSSR is set to offer, as someone who regularly finds myself playing at 60fps in the Performance mode of most PS5 games, as opposed to 4K fidelity running at 30fps. Through AI-upscaling, PSSR promises to blur these lines somewhat, offering a form of 4K visuals running at 60fps in each one of the so-called ‘PS5 Pro enhanced’ titles. Problem is, this was an issue I hoped would have been solved at the start of the PS5 console generation, particularly since the Performance/Fidelity mode divide has been around since the days of PS4 Pro – heck, the PS5 launch console boasts proudly boasted 8K support.

Examples like this simply reek of untapped potential from both the PS5 and Xbox Series X|S generation as it currently stands. This makes it a shame that such improvements will now be reserved not for those who have already invested into the current-gen console ecosystem, but a small subset of players willing to invest more money into upgrading to a premium product. Again, none of the improvements the PS5 Pro promises is necessarily the issue; it’s more so the price Sony is charging to let players enjoy them, a fact that further isn’t helped by the PS5 Pro’s absence of a disc drive (one that must be purchased for additional fees separately).

There’s no doubt that making video games on a AAA scale is getting harder, taking longer, and requiring more effort – hence why first-party exclusives are so few and far between these days. But it doesn’t change the fact that, had the list of true console exclusives been made a lot healthier on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, the sudden prospect of a Pro would have been a lot easier to take. And yet, upon going live last week, PS5 Pro pre-orders seemingly continued to fly off the shelves after going live on PlayStation’s own website, indicating that there is in fact a base of players thirsting for the upgrade’s incremental improvements. Had the PS5 Pro been pitched lower I may have even considered it myself, but alas the changes the console offers aren’t worth the £699 price tag to me.

Fortunately, there is hope on the horizon. Just last week, courtesy of the most recent State of Play, Sucker Punch Productions at long last broke cover to unveil its Ghost of Tsushima sequel, Ghost of Yotei. This, combined with the launch of Indiana Jones and The Great Circle on Xbox later this November, ensures that players on all platforms won’t be lacking for something to play late this year and then early into the next. And while it’s disappointing that said games will only look truly their best on the PS5 Pro (as opposed to the launch units they were intended for) here’s hoping that this starts off a wave the current generation of consoles can build off for the next four years or more. Of course, PlayStation can make all this better my making a new InFamous or Resistance game. Just saying!