By Zachary Bayers
Within the gaming community, there’s a buzz about a new announcement that’s received some push-back. For those uninformed, Sony has recently revealed the Playstation 5 Pro, an upgraded version of the original console. Many fans were intrigued; however, many were deterred once the price tag was revealed: a whopping $699.99 USD. Such an outrageous amount, especially compared to the original’s $499.99 USD price, creates a difficult decision for consumers on whether it’s worth it to obtain such a product in exchange for abusing your wallet. So, what does the “Pro” bring?
A technical presentation was displayed to review what improvements they’re advertising. Starting off with the GPU, it has 67% more compute units and 28% faster memory, which means that games will load smoother/faster in comparison to its predecessor. Also, newly introduced AI upscaling will create sharper resolution and adjust frames to look the freshest possible. The Pro will also come with a backlog of the PS4 library spanning over 8,500 games with upgraded visuals. The storage is also amassing around two TB (terabytes)! More than double the amount of the PS5’s 825 GB (gigabyte) storage, meaning installing and storing more games within the Playstation 5 Pro. There’s even a more advanced ray tracing added!
These enhancements sound great, however there are flaws and underlying issues that accompany such changes. First, with the Pro’s new sleek design, it will permanently be disc-less. That means to have a disc drive, you’d need to buy a separate product on top of the $699.99 USD just to play games on discs or use Blu-Ray. Not only that, but the whole point of a console is to play exclusive games that complement the device. An issue amongst the Sony community is the lack of games that have been released with the console, especially when remakes and/or ports are out of the equation. What’s the point of buying a PS5 if there’s barely any games, let alone a more expensive version? Better graphics, yes, but those qualities can’t be displayed if there’s a lack of original games on the console.
Another problem I’ve noticed is the trend of consoles releasing an “upgraded” version of themselves within the middle of its lifecycle. Within a world where technology is rapidly improving in quality, on paper releasing something like a PS5 Pro or Switch OLED sounds like a great idea. But with issues of a lack of upgrades or extreme price points, I worry that the future of gaming will spiral into greedier territory.
