The PS5 Pro will be the most powerful console ever and no one cares

A reader tries to understand why Sony is making a PS5 Pro and comes to the conclusion that it serves no useful purpose.

As I write this, Sony hasn’t announced the PS5 Pro but there doesn’t seem to be any doubt that it’s real and that the specs have already leaked. I guess it’s possible they could change them at the last minute, or it could get delayed if there’s problems with manufacturing, but everything points towards it being released this Christmas. The big question is… why?

To make money might seem the obvious answer but we’ve always been told hardware is not where the money is, and some consoles are even sold at a loss. Probably not this one, because the foundations are the same as the PlayStation 5, but not even Nintendo makes the majority of their money from console sales. So that can’t be the reason.

It’ll be more powerful, obviously, but from what I understand from the analysis it’s not a major leap from the standard PlayStation 5. In fact, it’ll probably be less of a leap than from PlayStation 4 to PS4 Pro, say the experts. Not only does that seem to make it pointless but there’s not any specific technical goal it’s aiming for, like 4K with the PS4 Pro. There’s some talk about 60fps and 8K, but none of it is promising either all the time, just under certain conditions.

Apparently ray-tracing will be better but that hardly seems reason to either make or buy a new console. Especially as there’s no game that particularly needs it. It’s not like God Of War or Horizon Forbidden West, or any of the other first party games, have any particular technical problems that they need more horsepower to fix. I can’t think of any third party games that have had any unusual problems with frame rate either – those does seem to be over for consoles.

Sony has already said it’s not releasing any new games this year, so unless they just flat out lied about that, that can’t be what the PS5 Pro is for. And besides, it doesn’t look very good to announce a new game and then turn around and say it won’t work properly unless you buy this new console. No matter how well the PS5 Pro sells, it’ll still only be a small part of the PlayStation 5 userbase, just as was the case with the PS4 Pro.

There has been some talk that it’s meant to be for Grand Theft Auto 6, which will have difficultly running at high resolution/frame rate on the current consoles. That I can well believe. I can see Sony making a deal with Rockstar for a hardware bundle and tying up some kind of marketing deal for the pair. But is that it?

Is the PS5 Pro really just so people can run one game, that everyone was going to buy anyway, slightly better? It’s the only thing close to an explanation that makes sense, other than the idea that Sony has just lot the plot, which, to be honest, is just as convincing.

No one needs the PS5 Pro, no one wants the PS5 Pro, and no one can afford the PS5 Pro, but still Sony is going to blunder on with it regardless. It’s like fiddling while Rome burns. Sony has no games but they’re going to end up with three console models in four years, plus the PlayStation VR2 and PlayStation Portal. Where’s the sense in that?

The most powerful console in the world is going to be released this year and I don’t think anyone is going to care. It’s certainly not needed, in fact the enormous cost involved is exactly what most people would like to avoid.

It feels like the wheels have come off the games industry this year and nobody knows what they’re doing anymore, Sony especially.

By reader Stanton