Sony PS5 Pro: Baffling Decisions Abound

Sony just announced the PS5 Pro, which shouldn’t surprise anyone who’s been expecting a step-up version of the PlayStation 5 for a few years now. It’s bigger, faster, and more advanced than the PS5 in nearly every way, but it’s not a PlayStation 6.

The PlayStation 5 Pro, which arrives on Nov. 7, is certainly a choice. You can see the logic from a certain perspective, but many decisions are completely baffling.

It’s reminiscent of experimental movie Skinamarink, which made questionable choices for an hour and 40 minutes. It used an intentionally skewed camera that rarely focused on anything, while dark and awkward lighting further disoriented the viewer. It produced an uncomfortable, dream-like horror flick that was difficult to watch, even if I generally respect when artists fully pursue their vision and disregard accessibility.

The PS5 Pro isn’t a great artistic endeavor, but it’s still ambitious and made with just as many choices as Skinamarink. This is a game console loaded with power. Its GPU is 45% faster than the current PS5, and has more advanced ray tracing tech (plus AI-powered PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution upscaling). It also has double the storage with a 2TB SSD. It has Wi-Fi 7, too, if you have a bleeding-edge router. Better graphics, higher frame rates, and a larger storage capacity sound like a great pitch for a new console, even if it isn’t a generational leap.

But then there are Sony’s choices. To start, it’s $700 ($840 in Japan at the current conversion rate). That’s absurdly high for any game console. Two console generations ago, Sony’s $600 PlayStation 3 was considered a huge blunder, even with a $500 base model. The PS5 Pro has no lower-cost option; it’s $700 flat.

It also lacks an optical drive, so it can’t play discs out of the box. The add-on Disk Drive module costs an additional $80. Like many gamers, my library is primarily digital, but I still have a cache of physical media, including PS5 games. I also have PS4 games and many DVDs, Blu-rays, and Ultra HD Blu-rays I can play on my PS5.

PS5 Pro, PS5, and a DualSense controller (Credit: Sony Interactive Entertainment)

Why Did Sony Take the PlayStation 5 Pro in This Direction?

I understand Sony’s perspective. The more powerful PS5 Pro is almost certainly more expensive to build, so a higher price makes sense for turning a profit. Many gamers have moved on to all-digital game libraries, and many retailers have begun pulling back on (or completely phasing out) selling physical games. I get it.

But these are choices that make the PS5 Pro less accessible to many people. It’s $200 more expensive than the regular PS5 with a disc drive, and that price and usability difference are going to be deal breakers for many people. The extra power isn’t going to be worth it for all but the most hardcore enthusiasts, either; the PS5 is still a great console even this far in its life cycle. The new console’s advantages, such as higher frame rates and better ray tracing, are benefits that will primarily appeal to PC gamers. That audience is willing to shell out a lot more money for gaming hardware than console gamers, but they also want more customization, flexibility, and hands-on control than Sony would ever allow in a game console.

The PlayStation Portal, another Choice. (Credit: Sony Interactive Entertainment)

Let’s Not Forget About the PlayStation Portal

This isn’t the first time Sony has made a baffling PlayStation decision. The PlayStation Portal is a not-quite-portable gaming tablet that effectively serves as a local remote terminal to play PS5 games at home while keeping the TV free. It makes sense on one level. There’s a lot of love for Sony’s portable game systems and the PlayStation Remote Play feature. On the other hand, the bulky PlayStation Portal costs $200 (as much as the Nintendo Switch Lite) and can’t do anything outside the range of your PS5. So it was definitely a Choice (but not an Editors’ Choice, which is very different), much like the upcoming PS5 Pro.

So, the $700 disc-less PS5 Pro is soon upon us. The PS5 Pro was clearly made with a specific audience in mind. It just isn’t clear how big that particular audience is or how much adjacent groups who like the general category the PS5 Pro represents will be turned off by the choices made for that audience—you know, like Skinamarink.

About Will Greenwald

Lead Analyst, Consumer Electronics

I’ve been PCMag’s home entertainment expert for over 10 years, covering both TVs and everything you might want to connect to them. I’ve reviewed more than a thousand different consumer electronics products including headphones, speakers, TVs, and every major game system and VR headset of the last decade. I’m an ISF-certified TV calibrator and a THX-certified home theater professional, and I’m here to help you understand 4K, HDR, Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos, and even 8K (and to reassure you that you don’t need to worry about 8K at all for at least a few more years).

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