Sony reveals PlayStation 5 'Pro': The mind-blowing price you'll have to pay for 'the most powerful console ever built'

After months of rumors, Sony has finally confirmed the upcoming release of a Playstation 5 Pro, which promises to be the powerhouse on the market. It will be available from November 7th.

Better graphics without losing fluidity and the contribution of AI: the Japanese group Sony announced this Tuesday, September 10, 2024, the global launch on November 7 of a more powerful version of its flagship Playstation console, the PS5 Pro.

This will be sold at a price of 800 euros – 250 euros more than the classic version. “This is the most powerful console we've ever built,”, said Mark Cerny, Sony's lead console architect since the PlayStation 4, during an online presentation.

He detailed the features of this new high-end version, which does not have a disc drive (which will be available for purchase separately), for nearly nine minutes.

The PS5 Pro promises to be 45% faster than the classic version, will have improved "ray-tracing" (rendering the trajectory of light rays, editor's note) and will use artificial intelligence to improve the graphics of games.

In a press release, Sony indicated that all PS5 games will be compatible with the Pro version, and some titles already released, like "Alan Wake 2", or upcoming, like "Assassin’s Creed : Shadows", will be able to take advantage of these new features.

While it is common for gamers, with the latest generations of consoles, to have to choose between a game mode with the best graphics, to the detriment of fluidity, or another more stable but less detailed one, Mark Cerny affirms that they “will no longer have to decide between the two” thanks to this new version.

Power…

"The more powerful consoles, called "pro", are supposed to fill the gap between the simplicity of console games and the ability to continuously improve the performance of PC games", American journalist Stephen Totilo, founder of the specialist site Game File, told AFP on Tuesday.

For Sony, this new version is intended in particular to revitalize the Playstation branch, which announced at the end of February the elimination of 900 jobs, or 8% of its global workforce.

Released in November 2020, the PlayStation 5 has sold more than 56 million units as of April 30, 2024, according to Sony figures.

“As we enter the second half of the life cycle of (this) console, we expect PS5 sales to gradually decline”, the group admitted in May, forecasting to sell 18 million for its 2024/2025 financial year – or 3 million less than in its previous financial year.

… vs price

But, as Daniel Ahmad, an analyst at Niko Partners, pointed out in a message posted on X before Tuesday's announcement, “the PS4 Pro represented less than 15% of sales” of the PS4, which has sold more than 117 million units worldwide in nearly 10 years.

“What will really drive sales of the PS5 is a lower price on base models (and games like GTA6)”, which is due out in fall 2025, he added.

A strategy that seems to have been adopted by the American giant Microsoft, its direct competitor, which is looking for a second wind after several strategic changes in recent months, notably by returning to the exclusivity of certain titles on its consoles.

It will offer this fall an Xbox Series X, the most powerful of its machines, without a disc drive. It will be sold for 50 euros less than the classic version.

“Being cheaper without reducing power may not be as exciting, but it is a reasonable approach”, believes Stephen Totilo, who points out that this is the first generation of consoles (PS5 and Xbox Series) whose price has not dropped in 4 years, and which has even increased in some regions.

For several months, many rumors have been circulating about this high-end version of the Playstation 5. Sony let the cat out of the bag in early September by publishing a promotional image for the 30 years of its first console, in which the outlines of an unknown machine appeared in the background, very quickly identified as the future PS5 Pro.