I love myPlayStation 5, but I have no need for a PS5 Pro. ThePS5 Pro was revealedin a technical showcase this week, announcing an underwheming set of specs, and aprice worth revolting against. My response, though, was little more than a shrug of the shoulders.
The PS5 Pro has nothing to offer me;every new thing I learn about it only further cements my conviction that I don’t need it. I may just be one player, but I suspect I’m not alone.
I Don’t Need To Spend Hours In A Virtual Queue For A PS5 Pro
The Pains Of Console Pre-Ordering
I snagged a PS5 pretty early in its shelf life - sometime in June 2021. I was one of the lucky few at that point, since, between a global chip shortage and a rampant scalping problem,it was functionally impossible to buy a PS5 until just recently. Those who did manage to get one had to either get excessively lucky when walking into a retail store, endlessly refresh Walmart or Amazon listings until they could add one to their cart, or wait for hours in virtual queues that didn’t always secure them a place in line once orders did open up.
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These difficulties, along with the PS5’s already exorbitant price, led to low sales in the earliest years of its release. As a result, many players opted to keep their PS4s, andit was only in the last couple of years that major releases (thinkBaldur’s Gate 3,Marvel’s Spider-Man 2) stopped releasing simultaneously on PS4, and went straight to PS5.
The chip shortage has definitively come to an end, but scalping is still a prevalent problem in almost every high-demand arena, from concert tickets to game consoles. If there really is a similar demand for the PS5 Pro,I don’t need to go through the same process again.
Once I got my hands on a PS5, I vowed never to put that much effort into buying a console again, and game developers and publishers have already made it clear they’ll support that decision. Althougha handful of games will be PS5 Pro Enhanced, the upgraded console doesn’t have any exclusive titles that I won’t be able to play otherwise, and probably won’t for the foreseeable future.The only unique thing the PS5 Pro offers, then, is better visuals and performance- and as it turns out, I may not be able to experience those anyway.
I Don’t Need The PS5 Pro’s 8K Display & Wi-Fi 7
8K Isn’t As Big A Deal As Sony Seems To Think
In the full technical reveal, it was made apparent thatthe PS5 Pro’s specs are almost identical to those of the base PS5. The only major component that’s different is the GPU, allowing the console to support “advanced ray tracing,” and display images at a resolution up to 8K.
That’s all well and good, but there’s one problem:I don’t own an 8K TV or monitor, and I don’t know anyone who does. Most of my friends still play games on 1080p TVs they’ve schlepped between three different apartments in the past decade. A select few are lucky enough to own 4K displays, which the current PS5 model is perfectly capable of achieving its maximum resolution on.
In a similar vein,the PS5 Pro also offers Wi-Fi 7 connectivity, which actually does represent a pretty huge jump in upload and download speeds. This means quicker game downloads and more reliable connection to online servers. I’ve never necessarily had a problem with the current PS5’s Wi-Fi connectivity, but this is one area in which I believe there’s always room for improvement. However, my basic, ISP-provided modem and router don’t do Wi-Fi 7, either - I consider myself lucky to have access to Wi-Fi 6.
So, if I wanted to take full advantage of the PS5 Pro’s new specs, I’d have to drop thousands of dollars on an 8K TV and WI-Fi 7-capable router. That’s something that I’m simply not willing to do, and I’m sure I’m not the only one. The overwhelming majority of the world doesn’t own an 8K TV, with 8K displays accounting for just 0.15% of all TV sales worldwide in 2021, according to market research byOmdia. And frankly,I’m not convinced that most people even know what Wi-Fi 7 is, let alone have a router capable of connecting to it.
I Don’t Need To Pay Extra To Play My Physical Games On PS5 Pro
The Console Comes Without A Disk Drive
So, remember when I said I was lucky enough to get a PS5 within the first year of its release? Funny story about that: a couple of days after placing my order, I got an email from the retailer. It was an apology, claiming they’d oversold the model I’d purchased (the disk-less Digital Edition) and were upgrading my purchase, at no additional cost, to the Disk Edition. At the time, I just kind of shrugged and chalked it up to good luck. But looking back on it now,I’m so grateful to have accidentally ended up with a Disk Edition, and for that reason, even less likely to buy a PS5 Pro.
In recent years, disk drives have gone from standard console features to optional add-ons. Both major consoles of the current generation - the Xbox Series X/S and the PS5 - come in at least two editions, one with a disk drive, and one without. The former is invariably more expensive. But in the age of streaming services suddenly deleting entire shows without warning, or games likePTdisappearing into the fog, ownership of digital goods has become uncertain. As a result,there’s been a resurgence of physical media, and I’ve been right in the middle of it.
PlayStation Still Isn’t Giving Me The PS5 Console I Want
The PlayStation 5 Pro is a big leap in tech, but it’s not a system that I actually want to buy, and an alternative could have been exciting.
The grand majority of PS5 games I buy are physical. I enjoy everything about my physical game collection: not just the ability to hold and display the games I love, but also the ability to buy and share games cheaply and easily. I frequently buy and sell used games, both online or at local stores, at a significant discount. I’ll also share games I’ve finished with friends and family, and vice versa.
I know not everyone has the same affinity (or storage space) for physical media as I do, but I know many do. The PS5 Pro, however, comes with a serious caveat for anyone with a physical game collection:it doesn’t have a disk drive at all. The only way to get a disk drive is to pay an additional $80 for an external one, but why would I do that when I already own a perfectly good PS5 with tons of physical games?
A $700 Console? In This Economy?
Of course, I’m just speaking for myself. I’m sure there’s someone out there with an 8K TV, Wi-Fi 7 access, and a disdain for physical media for whom the PS5 Pro is the perfect console. But I question how big a portion of the market consumers like that make up, andwhether it’s really worth releasing a PS5 Pro at this juncture.
Revamps like this one are meant to boost console sales during a mid-generational dip. But with the grand majority of players unable to use the most significant benefits of the PS5 Pro over the base model, and others forced to pay extra in order to play the games they already own, I’m just not convinced that the PS5 Prowill be the kick in the pants Sony’s console sales need. It might boost sales of the base model, if it becomes cheaper, but I and players like me have no need for thePlayStation 5 Pro.
PlayStation 5
The fifth flagship video game console from Sony Computer Entertainment, the PlayStation 5, is a part of the ninth generation of consoles. The console features full backwards compatibility with PlayStation 4 games and features a digital storefront that gives access to older generations. The console can output images at 4K resolution, with alternative options including 1440p at 120 frames per second for gameplay. This console is also known for implementing 3D audio, which allows headphones to be connected to the console for simulated spatially accurate audio.
