Forget PS5 Pro – Worry about PlayStation 6

The PlayStation 5 Pro was officially announced. It’ll allow you to have fidelity graphics at 60fps. And it’s a… er… steal at $700. And if you think that’s bad, wait until the PlayStation 6 gets announced.

The new pro console boasts the ability to play your games with higher quality visuals while retaining the 60fps. Three quarters of people are choosing performance modes over fidelity. I will save the obvious observation that people picking framerate over graphics at a time when graphics are costing so much to make is a Christmas gift come early for another article. Take the win, Sony – invest in something that’s not visuals.

Instead, let’s focus on that price. I won’t be alone as it’s easily the headline figure in all of this. The console itself isn’t that impressive. It doesn’t have a disc drive. If the PS4 Pro was niche – and it was – the PS5 Pro offers even less reason to upgrade. Its predecessor offered a jump to 4K. There is no such leap in tech to accommodate for here, and it shows in the marketing.

People will buy it if they want to, and all the more power to them. If playing with relatively higher visuals while retaining a decent 60fps is $700 worth of important to you, this is a win. Spend the money on a PC for an even better experience, although I suspect the Grand Theft Auto 6 of it all will be the real selling point here. That’s not coming to PC, but it’ll sure as hell be coming to PlayStation 5 Pro.

For people like me, for whom this new console was only ever going to be academic, this should be very worrying. It gives a rather worrying look at what might come next.

The Cost of Playing Pro

Way back at the beginning of this generation, a rarely talked about tech talk gave a hint at the future.

At Hotchips 2020, Microsoft spoke about the issue with costs. Chip prices were high, and they were unlikely to come down. That was why the Series S exists. Families who usually jump on the bandwagon at the end of a generation when consoles get heavily discounted would have no chance to do it.

The situation hasn’t changed significantly in the last four years. The price of consoles has gone up since launch. Gamers are still expected to pay a premium to get the latest consoles. The next generation consoles are unlikely to buck this trend. They will cost what they cost. A $700 console is a sign of things to come.

There are a couple of things for the wallet conscious to hold onto between now and the official reveals of the PlayStation 6 and the Series X2. The first is the most obvious: console manufacturers have soaked up the cost of consoles in the past. They understand that the more people who buy their consoles, the more money they can make elsewhere. This isn’t a day one deal. There are digital sales and peripherals to hawk.

With console sales stagnating and costs going up, I wonder if this is something they will still be willing to do to any great extent. I suspect they’re not willing, but may have to do it anyway. A $800 console is dead on arrival.

The other hope is that Microsoft at least seems to be switching to ARM. This alternative processor architecture is cheaper than the x86 the consoles currently run on.  This would – hopefully – cut the costs to the consumer as well as to the manufacturer. The rumours all seem to be pointing this way, but is it wishful thinking? With a $700 Pro console about to hit the market and no sign that things will get any cheaper, wishful thinking is too right. Here’s hoping the wish comes true.