Sony‘s PlayStation 5 Pro is retailing for a whopping £699.99, and the company has just defended the steep price tag.
In an interview with IGN, PlayStation senior principal project manager Toshi Aoki said, “it’s more of a full package that will give that exceptional value to the players.” He also added that this mid-gen upgrade is only targeting “the most engaged players.”
The PS5 Pro is touted as offering higher graphical fidelity than the standard PS5. It’s got a more powerful GPU, AI upscaling, and more internal storage, although the CPU remains unchanged.
The “full package” that Aoki spoke about is, “Well, the technologies that I just mentioned that we are putting in to deliver new experiences for game players, and also not just the technological differences, but the SSD, the Wi-Fi 7, and the new technologies that surround the gameplay as well.”
For many fans, it’s hard to spot the differences between games running on a PS5 and Pro. “It’s hard to message that out with just the video clips, I think,” Aoki said. “A lot of players are seeing it on small screens or on phones…how we can showcase interactive entertainment to the players through these devices is a challenge that we all have faced.”
Even with the graphical enhancements, players buying a PS5 Pro will have to buy a disc drive seperately, as it doesn’t come with one, meaning the overall price will be even higher if you want to enjoy your physical game collection on the new machine.
Also, most PlayStation owners won’t also have 8K TVs, so the most high-calibre graphics won’t actually be achievable for most people unless they upgrade their home setup, too.
In other news, The Office is gettign a VR game, The Office World. It will allow people to play mini-games based on the American sitcom.