I love mine PlayStation 5But I don’t need a PS5 Pro. The PS5 Pro was revealed at a technical showcase this week, announcing an underwhelming set of specs and a price worth revolting against. My response, however, was little more than a shrug.
The PS5 Pro has nothing to offer me; Every new thing I learn about it only further cements my conviction that I do not need it. I may only 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 got a PS5 pretty early in its shelf life – sometime in June 2021. I was one of the lucky few at this point, since between a global chip shortage and a rampant scalping problem, It was functionally impossible to buy a PS5 until recently. Those who managed to get one had to be very lucky when they walked into a retail store, endlessly refreshing Walmart or Amazon listings until they could add one to their cart, or waiting for hours in virtual queues that didn’t always secure them. Get in line once the orders have opened.
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These difficulties, together with the already exorbitant price of the PS5, led to low sales in the earliest years of its release. As a result, many players have decided to keep their PS4s, and It’s only been in the last couple of years that major releases (think Baldur’s Gate 3, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2) stopped releasing simultaneously on PS4And 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 have to go through the same process again.
Once I got my hands on a PS5, I vowed never to put so much effort into buying a console again, and game developers and publishers have already made it clear that they will support this decision. While a handful of games will be PS5 Pro Enhanced, the upgraded console has no exclusive titles that I won’t be able to play otherwise, and probably won’t for the foreseeable future. The only unique thing that the PS5 Pro offers is better visuals and performance – And as it turns out, I can not be able to experience these anyway.
I don’t need the PS5 Pro 8K Display & Wi-Fi 7
8K isn’t as big as Sony seems to think
In the full technical reveal, it was clear that The specs of the PS5 Pro are almost identical to those of the base PS5. The only major component that is different is the GPU, allowing the console to support “Advanced beam tracingng,” and display images in a resolution up to 8K.
This is all well and good, but there is one problem: I do not own an 8k TV or monitorAnd I don’t know who it is. Most of my friends still play games on 1080p TVs they’ve slept between three different apartments over the past decade. A select few are lucky enough to own 4K displays, which the current PS5 model is perfectly capable of reaching its maximum resolution.
in a similar way, The PS5 Pro also offers Wi-Fi 7 connectivityWhich actually represents 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 where 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.
If I wanted to take advantage of the PS5 Pro’s new specs, I’d have to drop thousands of dollars on an 8K TV and Wi-Fi 7 router. This is something I’m just not ready to do, and I’m sure I’m not the only one. The overwhelming majority of the world does not own an 8K TV, with 8K displays accounting for just 0.15% of all TV sales worldwide in 2021, according to market research by Undead. and true, I’m not convinced most people even know what Wi-Fi 7 is, let alone have a router capable of connecting to it.
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 this: A couple of days after placing my order, I get an email from the retailer. It was an apology, claiming they had oversold the model I bought (the disc-less digital edition) and upgrading my purchase, at no additional cost, to the disc edition. At the time, I just kind of shrugged and chalked it up to good luck. But now looking at it, I am so grateful to have accidentally ended up with a disc editionAnd for that reason, even less likely to buy a PS5 Pro.
In recent years, disc drives have gone from standard console features to optional add-ons. Both of the main consoles of the current generation – the Xbox Series X / S and the PS5 – come in at least two editions, one with a disc drive and one without. The former is always more expensive. But in the age of streaming services suddenly delete entire shows without warning, or games like PT Disappearing into the fog, ownership of digital goods has become uncertain. As a result, There was a resurgence of physical mediaAnd I was immediately in the middle.
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The vast majority of PS5 games I buy are physical. I enjoy everything about my physical game collection: not only the ability to hold and display the games I love, but also the ability to buy and share games cheaply and easily. I often buy and sell used games, both online or in 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 does not have a disk drive at all. The only way to get a disc drive is to pay another $80 for an external one, but why would I do that when I already own a perfectly good PS5 with tons of physical games?
Does Sony even need the PS5 Pro?
A $700 console? In this economy?
Of course, I only speak for myself. I’m sure there’s someone 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 ask how big a part of the market consumers like that make themselves, and Is it really worth releasing a PS5 Pro at this point.
Revamps like this are meant to boost console sales during a mid-generational dip. But with the vast majority of players unable to take advantage of the PS5 Pro’s most significant benefits over the base model, and others forced to pay extra to play the games they already have, I’m not convinced that the PS5 Pro Will be the kick in the pants Sony’s console sales need. It might boost sales of the base model if it gets cheaper, but me and players like me don’t need those PlayStation 5 Pro.