After more than a year of rumors, Sony finally officially unveiled the PlayStation 5 Pro on Wednesday. Here’s what it looks like and what it can do for a hefty price tag of $US700. And that’s without a disc drive.
Showcased in a 9-minute technical presentation by system architect Mark Cerny, the PS5 Pro boasts better performance, faster speeds, and increased game storage. The GPU is bigger and AI-driven upscaling boosts the effective resolution of games even at higher framerates. Better ray-tracing is also a big push in the new machine. While existing games will need updates to take advantage of some of these features, more basic performance boosts will apply to thousands of existing PS4 and PS5 games. The pricey upgrade launches on November 7, 2024.
It arrives four years into the current console cycle and at a time when some new games are struggling to hit higher framerates even with compromised resolutions. Cerny said that on the current console, players choose to forgo higher graphical detail and play at higher framerates 75 percent of the time. The PS5 Pro aims to smooth over those challenges with beefier specs that let games play at 60fps while looking like the fidelity modes on the existing hardware.
Rumors of the PS5 Pro, codenamed “Project Trinity,” began spreading last year. With the promise of a new console on the way, it was easy to start putting together a wishlist of new features, from games running at 60fps in 4K to a redesigned exterior that looked more refined and subtle than the launch model’s air hangar-like fins.
More recently, reports indicated that the PS5 Pro was going to be more of a straightforward upgrade of the machine’s guts than a complete form factor overhaul. Sketches of the new design even leaked earlier this month, indicating it wouldn’t deviate too much from the current version, just with some ridges in the middle.
The new hardware comes at an interesting time for Sony more generally, however. Fans have been on a complete roller coaster ride, from the live-service rut around Concord to the GOTY highs around Astro Bot, and there are lots of questions about what Sony has coming in the second half of the PS5’s lifespan. Even as hardware variations and accessories continue to proliferate, the company has been mostly quiet on what its big first-party studios are up to.
A new State of Play showcase rumored for later this month might provide a clue or two.
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