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Do you know that Sony is releasing a new PlayStation console in just 23 days? While the PS4 Pro isn’t the start of a new generation, it is a console with substantially improved horsepower. It’s a brand new concept for console gaming, in that mid-way through the PS4 generation we’re getting an upgrade. We’ve had new revisions of consoles before with the slims and the Elites etc., but never anything like this. It should be an exciting time as we await the PS4 Pro’s arrival, but Sony’s barely saying anything about it and neither is the gaming community. What’s going on?
Sony revealed the PS4 Pro on September 7 at a low-key conference in New York. The entire event felt more like a seminar than a product launch (or an induction into the Cult of Mark Cerny), yet one that lacked the kind of deep dive info the hardcore were craving. It was a conference that glossed over so much, despite having an audience eagerly waiting to lap up the finer details. That fleeting glimpse was over a month ago, yet Sony has said very little since. The company did have to hype up the launch for the PlayStation VR headset last week, but the lack of excitement building for the Pro is still rather baffling, especially as the PS4 Pro is said to bring improvements to VR gaming too.
Perhaps this is all going to be rolled out in the next couple of weeks, but where are the slick Sony-produced videos selling the extra graphical grunt the PS4 Pro will provide? With so many questions still hanging in the air like those dripping inner-city flower baskets, simple and clear comparison videos would do wonders. Pick a selection of the top games (FIFA 17, Battlefield 1, Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, Skyrim Remastered, Fallout 4, Uncharted 4) and show back-to-back footage of the game running on a standard PS4 versus the Pro. All Sony needs to do is show a mixture of 1080p enhancements and high-quality 4K footage. It isn’t rocket science.
I’ve already preordered a PS4 Pro, but most people I’ve spoken to outside of my gaming journo friends circle (it’s a massive circle because I’m very popular) simply don’t get what the Pro offers over a normal PS4. In truth, I struggle to sell it to them because we’ve seen so little of the new machine and the games running on it.
“It will run the same games as the PS4, but they’ll look better,” I start. “They’ll also be in 4K, but maybe not proper 4K, and when in 4K they probably won’t have any extra graphical bells and whistles,” I continue, trying to sound a bit balanced. “I don’t have a 4K TV so I’m hoping they’ll add the bells and whistles to 1080p games. We haven’t really seen much of that, though,” I conclude, sort of making myself wonder why I preordered one in the first place, and why the console exists at all. “I am buying one because games are my thing,” I sheepishly add, probably coming across as a bit desperate to seem normal, and failing.
Aside from Rise of the Tomb Raider, Paragon, and Shadow of Mordor, I genuinely have no clue what either new or old games will look like on a PS4 Pro on my 1080p TV – and Tomb Raider hasn’t even been shown in 1080p bells and whistles mode, just talked about. And I’m not buying a 4K TV this year (it feels like a bad time to buy the tech considering the standards aren’t all set in stone yet and some models simply aren’t up to par). So why am I buying this console?
I don’t expect Sony to go all out with the PS4 Pro as it would if it were launching PS5, but I expected more than what we’ve seen so far. I am excited, but I want others to be excited too. And ideally I’d like to have a proper reason to be. At the moment I feel Sony’s lucky it’s able to ride the goodwill generated from the PS4 – as it’s about to release a console that it’s doing nothing to sell.
As the PS4 Pro stands, Sony is expecting its audience to hand over £350 without really knowing what they’re getting.
Pre-order the PS4 Pro now from Amazon(?)
