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The PlayStation 5 Pro release date is now upon us, bringing Sony’s mid-gen refresh to gamers with the cash to spare. While the exorbitantly-priced console isn’t for me, the last week of PS5 Pro Enhanced reveals have certainly been tempting.
With enhancements coming to every game from Black Ops 6 to Silent Hill 2 Remake, the support for Sony’s new Pro machine is sizable and some results are very impressive. All of this leads to one question: why is Sony so bad at marketing its own products?
The best PS5 Pro marketing isn’t by Sony
The PS5 Pro reveal was a horrible event. The 9-minute YouTube video featured the soft-spoken PS5 system architect Mark Cerny show poorly encoded comparison shots of last-generation games like The Last of Us 2 and Horizon Forbidden West running slightly better on the new machine.
Furthermore, the PS5 Pro reveal only highlighted GPU improvements. There were talks of improved resolutions that many gamers couldn’t see on their 7-inch iPhones and better ray-tracing, but with no footage to show that off.
In the month since, game developers actually using the new hardware have shown noticeable improvements to their games. Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth has seen a huge benefit thanks to the implementation of PSSR, an upscaling feature only possible on the new machine, and Alan Wake 2 now benefits from gorgeous ray-traced reflections.
This doesn’t make the PS5 Pro a done deal, there’s no real reason to jump out and buy the new machine. There’s no sweeping performance differences at the moment, there’s no killer features, but there are some reasons.
Is the PS5 Pro worth it?
As with any product, the worth of the PlayStation 5 Pro is on the individual consumer, but at a massive $700 pricepoint, the PS5 Pro is a tall ask. At that point, you could get a slightly worse PC, but then you’d also have to start your digital library from scratch, something most consumers do not want to do.
At the time of writing, the true worth of the PS5 Pro has yet to be determined, even with 8K Gran Turismo gameplay on the line. However, it is evident that the new PlayStation console has a lot more to offer than Sony itself was peddling, and it’s a sign of the return of PlayStation arrogance that we haven’t seen since the hilarious, wet-fart reveal of the PS3 in 2005.
Just like with PS Vita and PSVR 2, Sony is its own worst mouthpiece, joining Xbox as a brand thoroughly unsure how to market its own products. The real answer is to follow Nintendo, just show players what they’re getting and maybe they’ll buy in.
The PS5 Pro is available right now at a host of major retailers. While the PS5 Disc Drives are sold out everywhere, the Pro is not.
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