Sony's $700 PS5 Pro is for superfans – it won’t really grow PlayStation’s playerbase

Sony just announced its worst-kept secret, the PS5 Pro. It's launching for $700 in November 2024, four years after the debut of the original PS5.  

Compared to the original, PS5 Pro will offer better visuals and performance:

• Larger GPU with more speed: Sony says the PS5 Pro’s GPU will render 45% faster than the current model, with substantial improvements to ray tracing (three times better in some cases), a favourite of graphics aficionados
• CPU improvements: An “enhanced mode” will allow for more CPU power. While the boost is not enough to make all games run at a smooth 60 frames per second (the de-facto gold standard), it will be enough to ensure a smooth 30
• Machine learning: AI is the tech world’s biggest buzzword, and the PS5 Pro will use the tech in its PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution Upscaling (PSSR) to improve resolution
• Larger storage: The 2TB SSD is an improvement on the original’s 825GB
• No disc drive: The console is digital only but will work with the PlayStation 5’s sold-separately disc drive. PlayStation is marching consumers even further towards gaming’s all-digital future

These new mostly visual improvements will cost consumers $700, a big ask in today's macroeconomic environment (and $250 more than the base all-digital model). Still, superfans will buy this premium product, which is still cheaper than a high-end PC GPU.

PlayStation's most engaged users are happy to fork out extra to complement their core PS5 experience, as shown by the success of the DualSense Edge and PlayStation Portal peripherals (which cost $200 each). What's more, improved visuals are important for console players, with 40% saying graphics are a motivator for playing new games (MIDiA Consumer Research Q2 2023).

Yet, the PS5 Pro might not convince many consumers to buy a PS5 if they haven’t already. Instead, the Pro allows PlayStation superfans to get the most out of their current and future games.

According to a huge Insomniac Games leak, the PS4 Pro sold around 15 million units, and PlayStation’s former CEO Jim Ryan said that almost 20% of PS4s sold were the Pro model. However, signs point to the situation being different this time around.

The PS5 Pro lacks a value proposition for non-diehards

PlayStation’s previous half-step console, the PS4 Pro, launched just three years after the original. However, the PS4 Pro solved a problem in the market (4K and HDR support), and that market has changed a lot:

• 4K was a powerful unique value prospect: While both half-step consoles boast better visuals, the PS4 Pro offered native 4K resolution when many general consumers were upgrading to 4K TVs with HDR. The PS5 Pro does not have such a proposition
• Graphics is a pain point for current PS5 owners: The PS5 Pro launch presentation underlined the consumer pain point of choosing between fidelity mode (better graphics, resolution, and raytracing) and performance mode (higher frame rates). The announcement mentioned 75% of PS5 players go for performance
• PS5s were heavily supply-constrained: The semiconductor chip shortage and a spike in gaming during COVID meant the PS5 was hard to find even three years after lauunch. Cross-generation games have also been prevalent. So the base PS5 still feels new for some consumers (despite being four years old)

Most of the people picking up a PS5 Pro will likely be doing so as a replacement for their original PS5s.

How will the PS5 Pro impact the console market?

While the PS5 Pro will mostly entice current PS5 owners, there will be some upgraders from last generation.

In Sony’s 2024 Business Segment Meeting, it announced that half of all monthly active PlayStation users were on the PS4. This means that some 50 million players have yet to upgrade. Some of these users might be tempted to enter the latest console generation at the PS5 Pro, but they would need a reason to do so.

Sony would be shrewd to market the console as “the best way to play Grand Theft Auto 6”, ahead of GTA 6’s culture-shaking launch.

A PS5 Pro bundled with GTA 6 would work even better. Sony released special-branded PS4 Pros for first-party games (Spider-Man) and third-party ones (Monster Hunter), so we expect a similar strategy for the PS5 Pro.  

What’s more, third-party games, including the imminent Assassin’s Creed Shadows, Monster Hunter Wilds, and GTA 6 are now launching new-generation only. The success of the new-gen only EA Sports CollegeFootball 25 has shown just how powerful new-gen games are in getting consumers to upgrade. 

There are reasons for last-generation holdouts to upgrade, and they might land on the slightly more expensive PS5 Pro (the base model will not get a price cut).

After all, PlayStation itself has only just started releasing its first-party games on new-gen only. Spider-Man 2 was the first massive budget first-party game to not launch on PS4. Horizon Forbidden West and God of War Ragnarök were also on PS4, while the PS5-only Ratchet & Clank Rift Apart and Returnal were more niche games (that are now also on PC).

Other ways the PS5 Pro will make an impact:

• An influx of PS5s hitting the reseller market: Many people who upgrade to the PS5 Pro will sell or trade-in their old PS5s. This will increase the supply of second-hand base PS5s. In the past, this has driven down prices, perhaps ushing in a more affordable route to the PS5
• A leg up on the competition: PlayStation will now be able to market its PS5 Pro as the most powerful console in the world – until Xbox releases its next console. This is a marketing strategy Sony used for the PS4 Pro in 2016, which Xbox also used for its Xbox One X in 2017
• A chance to remarket older games: During PS4 Pro’s launch, Sony optimised over 30 games for the then-new console. This gave developers like Guerrilla Games, Naughty Dog, and Wargaming, a chance to shine the spotlight on enhanced versions of their games. The launch announcement already marketed Hogwarts Legacy, Spider-Man 2, Horizon Forbidden West, and others.
• More engagement with PS Plus multi-game subscriptions: Unlike during the PS4 Pro launch, PlayStation Plus now has a multi-game content library. It is safe to assume that many games in the service will be optimised for PS5 Pro. Pro buyers will be excited to put their new machine to the test using their owned and subscribed libraries. PlayStation might underline this
• The push further towards digital: An advantage of physical games is the reseller market, where platform holders get zero revenue. The inevitable shift towards all-digital consoles, where platform holders control prices and maximise revenues, continues  

All in all, we expect that the PS5 Pro will have a direct positive impact on hardware sales and will also trickle into software spending. However, the impact will be relatively small overall, and the Pro won’t lead to much user acquisition for PlayStation. It will keep those ever-valuable power users more engaged, though, and offers a small window into Sony's technical headspace ahead of the PlayStation 6 generation.