What you need to know
- After a year of rumors, the PlayStation 5 Pro was finally confirmed, and it's going to cost $699.99 for the base version, which is all-digital.
- Buyers will need to pay extra for the disc drive and vertical stand, which are sold separately.
- The PS5 Pro will be available for sale on November 7, 2024.
- People have been making memes about the insanely high price point, but even the Xbox isn't safe.
Well, the PS5 Pro is real, and it's going to cost a real pretty penny, or shall we say a LOT of pennies. Coming in at an eye-watering $699.99 in the United States, £699.99 in the UK, and €799.99 in Europe — and that's before you've even purchased a disc drive or the vertical stand, which cost $80 and $30, respectively. It may beat Xbox to the AI graphics punch but still... $699.99?!
Everyone has been weighing in on the announcement from all sides of the gaming camp, the Sony fans, the Xbox fans, the PC players who still don't understand why anyone would spend $699.99 and not just buy a gaming PC. Even the Steam Deck clan have been weighing in. Here's our favorite memes so far:
Steam Deck users weigh in
Many have pointed out that for the princely sum of $699 you can build a decent gaming PC, but also you could just purchase the top of the range Steam Deck OLED and have access to a much larger library of titles on the go. It's not as powerful sure, but certainly a compelling argument.
Xbox Series X catching strays
Xbox will also be launching new hardware soon, on October 15 we'll get a white disc-less Xbox Series X, a 2TB Galaxy Black Special Edition Xbox Series X and a 1TB white Xbox Series S . The Galaxy Black in particular has drawn criticism and astute observers have pointed out that it will cost only $100 less than the PS5 Pro. That's $599.99 for extra storage and "sparkles".
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This price point doesn't bode well for future generations...
While many are balking at the price point of the PS5 Pro, time will tell how well the sales of this mid-gen refresh play out. Either way, the $699 base price and the $599 of the Galaxy Xbox Series X do not bode well for what we can expect from the next generation of consoles. As gamers demand more in performance and visual fidelity from their consoles, Microsoft and Sony may be less willing to put their hardware out at a loss-leading price in return for access to their games. The Xbox Series S offers the cheapest console entry point , but it's received a lot of bad press lately over a perceived issue with developers struggling to produce their games on the console with parity to the Series X. It's not yet known if Xbox will continue with the two-tier price system into the next generation.
While Microsoft doesn't have a direct answer to the PS5 Pro right now, it appears to be investing in other avenues, such as building a cloud gaming empire and opening up its studio titles like Sea of Thieves and, soon, Indiana Jones to PS5 . Despite a generally tense mood around Xbox and its new strategies, Phil Spencer insists that the console audience is bigger than ever . Microsoft says its next Xbox will represent "the biggest technological leap" for an Xbox console , but will that audience be willing to pay $699 and over for their next-gen consoles? It certainly looks like Sony is pushing us closer in that direction.
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