Sony has a bigger problem with the PS5 Pro than its pricing

So the PS5 Pro has finally been revealed, Sony has confirmed most of the details everyone wanted to know – such as its design, specs and release date – and people are now in the process of getting over that $700/€800/£699 sticker shock. Yes, it’s almost been a week but gamers still have a hard time coming to terms with Sony’s choice – which speaks volumes.

Making the rounds on forum threads and comment sections, though, one becomes acutely aware of something else too: that, in the eyes of many, the actual problem with Sony’s controversial choice regarding this new PlayStation model is not – unbelievably enough – that hefty price tag per se. In some ways, it would have been a good thing for the Japanese company if all the negativity expressed online about the PS5 Pro’s cost was just about the money.

No. Sony’s actual PS5 Pro problem has to do with the perception of value – and that is entirely the company’s fault. Here’s why.

More dollars for more or better pixels per second – but where’s the difference?

During his “technical presentation” video Mark Cerny defined the PS5 Pro using a simple selling point: its ability to offer both high image quality and high frame rates in modern, demanding video games. It’s fair to say, though, that this does not seem to have come across in the kind of convincing, effective way consumers would effortlessly appreciate.

On one hand, YouTube is definitely not the ideal platform for this: brutal video compression robs footage of much visual information and it’s hard to illustrate the smoothness of high frame rates during gameplay without seriously slowing down said footage. On the other hand, one would have expected Sony to know that and be prepared to do a much better job of showing what it’s trying to convey when unveiling a hot new product like the PS5 Pro. This is a company of considerable resources and well-versed in the audiovisual arts, after all.

But even when using Cerny’s talking points – and the hardware capabilities of the PS5 Pro – as reference, it’s not hard to see why so many gamers came away unimpressed. Simply put: it currently seems to be mainly about “nice to have” improvements, not game-changing improvements. Playing titles at native 4K resolution instead of 1440p-upscaled-to-4K is not worth $700 to most gamers. Getting raytraced effects in games that did not originally feature raytracing – or more such effects in those that already did – is not worth $700 to anyone, as it does not really elevate the entertainment experience as a whole. Even getting 60 instead of 30 frames per second in single-player games – what Sony itself seems to be focusing on – is not worth $700 to that many people. It’s desirable, but maybe not $700 desirable.

Now, if the power of the PS5 Pro could actually guarantee all of the above at the same time, in all modern titles that give the PS5 a hard time, it could be something most gamers would appreciate sooner or later. The on-screen difference would be clear. That may still be achievable in less demanding titles, but Sony has been very careful not to claim that such a thing is within the grasp of a PS5 Pro as there is a very good chance of it not being possible in ultra-popular AAA blockbuster productions (GTA6 anyone?). The PS5 Pro – being a “PS5.5” of sorts rather than a PS6 – is based on the same CPU and that may hold back many demanding games going forward, despite the enhanced GPU and AI acceleration systems present.

What does a $700 price tag mean to PlayStation gamers? It all depends.

By the look of things – based on what Sony has demonstrated so far – what the PS5 Pro will actually do is offer more versatility to game developers (to choose how to best utilize its extra power) and a wider range of graphics options to gamers (who will be able to choose a visual presentation that is less of a compromise and more in line with what they prefer in terms of detail and performance). But is just having that option worth $700 to any gamers other than those who would readily spend that amount of money on anything else anyway?

Maybe, maybe not. Still, it does not make sense trying to attach a “universal” monetary value to things: what is totally worth spending hundreds or thousands or millions on for one person may be totally worthless to another person and vice versa. In that sense, that $700 price point is – in and of itself – just a number. It’s actually the value the PS5 Pro can deliver to different kinds of gamers that will make Sony’s console worthy of that price tag or not – which is why, by definition, it can’t possibly be worth $700 to most gamers. But it is to some, because value is relative. Everyone gets that, including Sony.

It’s worth noting that when the first $1000 iPhone was announced 7 years ago, people were freaking out in pretty much the same way they do these days about the PS5 Pro. But today? There are several $2000 smartphones coming out every year and nobody’s batting an eye, because so many people now consider these devices such an important part of their lives – that is, so valuable – that they are willing to spend on it amounts of money they’d never spend on many other things. Who knows? Maybe a PlayStation offering players a range of graphics options to choose from, as the PS5 Pro will do, could become important to them in a similar way… eventually. No?

No matter what the cost of hardware, the proof is in the games

Ironically enough, just why Sony made this pricing choice with the PS5 Pro won’t matter all that much. Did it do so because the company does not wish to subsidize a premium product at this point in time? It possibly did. Did it do it because it knows that, when it comes to true PlayStation enthusiasts, it can get away with it? It probably did. Did it do it to test the waters for a PS6 costing $800 to $1000? It most probably did. Did it do it because it does not feel at all threatened by the weak competition offered by Microsoft’s Xbox? It most definitely did.

None of the above, some of the above, all of the above, it simply will not matter. Consumers should be taking all of that into account to some degree, yes. But, at the end of the day, they will just look at what the PS5 Pro is actually offering for the asking price. Does it deliver something truly compelling? Does it provide high enough value? Consumers who are not able to afford a PS5 Pro anyway will not pose any of these questions – but many consumers who are, will.

Sony’s actual problem, then, is that the PS5 Pro – based on what’s been shown so far, mind you – has few people convinced that it will deliver a lot of value. At least not in the short term. The fact that first impressions matter is also a problem: whatever analysts may believe right now, if the notion of the PS5 Pro “not being all that” actually sticks, then it will not do as well as the PS4 Pro did in the long run. Sony’s latest will sell out at first, as most premium products addressing the “money-is-no-object” target group do, but it may hit a wall after that – which is not how a new PlayStation model gets to 20% of overall unit sales like the PS4 Pro did.

The difference is that the PS4 Pro was a machine with a handful of clear, easily demonstrable competitive advantages which mattered more as time went by. It will be much more difficult for the PS5 Pro to make its case in 2025 if Sony still has to explain and convince, instead of just show, what this machine’s competitive advantages are. The ball’s in your court, then, PlayStation. Let’s see how you hit it.