The Japanese gaming giant Sony unveiled one of the gaming industry's worst-kept secrets last week – an upgraded version of the Playstation 5. The so-called Playstation 5 Pro gets a sharper graphics chip, AI-driven upscaling of the resolution, and a 2 TB SSD disk. The most noticeable difference seems to be that players won't have to choose between graphics and performance mode, but can run both simultaneously.
But with a price tag of 799 euros (almost 8,400 kronor), it's far from a console for everyone, and online, gamers have been irritated by the cost. An unscientific poll on the gaming network IGN showed that fewer than 15 percent planned to buy the console.
Max 15 percent
But Mat Piscatella, an analyst at the American Circana, says that the consumer group Sony is targeting is "price-sensitive enthusiasts".
"It's a very small part of the entire Playstation market, but one that has to have the latest and best Playstation technology", he writes in an email interview with TT, and continues:
"They'll buy this thing regardless of what."
The corresponding PS4 Pro accounted for 13 percent of PS4 sales, 15 percent in dollars.
"I estimate that the PS5 Pro will end up at 9-15 percent of PS5 units, and slightly higher in dollars".
"GTA" can decide
He therefore doesn't think that developers will specifically target the PS5 Pro audience.
"But the biggest games, especially from Sony, should at least have some kind of optimization for the PS5 Pro. The biggest question, and what can drive the sales of the PS5 Pro outside the launch window, is what kind of optimization the (upcoming blockbuster) 'GTA VI' will take advantage of", says Piscatella.
The console is released on November 7.
