Last week, Sony unveiled the future of PlayStation hardware in the form of the PlayStation 5 Pro. This mid-generation refresh shares many similarities with 2016’s PlayStation 4 Pro in its strategy to target price-insensitive consumers looking for the latest and greatest gaming hardware. However, with a hefty $699.99 price tag, many questions remain about the console and what place it will have in the average living room.
GamesBeat spoke to a few industry analysts (Circana’s Mat Piscatella, Niko Partners’ Daniel Ahmad and Midia Research’s Rhys Elliot) to get their thoughts on the PlayStation 5 Pro and its future both as a standalone piece of hardware and within the larger console market. Does Sony’s latest console have what it takes to accelerate the momentum of the PlayStation brand, or is it too late?
As with any product, the fundamental question is whether there is a dedicated fanbase eager to get their hands on the console right away. As a more expensive mid-generation refresh, Sony has an obligation to at least create and sell a product that makes the console an absolute must-own due to its powerful features. Simply being a better option is meaningless unless it’s an exciting better option. So, do such fans exist?
“Of course, but it’s a small one,” Piscatella explains. “There’s a group of die-hard PlayStation fans who are price-insensitive and want the latest and greatest PlayStation regardless of cost, and this product targets exactly them. This is a way to keep that audience engaged and spread the brand, while also giving them a reason to buy another piece of hardware this generation. This is obviously not targeting mass-market buyers. The base PlayStation 5 is a great console that will continue to meet their needs and will be purchased by over 85% of PlayStation 5 buyers.”
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In a public statement, Daniel Ahmad questioned why the messaging for the PS5 Pro is somewhat vaguer compared to its predecessor: “Sony’s PS5 Pro is a mid-generation upgrade to the PS5, priced at $699, and builds on the mid-generation refresh strategy first introduced with the PS4 Pro in 2016. But while the PS4 Pro’s entry price was $399 and its marketing messaging was simple about 4K graphics and HDR, the PS5 Pro’s higher price and less simple marketing messaging make it a somewhat harder sell, opting for more nuanced messaging about upgraded graphics, advanced ray tracing, and AI-driven upscaling. In both cases, the Pro models are premium products tailored to a niche demographic of users willing to pay for increased graphical fidelity.”
Rhys Elliott believes that the quieter generation of PS4 owners who have yet to upgrade to the PS5 will make up a significant demographic of users for the PS5 Pro.
“Sony announced at its 2024 Business Segment Conference that half of its monthly active PlayStation users are PS4 users,” Elliott said. “That means that about 50 million players have yet to upgrade. Some of these users may want to switch to the latest generation of consoles with the PS5 Pro, but they need a reason to do so. Sony would be wise to promote 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 be even more effective. Sony released specially branded PS4 Pros for first-party games (Spider-Man) and third-party games (Monster Hunter), so we can expect a similar strategy with the PS5 Pro.”
Comparisons with the PlayStation 4 Pro are more noticeable than with its PlayStation 5 counterpart. While 2016’s PS4 Pro could be succinctly touted as a 4K gaming console at a time when 4K adoption was just beginning, the graphical capabilities of the PlayStation 5 Pro can’t be described so succinctly. How is the value proposition different, and do those differences matter?
Piscatella commented, “It’s fair to argue that the value proposition of the PS5 Pro will fall short of that of the PS4 Pro at launch, and it’s unclear how important that will be to the target audience. This group buys more for what the brand promises than what is actually delivered, and it’s a small, less price-sensitive part of the market. They want the latest and greatest, and the PS5 Pro is that.”
“The PlayStation 4 Pro offered native 4K resolution and had a better value proposition at a time when many regular consumers were upgrading to HDR-enabled 4K TVs,” Elliott elaborates. “The PS5 Pro has no such proposition. However, like the PS4 Pro, it offers better visuals. And that use case may resonate more with modern console gamers. That’s why the PS5 Pro launch presentation highlighted the consumer dilemma of choosing between fidelity and performance modes. These different modes are now more common than they were at the launch of the PS4 Pro. Mark Cerny said that 75% of PS5 players will prioritize performance, so for many basic PS5 players, the choice is real.”
It’s impossible to talk about the PlayStation 5 without looking at the big question of price. At $699, the powerful console is significantly more expensive than the market is accustomed to. Beyond the current hardware, does Sony’s latest PlayStation portend higher prices on all fronts?
“Not entirely,” Ahmad told GamesBeat. “While the Pro is aimed at a less price-sensitive demographic, console makers are taking steps to ensure lower price entry points — think Nintendo’s Switch Lite, Xbox’s Series S, and Sony’s PS5 Digital Edition — but what we’ve seen often this generation is that these models haven’t received permanent price cuts.”
Ahmad added that Niko Partners expects the PS5 Pro to sell around 10 million units over its lifetime, which would represent about 10% of the PS5’s expected lifetime sales.
Elliott is less optimistic for price-sensitive console gamers: “I think there will be a new, higher price floor for the next generation of consoles. If PlayStation and Xbox could turn back time, they would probably price their base consoles at $600 at launch. Look at Xbox’s $600 2TB Galaxy Black Edition, which has a Blu-ray drive but is essentially the same specs as the Series X at launch, except for the increased storage capacity. I think the PS6 and Xbox next-gen consoles will sell for at least $600. PlayStation is clearly testing the waters with the PS5 Pro pricing.”
Piscatella said, “Looking specifically at the US, the US console market is mature and not seeing organic growth in audience size or spending. In fact, video game console hardware spending peaked in 2008 at $7.7 billion. The closest the US hardware market has come to reaching that total since 2010 is in 2022 at $6.6 billion. But the audience that exists for consoles is pretty enthusiastic, which means that to increase hardware spending, you’ll probably also need to factor in rising prices. So, to cut a long story short, yes, I expect prices of new console hardware to continue to rise. We’ve now seen both PlayStation and Xbox hit or fall under the $599 threshold (which was a bit of a scare long before the PS3 price announcement), so I wouldn’t be surprised at all if we get to that point again.”
As a saleable product, the PlayStation 5 Pro will undoubtedly be controversial – it breaks all previous conventions about acceptable console pricing – but Elliott explains that this is simply a matter of changing times and markets.
“When the PlayStation 4 Pro was released, the top-of-the-line iPhone (7 Plus) cost $769. Today, the top-of-the-line iPhone (16 Pro Max) starts at $1,199.”
Perhaps, in that sense, Sony is simply being a pioneer in the market movement, pushing the boundaries of what a console can sell for, rather than limiting what it can do. We’ll find out when the new hardware launches on November 7th.
