by So far in 2023, Sony has been much more actively working to push the PS5 forward. With a stunning release schedule and the launch of PSVR2, the company is clearly ready to go all out.
It could be argued that Sony might want to capitalize on its new found momentum by launching a bigger and better system sooner rather than later. PS5 sales are currently through the roof and the release of a Pro model could let profits skyrocket and potentially persuade previous PS5 adopters to upgrade.
Four years is a significant amount of time as far as the console is concerned. In previous generations, we saw the end of a system’s lifespan. However, this generation was anything but normal, and thus historical characteristics do not necessarily apply.
The PS4 Pro was born out of necessity
Another important point to remember is that we cannot Really Think of the PS4 Pro as sort of a prelude to Sony’s PS5 plans. The PS4 Pro was released three years after the base PS4, but with the advent of 4K TVs, it was a necessary half-step. The standard PS4 wasn’t capable of running games at the higher resolution, so Sony had no choice but to “overload” its system to avoid being left behind.
There is no such strong incentive for the PS5. Yes, the performance could always be better – it’s undeniable that some games struggle to maintain a stable 60fps at higher resolutions – but nailing frame rates isn’t quite the technical leap needed to launch a brand new console to justify.
Well, what about ray tracing? The visual tech is undoubtedly impressive, but most PS5 games have to make do with dedicated ray-traced graphics modes that hamper performance. A PS5 Pro could tout vastly improved ray tracing support as a key selling point – but even then, Sony is speaking to a very die-hard subset of the PlayStation community.
… But maybe that’s the plan?
Two new PS5 models a year apart? Certainly not
A PS5 Pro in late 2024… It seems somewhat plausible, but then you think about it other Rumor that has a much stronger basis. We’re, of course, talking about the long-rumoured, revamped PS5 model, which will rumoredly have a detachable disc drive. This revamp is expected to launch later this year (around September) and is said to replace the existing disc and digital versions of the PS5.
