PS5 Pro Development Started Before PS5 Released - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 01 November 2024 / 6,148 Views
Sony Interactive Entertainment platform business group CEO Hideaki Nishino speaking with Variety revealed the PlayStation 5 Pro has been in development since before the original PlayStation 5 launched in November 2020.
"So we have done Pro in the last generation," said Nishino. "We learned a lot from there. When we were selling PS4 Pro, in addition to the PS4, 20% of customers actually got the PS4 Pro. It was high end, it was premium tier. So there are potential users acquiring those kind of units. Interestingly enough, it was not just about highly engaged users; actually, new users comes to PlayStation to get PS4 Pro, as well.
"So we started working on PS5 Pro even before PS5 launches — it was another five-year project for us. So there was a conversation around whether we wanted to do another Pro or not. But the main thing was, there are technologies we can grow up in three years time or five years time. So the innovation and technology advancement is more quicker in a modern world.
"Phones are updating every year, PCs are updating every year. I don’t think we’d go every year updates, but there are things we can package together to bring the greatest things into game console segment range. So that’s the vision.
"I think it was great to see people talking about it. Like year three, usually, the conversation around the gaming console comes down, so people are shifting the conversation more to the next gen, or something like that. But we’re kind of happy to see, like most engaged gaming users are interested in the PS5 Pro, and then I’m pretty sure new users will grab the PS5 Pro as well.
"If it’s the PlayStation you want to get, that’s the thing. So that’s where we designed the generation at this moment. We design everything with having one ahead in our mind. It’s not like we just make a next step and we don’t know about the two steps ahead. That’s not our way of working, because we need to make sure that the 10-year-old, generation cycle continues to be going as well."
PlayStation 5 Pro will launch on November 7 for $699.99 / £699.99 / €799.99 / ¥119,980.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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Developers wouldn't be able to optimize their games, if we would get a new model every year...
Yes. Part of me feels like smart phones, and the planet's mass-adoption of them, are to blame for pro models.
Up to a point.
We are already seeing games/game engines dynamically adjust visuals based on rendering load/hardware resource availability.
Dynamic resolution on PS4/Xbox One games got an automagical resolution and framerate increase when we pop those same games into the Playstation 5/Xbox Series X, no developer input required.
The same could be done for things like foliage density... Or the number of rays for ray tracing for example.
Then developers just need to target a standard hardware feature set (I.E. Ray Tracing and 16GB Ram) and let the games adjust themselves independently of the hardware.
So you still get the same base visual features, but the quality and complexity are dynamically adjusted for the hardware.
It wouldn't exclude the need for a clean generation break, because every console generation is defined by key graphics features.
I.E. Generation 6 was all about Hardware TnL, Generation 7 was all about Programmable Pixel Shaders, Generation 8 was all about Deferred Rendering and Tessellation, Generation 9 is all about Global Illumination/Ray Tracing.
'Tech can mature in 3 or 5 years time'. 'We need to make sure the hardware can last 10 years'.
PS4 Pro launches after 3 years and leads to a 7 year gen.
PS5 Pro launches after 4 years, and SNY is shooting for a 10 year gen?
PS4 was only really relevant for 7, maybe 8 years in terms of hardware sales, but arguably has been relevant in software sales for 10 years. Not sure if they're referencing the length of the gen or how long the hardware will remain relevant in terms of future gameplay.
Even if this gen lasted 10 years, it wouldn't surprise me for a bunch of reasons.
If PS4 pro was a success story of course they would bite again with a ps5 pro and then ps6 pro and so on if the success story continues
