Unveiling the Purpose of the PS5 Pro: A Mystery for Even the Developers, as Discussed by a Video Game Expert

A PS5 Pro coming… too soon?

Always accustomed to the Slim version of its consoles, Sony has also succumbed since the PS4 era to the Pro model, a more powerful iteration which arrives roughly halfway through a generation of machine. The PS5 Pro has not yet been made official, but there are numerous leaks about it and the studios themselves are talking about it openlyas reported by the very serious site GamesIndustry.biz which was able to speak with many developers during the GDC in San Francisco, which was held last week.

In the media podcast, journalist Christopher Dring indulged in some edifying statements: many developers would find the arrival of the PS5 Pro avant-garde and therefore not so justified.

Developers don't really seem to think they need it, at least the ones I've talked to. Many of them feel that they already aren't really getting the most out of the PS5. Some companies told me that this would not grow the market and that its impact would be small. This generation doesn't even seem to have started, which makes the need for a mid-generation update even less felt.

It must be said that this generation of consoles is a little different: launched in 2020, stock shortages were legion for several years due to the COVID-19 crisis and the resulting shortage of semi-components. De facto, developers were only able to fully focus on the architecture of the PS5 and Xbox Series very late, having to also release their titles on PS4 and Xbox One. Even today, the latter two continue to receive games regularly, often cross-gen and even from major franchises.

Greater playing comfort

As a reminder, the PS5 Pro would have greater firepower than the standard PS5 (still happy, some would say) with a 10% faster calculation speed, but above all a redesigned GPU which would allow significantly improve graphic effects, notably ray-tracing. In total, it is said that the PS5 Pro would be 45% more powerful than its big sister.

The other major novelty would reside in the PSSRi.e. PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution, a technology specific to Sony and similar to Nvidia's DLSS: thanks to artificial intelligence, it is then possible to upscale the definition of an image and increase the framerate of a game while enjoying very high visual effects. This would then result in the possibility of playing in 4K at 120 FPS and even in 8K at 60 FPSaccording to some feedback.

The PS5 Slim, released in 2023

If these capabilities indeed seem tempting, we remember that many developers have not yet had the time to fully understand the standard PS5 due to a bogged down start to the generation: This is why many people find the arrival of a Pro version irrelevant, adding new work of understanding before their time. In any case, according to comments reported by GamesIndustry.biz: certain studios may perhaps be able to counterbalance these arguments in the future. We will see.

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