Sony’s next big hardware release, the PlayStation 5 Pro, is a powerful upgrade to its market-leading gaming console. It’s a stopgap between the current generation and the inevitable PlayStation 6 and claims to let players sick of choosing between game performance and fidelity in their games have the best of both worlds for a price.
However, that price, $699, has proved to be a turn off for some players. When it launches PlayStation 5 Pro in November, it will be the most expensive console the company has ever released, and that’s before buying an additional disc drive for the digital-only unit. At least one industry analyst believes that the PS5 Pro’s high asking price is at least in part a result of not needing to directly compete with anything else like it in the current console market.
Piers Harding-Rolls, a games industry analyst at Ampere, told IGN that the “lack of competition means it is an easier decision for Sony to run with a higher price point to protect its existing margins.”
The PS5 Pro marks a big departure from the last time Sony released a “Pro”-branded console. The PS4 Pro launched in 2016 at a much more affordable $399. The souped-up version of the PS4 essentially replaced the original PS4, which saw its price drop from $399 to $299 at the same time.
Piers Harding-Rolls explains that the PS4 Pro only sold for such an affordable price because Sony knew about Microsoft’s plans to release a mid-generation refresh of its own the following year. The Xbox One X, which was marketed as the most powerful console gamers could buy, was a direct competitor that kept Sony on its toes.
This time around however, it seems that Microsoft has no plans to release a more powerful version of the Xbox Series X. Without the need to undercut neither Xbox or Nintendo, which appeal to different groups of gamers, Sony is free to target niche audiences without consequence.
In addition to Sony’s lead in the market, Harding-Rolls also credited supply chain inflation for the sky-high price point.
For console players looking to get the best graphics and performance, there will soon be one option available. But Harding-Rolls predicts the vast majority of players buying a PlayStation won’t shell out the extra cash for performance.
“For most prospective PS5 consumers, the standard edition will represent the value sweet spot,” Harding-Rolls said. He predicts that the PS5 Pro will sell around 13 million units over the next five years, comparable to the adoption rate of the PS4 Pro.
Sony’s isolation in the market this generation is unprecedented. For more than four decades, no console manufacturer has gone as unopposed in the market as current day PlayStation. Intellivision competed with Atari; Nintendo with Sega; PlayStation with Nintendo; and of course Nintendo, PlayStation, and Xbox have been duking it out with each other since 2001.
While the PS2 outsold both its competitors handily 20 years ago, at least both the original Xbox and the Nintendo GameCube were targeting the same market with similar exclusives and comparable third-party support. Each company regularly brokered exclusivity deals with the likes of Capcom, Sega, EA, and more, in turn incentivizing customers to choose one of the three consoles.
In 2024, however, that is not the case. Xbox has been transitioning its business towards a subscription model with Game Pass and de-emphasizing exclusives. Meanwhile, leaks suggest Nintendo will continue to court the same audience it has with the Switch by releasing a direct successor with many of the same features.
The PS5 Pro might not be for everyone. But Sony’s willingness to sell a $700 console in today’s financial climate should be clocked as a concerning sign of what’s to come if left unchallenged.
PlayStation has had a great run these last 15 years thanks to an excellent selection of first party games. But a lot of that innovation was also stirred by the need to ward off two very capable industry leaders. An industry with one major player in the cutting-edge console space will likely be a problem for players. It’s up to Sony’s biggest competitors to respond in the market in the years to come.
