My Time With The PS5 Pro Reaffirmed I Shouldn’t Spend $700 Right Now–My Base PS5 Is Still Enough

The PlayStation 5 Pro seems like a tough sell, especially to players who already own the original PS5. That’s a sentiment I had going into a preview event for the PS5 Pro and one I still have after spending a few hours with the new console.

If I didn’t already have a PS5, then the PS5 Pro would be on my shortlist–the level of detail it brings to Pro-enhanced games like Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth and Horizon Forbidden West is incredible, catapulting the experience of playing a game so that it now gets performance mode-style frame rates with fidelity mode-style graphics. And, of course it does. The PS5 Pro’s hardware is superior to the base PS5–it should make games look better. But nothing at the event convinced me I needed to go out and get a Pro the moment it launches. It’s clear that, for now at least, the base PS5 is still perfectly serviceable when it comes to playing PlayStation’s first-party titles. I’m more than content to save my $700.

To better understand how the PS5 Pro is impacting how PlayStation’s first-party studios will be developing their games going forward, I spoke with Sony Interactive Entertainment senior principal product manager Toshi Aoki. We also discussed the technical details and the development of PS5 Pro, such as the implementation of the console’s cooling systems to ensure the Pro doesn’t run hotter than the base PS5 despite the boosts to the GPU.

Does the PS5 Pro alleviate anything on PlayStation Studios? In terms of the work that they’re doing with their games, does this console help them at all?

Toshi Aoki: Well, developers always want more. Whatever we give them, they actually use it up, which is a great thing because we are here to support the creators to create and realize their visions. The more range or options they have, the happier [they are]. And when the creators are happy, they create awesome games, which then makes the players happy. It creates that great flywheel, and we want to make sure that we keep that creative vision coming and flowing. I think that’s a great direction that we’re going with together with the developers.

A lot of PlayStation games support both performance and fidelity modes. With the PS5 Pro, what happens with those modes? Is there still a noticeable difference choosing one over the other? Or do they now behave virtually the same?

It will differ per game depending on what modes they already had and how [their respective developers] want to showcase [the game] to the players. So far, we’ve [mostly] seen [developers] mainly [realizing] that you don’t have to make that choice [anymore]. That there is one mode that gives you both of the benefits. That’s kind of the target the teams are going forward with.

Just from the games that I’ve seen so far, it seems like there’s a range of differences between games–Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 only had a few differences, for example, whereas Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart had a more noticeable transformation between the standard PS5 on performance mode and the PS5 Pro. Is there one game in particular folks should check to see the greatest difference between what the PS5 and PS5 Pro can do?

I honestly like Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. That one probably has the biggest jump, when you look at PS5 and PS5 Pro. Again, it’ll differ per game of course, so it’s difficult to say what’s good and what’s even better. I think Final Fantasy is a good showcase that you should try out.

[Rebirth] is a game where I think when we see the screenshots, it’s always coming from the fidelity mode. But if you are the person who wants to switch to 60fps, the visuals do get downgraded to meet the hit. I think [performance mode] is the choice that the players are taking, and that’s where we want to give players the best of both worlds.

As someone who likes to position all of his consoles together next to the TV so they look pretty but has to make sure they all have enough air flow, how hot does the PS5 Pro get, especially since it’s doing a lot more than the original PS5?

Our cooling system is all designed to make sure that it is at the same level as the PS5. You can see it later when you see the actual [console], it is slightly bigger and has more vents, so that we have more airflow.

I’m someone who bought the PS5 on day one, and I pretty much only play it for PlayStation first-party exclusives–is the PS5 Pro a console for folks like me?

Well, it is for the enthusiasts, the most engaged players. Which could be our initial early adopters who purchased the PS5. Also, people who have not come yet, maybe on other devices, but would want to play on the big-screen TVs. Have that capability on the console now that would shift over. We’re not targeting just like the current PS5 owners, that’s not it. It’s more for the game enthusiasts who want to have that gameplay experience, which could be new users as well.

Given the higher specs of the PS5 Pro, is there now a higher benchmark for PlayStation studios to play with when designing games with performance and fidelity modes?

Well, we can’t speculate about the future. But, from history, when creators get more things to play with, they do [tend to] push the boundaries and go for more. Because I think from a creative perspective, they have so many ideas. They want to add so many details, so many gameplay details as well, the smoothness side as well.

The reality of 60 frames per second is that you have to write a lot of pixels or have AI upscalers do it for you. I think [studios] will still push the performance of the devices that they’re on. I think that will continue. Right now, I think the PS5 Pro will be the new benchmark that they’ll be targeting, and our hope is that the best game experience is going to be on the PS5 Pro.

What’s the thing that you’re most excited about for players to see and experience when they get their hands on this new console when it comes out?

Well, definitely when they play a game, they just really get immersed in it. That’s our target: having players play the game and then just love playing it without that trade-off that they might be making right now or [making a] selection they might be [forced] to make right now… That will really make me happy.