Gamescom 2024 has come and gone, with various new game announcements and updates on already-known titles. Something it lacked was mentions of new hardware...except, perhaps there were? According to some who ventured around the gaming conference, such as Alessio Palumbo of wccftech, the existence of a PS5 Pro was "an open secret", with developers admitting that they had seen the specs, and/or even pushed back their projects in anticipation of its release.
The natural theory then is that Sony could officially announce the upgraded hardware in their upcoming September State of Play, with a November release. This tracks with how Sony released the PS4 Pro, telling the public of its existence early in September 2016 before dropping it on November 10th of that year.
Now, almost a week after Gamescom's opening night, Sony has made an announcement...albeit not one people might have hoped for. As alluded to in the title, it seems that the tech company will be increasing the price of currently-existing models in Japan, by a significant amount.
Quote From Tom Warren Sony is raising PS5 prices in Japan on September 2nd. Both models are going up by 13,000 yen (nearly $90), in the third PS5 console price hike in Japan since its launch in 2020
https://blog.ja.playstation.com/2024/08/27/20240827-ps5/
So why is this happening, to the home of the PlayStation of all places? Economic factors can certainly play a part - the yen isn't doing so well at the moment - but a possibly more sinister "forward-thinking" mindset might be to connect the dots on both pieces of information available to us. If the base models of the PS5 cost more, then marketing a PS5 Pro as being priced just above them suddenly seems a lot more appealing; after all, "it only costs $100 more!" is easier on the eyes than if it cost +$200 over the existing hardware.
We'll have to wait until later next month to see if the rumors are true; until then, we can only speculate on the situation. Of course, with a sizeable chunk of the PS5 library tied back to the PS4 with simultaneous releases, how useful the PS5 Pro would be for this current section of the console's lifecycle remains to be seen as well.
What do think of the rumors? Would you be interested in a PS5 Pro? Let us know in the comments below!
Comments
Honestly I've never understood why one would want to get a PS Pro. The difference between the base model and the Pro is usually not that big and you know you're already halfway to the next gen.
At least Sony seems to know how to do their business: Releasing the thing in November is a clever move as they can profit from the Christmas hype (if there are enough units available). I wish Nintendo would do the same. Sigh.