• Fans haven’t had the best reaction to the launch of the PS5 Pro from Sony, with many saying it is too expensive and doesn’t really change gameplay all that much, at least visually.
• The console promises faster gameplay and much clearer visuals, but users on social media say that the difference is negligible.
• The PS5 Pro will go on sale in November ahead of the holiday season.

After months of rumours and leaks, Sony pulled the covers on its worst-kept secret and unveiled the PlayStation 5 (PS5) Pro on Tuesday in a short and sweet technical trailer showing off the beefed-up console.

The new machine is set to go on sale across the globe on 7th November 2024.

Fans waiting in anticipation for months were left unimpressed judging by the reaction the console has been receiving on social media, with many calling into question the $700 price tag on the system and some of the other choices Sony has made with the console.

Seemingly the largest criticism of the PS5 Pro is that the asking price is not reflecting in the improvements to gameplay the upgraded hardware is offering. Users are sharing memes and joke posts trying to figure out exactly what changed between the base PS5 graphics and the Pro graphics.

The $700 console, or ~R12 500 using the current exchange rate, but will likely be more expensive due to taxes, promises three major improvements over the base PlayStation 5. The first of which is an improved GPU that can render gameplay 45 percent faster, meaning higher framerate for players.

This will make gameplay smoother, and areas with a lot of models or things happening at the same time won’t affect the PS5 as much, meaning less lag.

The other two improvements are graphical in nature, with advanced ray tracing and AI-driven upscaling. Advanced ray tracing will make the way virtual light look and work in games to be more realistic, edging certain games like Cyberpunk 2077 closer to looking more like the real world. This improvement will not affect every game, especially those with more stylised graphics.

AI-driven upscaling allows the PS5 Pro to use AI to automatically complete parts of the screen where images are more pixelated, such as the background of whatever you’re looking at. This, according to Sony, provides “super sharp image clarity by adding an extraordinary amount of detail.”

The upscaling will have less of an effect on larger parts of the image, or parts of the image that are already clear. Kratos will likely look the same on the PS5 and the PS5 Pro, but the trees in the far background will look much clearer.

Unfortunately, these improvements don’t make too much of a splash on videos comparing differences, and framerate improvements are only really evident when players get their hands on the console. The reaction to the improvements has fallen flat.

The announcement video of the PS5 Pro has received more dislikes on YouTube than likes

Players are also maligning the fact that the disc drive comes separately from the PS5 Pro, and will necessitate an added price if players want to install a disc drive. The stand is also being sold separately from the console.

The upgraded version of the console will likely only interest the most fervent PlayStation players, and fans that are likely to continue supporting the company by buying their first-party games for the foreseeable future, but at the current asking price, and without the ability to see graphical improvements, the PS5 Pro may not be able to penetrate the more casual playerbase.

Sony could counteract this by bundling the Pro with the upcoming Grand Theft Auto 6, expected to sell more than the Bible, which may be the company’s original plan anyway.