Rumour mills are strong with the PS5 Pro coming along in the future. While I’m still not sure what to think about it as I never thought it’d actually happen this Gen, and still have a hard time thinking what it could bring to the table at a reasonable price range, it seems we have a timeline for it now so who knows!
PS5 Digital set to become the default console with the separate disc drive means the default price of the system will be much lower, leaving a 200$ possible gap to release a more powerful system.
This leaves MS . We’ve had a separate disc drive in the past with Hd-DVDs on 360 so MS has experience for this. A Slim Xbox Séries X at a lower price point could make sense I guess to counter on price as it’ll be almost needs’ed if it happens on PS5 side or else the price delta will really push people towards PS5 with digital adoption being so high.
Or is Ms going to go crazy and show 2 new SKUs (X2 and S2) and then support 4 SKUs all Gen? make the x the new s and make a Series Z? Maybe not even do anything at all or just make an external drive to match on price but ride it out until the end of this Gen?
And what could a pro console actually bring to the table? AMd and ray tracing doesn’t go well together so unless price is super high I have a hard time seeing a slightly more powerful system making a difference. CPU has to be the same as to not introduce bottlenecks on the lower end system as some stuff really needs parity for devs to account for it in their games, especially when implementing next Gen game defining gameplay features.
So what do ya’ll think? Any chance MS saw it coming and is prepared for it, or are we to take at face value their previous opinion that prices won’t go down fast enough so that they released 2 SKUs early for a reason and stick by it?
I don’t think there will be a mid-gen refresh for either platform.
Are Sony and Microsoft working on new hardware? sure they are their R&D departments are not going to sit idle, they may also even send out dev kits with the specs to first party studios to test its feasibility. However that doesn’t mean those products will reach the consumers.
With how the PS5 was designed i’m not sure how a Pro would even work, didnt they make it in line with the ps4/pro because of backwards compatibility? would they be able to make anything significantly more powerful with those contraints.
Yeah, once I saw that his name was mentioned my doubts started going away as well.
I really hope Xbox is making one too then, because even though I’ve 100% made my decision to get a PS5 (Pro), I will always want to buy the multiplats for Xbox. But if the differences are significant and I have both of them, I likely will opt for the platform that has the best version.
I truly hope it won’t be like last gen that we had to wait a year for the One X.
I’m expecting both Microsoft and Sony to have mid-gen consoles but im hoping that neither do them. Main reason being is that it’s most likely going to be GPU focused and for me, when I see games like Jedi Survivor or Horizon Forbidden West, in all honesty, I don’t need more visuals. What I do need and want is better performance. I would much rather see the CPU get the next level and the RAM get increased to 24GB as both are far more important than the GPU which is pretty great in both consoles but with so many games being CPU bound, I would prefer a better CPU over better GPU.
Well, if they announce it as coming 1 year later but before PS5 Pro is anointed as some kind of counter but also with more powerful specs, maybe some people would be interested in waiting out for it?
I’m kind of on the fence here as I don’t think a mid Gen refresh is necessary, even though I would most likely buy it anyway. Rumour mill is strong with this one though!
Given the credibility of the leaks Sony obviously is doing a PS5 Pro or similar. Makes sense given they are shifting PS5’s and they have a VR headset to support.
Xbox is clearly not going to do one given they aren’t able to even manufacture enough Series X consoles and have talked about the series x having a much longer life than normal previously.
It will be an interesting dynamic with Sony having more powerful hardware. Potentially a bit dangerous for Xbox but at the same time I don’t think they are in a position to push a higher priced console and it would be a lot of wasted effort.
I mean people are already making excuses as for why 30 fps might become the norm again this generation. If that’s the case then I absolutely see a reason for a mid gen refresh for those that want a 60 fps on a more powerful hardware.
I don’t think MS should have a mid-gen upgrade. The lifespan of Xbox One X lasts only 3 years, and I don’t think MS sold many of them. It was more of a slogan “the most powerful console” than a successful product. And I don’t believe we can have a solid mid-gen upgrade with an affordable price now. Look at the path ray tracing Nvidia has on Cyberpunk 2077. It’s annoying even the most advanced AMD GPUs struggle with it. So Zen 3 + RDNA 3 couldn’t magically lift the ray tracing quality on consoles. So I don’t know how MS or Sony would market such XSX Pro or PS5 Pro. 4K 60FPS? 120 FPS? 8K? Don’t they already advertise them for XSX and PS5?
If the majority of multiplatform games can run 60fps on a mid gen refresh while not nearly as well on the current, then especially the hardcore enthusiasts will buy it. I mean we do have performance modes often in multiplatform games but already with very visible visual cutbacks. A mid gen refresh could improve a lot on that, but that’s assuming they put a significantly better cpu in it.
I’m going to say no. There will be a PS5 pro, though. Tom henderson has sources at sony.
The reason I say no for Xbox, is that Phil implied, as much, just as this gen was launching. This was when he was explaining the reason the Series S exists. He said they didn’t think there would be enough of a performance upgrade available to make it worthwhile. Or something along those lines.
If anyone can find that quote that would be great. I 100% remember reading it.
I’m hoping he’s right then, because if PS5 Pro does have more games where they are not only 60fps (while on XSX too) but with a significant boost in graphics…i might end up buying a lot of future multiplats for a Sony console. And I guess I’ll have to buy a second Dual Shock too, sigh.
Yeah, good point there. When it all comes down to it they care the most about Game Pass. That could be the “danger” of it that they don’t really are in any hurry to make one too.