The PlayStation 5 Pro, an updated version of the 2020 video game console that Sony Interactive Entertainment has described as being the most visually impressive way to play games on PlayStation, delivering a GPU upgrade, advanced ray tracing, PS Spectral Super Resolution, and other premium features, is actually a great deal that “makes sense” despite its $699.99 price tag, according to the latest comments from Vince Zampella, Head of Respawn and Group GM for EA Studios. Zampella, who is helping lead the effort on DICE’s new (and as-of-yet-untitled) Battlefield game, reasoned that this is because a $700 gaming PC can’t deliver the same level of performance as a PS5 Pro.
Zampella on the PS5 Pro’s price:
- “To me, it’s an amazing thing. I was watching something on it where the price…where they look at is it the most expensive. And it really isn’t.”
- “If you go back, some of the older consoles were just as expensive and probably adjusted for inflation were probably more. So it at first seemed a little shocking, but it’s kind of like, it’s actually not that bad.”
- “And if you get a $700 PC, you’re not getting the same performance that you’re getting out of it.”
- “Is it expensive for people? Absolutely. Not everybody will be able to afford it. Would it be better if it was cheaper? Sure. I want more people to have it. But it makes sense, really.”
A promo for Sony’s new system:
Zampella on what PS5 Pro might mean for Battlefield:
I mean, we’re not out yet, so does it really help us? Not right now. Can we do cooler things on it? Sure. I guess we’ll see. As we see what the adoption is, we’ll see how much it really affects us. We have to make a game that runs on everything, so it’ll just be like, what can we plus up on something like that, pun intended.
Discussion (19 replies)
Join Discussion →Seems like sony is leveraging all of its developers to pump up the fomo.
It's not an amazing thing. Sony loses huges amount of money on selling hardware. The console has never been a profit driver for Sony, M$ or Nintendo.
They make their money in software, accessory and subscription sales.
"...yet", the part he left out.
that also neglects PC upgrades.
Give me someone that bought an x470 based system, say a 2700X or whatever. I’ll flash the bios, drop in a 5700x3d and a 4070 super and it will blow the doors off the PS 5 pro. Or, at this point, drop in the 5700x3d and wait for the 5070 to drop and spread the purchases out a little
Consoles used to be the cheap alternatives to a gaming PC, $700 is not cheap enough for the market that can't afford a decent gaming PC.
Exactly. It's a false comparison. If they actually had to sell the PS5 Pro at typical PC hardware mark-up levels, then the cost comparison would make more sense.
Right now buyers of consoles get the "expensive inkjet printer cartridge" experience. Sure you get a "cheap" console below cost, but then you have to pay for subscriptions, more expensive games, etc. etc.
Over the lifetime of the console, an equivalent PC is a much better deal.
Consoles are just a way to screw over the ignorant.
That said, even at the $700 pricepoint, I might be able to get pretty close, if I shop around, even with new hardware.
An AMD RX 7700 should probably roughly tie the PS5 Pro. ($389)
Then I could get the cheapest CPU+Mobo bundle at Microcenter. $259 buys you a 3-way combo right now with an i5-12600KF, MSI Z790-P Pro WiFi and 16GB DDR4 (that's a pretty insane deal btw.)
With those 4 main components out of the way I have spent $648.
To be fair, it will be pretty tough to get a drive, case, power supply, cooler and case fans for the remaining $52, but if I am allowed a handful of spare pre-existing parts (and/or used ones) it is totally possible.
But to re-iterate, based on initial purchase price only, the PS5 Pro is indeed a pretty good deal for the performance you get, because they sell it at a loss. Too bad that's not where the costs end.
Console comes with a controller so you need to add one of those too.
Not if you don't play any games that don't use a controller. Like Z only plays first-person games, so he has no reason to ever use a controller.
And the prices of controllers are insane. Used to be $40 was a normal price. You can still see that for Xbox-fambly controllers when good sales come up. But Nintendo and then Sony started standardizing $70 controllers, which is absolute bullshit. And I think the DualSense just recently got a price increase.
I did not strickly mean controller as in a gamepad, mouse and keyboard also count, does not matter what you have lying around, if you want to compare you can't leave out some parts out of convenience.
There are good alternatives to first party controllers like https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D736BCNM/?tag=thefpsreview-20
For PC? That's crazy talk! I play on PC everything I can specifically to avoid having to play with a controller.
Of course a decent gaming mouse might cost as much as a controller, but that's not a necessity, we were able to play with mechanical mice back in the day, so even the cheapest modern optical mouse will get you 98% there, anything more is a luxury.
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edit: Fixed the gif for clarity
And here I am playing platformers and racing games with a controller on a PC... hooked up to my TV and home theater. Because I can, and it's cool.
Even have a controller on my desktop (which is ultrawide and has a faster GPU), because that's also cool.
If you go here and scroll down, you'll see that I have a sh1t-ton of controllers I use on PC.
I always use the control scheme I feel is best for the particular game / game-type I am playing.
Well, of course it goes over your head if you only read the first line.
It's not about what is cool or uncool, I'm physically incapable of playing with any level of proficiency with a controller. Never was able to, going back to the ps1 era.