Paying 700 Dollars For a PS5 Pro Is Sending the Wrong Message to the Industry

There it is, folks. The long awaited, highly speculated, hardly unexpected PS5 Pro. Notice anything? Sleek design? No, not that. Vertical stand sold separately? Haha, that's hilarious, but no. Keep looking. "700 DOLLARS?!?!" There ya go! SEVEN HHHHURRRRNDRRRRED DOLLLAHS! 

So, I haven't written a blog in roughly two and a half years. It usually takes something tremendous to happen in the video game industry that brings me out of my writing rut, and I would say this 700 dollar PS5 Pro is tremendous enough. It's the literal definition of sticker shock that we haven't seen since 2006 when Kaz Hirai announced that the 60 gig model was going to cost 600 dollars. It was enough of a sticker shock to me that I named a Final Fantasy XI character Kazhiraiisajerk. It was absolutely ridiculous. It was also shocking that Sony went in this direction considering they were infamous for: 

Back then, the highest price for a console was 400 for an Xbox 360, 300 if you went for an HDD-less SKU. We weren't used to seeing an extra 200 dollar price bump for another machine. And Sony felt it, too. Sure, it took off initially, but once the early adopters emptied their wallets, it was slow going for them until Sony made several revisions knocking the price down to 500 while also increasing the storage, and eventually introducing Slim models that brought the price down to 300.

So yeah, the PS3 launched at 600 back in 2006! Here it is 18 years later and Sony's putting out a new PS5 model at 700, which is only 100 more, right? So what's the big deal? Here's we start talking about why that is. I'm not going to go into the specs of the system because to be honest, specs bore me. They're just numbers to me and what determines if a machine is worth it is whether or not I can see results. So far, I've only seen a few games that BARELY show improvement. Anyway, here we go. 

What you're seeing here should be clear as day as to what's wrong with the price of the PS5 Pro, but if you can't see it, I'll break it down for you. What you're looking at is a price drop of the PS4 base model while the PS4 Pro launched a couple of months later at the same price as the PS4 base model when it originally launched in 2013. I can't find a similar graphic for Xbox, but MS also launched an Xbox One X at 500 dollars, which was the same price as their base model, which also launched in 2013, and the base model also had a price drop. This is how Sony and MS wanted to condition us with these console refreshes: release a new more powerful version at the same price of the base model while also dropping the price of the base model. Simple. They get an influx of new customers while allowing existing customers to affordably attain their newest, more powerful iteration.  

But now, they've gone backwards... 

This is the complete wrong way to go about doing a system refresh, and every interaction I've had with people discussing this topic have somehow completely forgotten how system refreshes worked in the past. Again, the Pro models launched at the same price as the base models, but here with the PS5 Pro, it's launching 200 dollars MORE than the base model, and let's not forget, this is an all-digital SKU. That's right, there is no disc drive in a SEVEN HUNDRED DOLLAR PS5 Pro. 

So let's reevaluate. It's 700 dollars for an all-digital PS5 without a disc drive. That puts it at 250 dollars more than the all-digital PS5 Slim, and now it's a good time to mention that the price of the all-digital PS5 Slim increased by 50 dollars over the base model. Slim models were always launched cheaper than base models to be more attractive to the consumer, but that's no longer the case. Anyway, if you really want to compare the PS5 Pro with the base model PS5 with disc drive, you need to add the cost of one, which is 80 dollars. And if you've paid attention in this paragraph, then you'd know that if you bought an all-digital Slim at 450 and decided to buy a disc drive, you'd end up paying 30 dollars more than the Slim with a built-in disc drive. The whole optional disc drive situation is just stupid to me. So anyway, the price difference is actually closer to 300 if you're planning on replacing your PS5 with disc drive with a PS5 Pro. And that's just insulting. 

The way I'm looking at this is not Sony giving their customers options of them wanting to get disc drives in the future, but more as them trying to price scare people into giving up their physical media. For some people, they're just going to  say goodbye to their discs because 700 is already a huge asking price. And for those who still want to hold on to their discs, well, might as well make more money off them by selling the drives a la carte. And this bodes ill for the future of physical media. I'm predicting now that the PS6 will be digital only, and we will be looking at least 700 dollars for its launch price. This is the message you're sending Sony and the industry as awhole if you agree to spend this much on a system refresh that is a digital only console. MS and Sony are dying for their consumers to stop buying physical games so they control even more the price of their games. They would also love to charge you for minimal upgrades on system refreshes and make you believe you're getting a real value. They're PRAYING you forgot how about refreshes worked in the past. 

Now, I'd like to discuss rebuttals I've seen by people actually trying to defend this.

My graphics card/PC cost at least twice as much as this, and 700 is too much?

Ok, so there's a couple things about this argument that doesn't really work. For one, PC is an ENTIRELY different market, and an ENTIRELY different experience. You are literally comparing apples and oranges here. Anyone buying a PC is buying something that does far more than just play games and movies. PCs are far more flexible devices and far more customizable, and anyone who's spending more money on graphics cards than a console are usually getting far more out of them in comparison. Plus, playing on PC means free online and cheaper games on average. Steam Sales anyone?  So, for the average CONSOLE gamer, yes, 700 dollars is too much. 

Ok then, it's not for you. It's for enthusiasts. 

But, it's not really. Again, this isn't how refreshes worked in the past. The PS4 Pro and Xbox One X launched at the same price their base models did, which means refreshes are FOR the original intended market. It doesn't make sense NOW to try to invent some new "enthusiast" market that probably won't net Sony as much profit as they're hoping for. But, I can see how you'd come to that conclusion. Sony's been trying to reinvent themselves over the past few years with expensive accessories that no one really needs. PSVR 2? PS Portal? Overpriced headsets and ear buds? Sleek, stylish overpriced goods you can find better alternatives for cheaper is indeed something Apple does, so if the Pro is their next "enthusiast" item, then yeah, I guess it isn't for me. But, it's odd that you would use that as a defense for a company who wants to make money, because if you are pitching something to make money, you need to make it as reachable as possible, and a ton of people are already saying no, so if it isn't for me, or them, or us... well, that's really a problem. 

Just say you're broke.

And this one REALLY gets under my skin. Listen, I can afford 10 PS5 Pros and 10 disc drives, but there's no way in hell I'm going to actually do that, because I have a sense of value. Being able to afford something and being able to justify the price of something are two different things. The PS5 Pro at 700 dollars currently does not demonstrate value to me because I feel the graphical upgrades aren't good enough for the cost. We've really approached serious diminishing returns at this stage of the game. And well, forced to buy an add-on disc drive? No thanks. I'd rather spend my money on something else.

Well, what about the 600 dollar Xbox Series X!? How come THAT isn't too much?

And actually, I agree with you on that. The new XSX isn't really an upgrade at all, just more memory, and memory is supposed to be cheaper as the years go on. It should have been 500 for the 2TB model and 400 or 450 for the previous model to keep things in line with value and competition. So, yeah, I don't endorse the new XSX models. But hey, at least it has a disc drive...

It's inflation. Deal with it. 

And another one that bugs me. Yes, inflation is real and it really sucks. Yet again, it DIDN'T affect the previous generation's refreshes. And we saw price drops on all models. Inflation has always been with us, but it didn't affect the previous generation in that way. One might say it's symptomatic of economical damage from COVID, and well, that might just be true to a degree, but I still find it hard to believe that not even the Nintendo Switch could gives us a price drop on their base model eight years later. At least they gave us a cheaper model. All Sony's done was increase the price of their cheaper Slim 50 bucks. Also, PS5 controllers have gone up five dollars when again, with inflation always being with us, controllers have historically dropped in price. This is evidence of greed and arrogance. The video game industry is far FAR too profitable to keep blaming inflation for them having to raise their prices. FAR too profitable. 

Let people spend their money how they want!

True, it's their money and if I feel they're being foolish with it, they can still go right out and buy one. But the issue is this: I share my hobby with those foolish gamers, so how they spend their money directly affects how I spend mind. This is akin to people using this defense when it comes to microtransactions. "Don't like, don't buy it!" I didn't buy them, but enough people did, so it changed the very way some games were designed and made them worse for me, but I've blogged about that already. Point is, if enough people drop 700 on a PS5 Pro, then the PS6 will be 700 and I DON'T want that!

Trade it in GameStop!

I'll agree with you there, but again, you'll still need to deal with the jacked up price, so you're going to pay more out of pocket than you would had the PS5 Pro been more reasonably priced. 

So to sum it all up, I think it's setting a dangerous precedent to buy the PS5 Pro at 700 dollars.  Even if you can justify all the new tech being worth the extra 250-280 bucks, you're letting Sony know that you're ready to do this again with the PS6. If the PS5 Pro is successful, then there's no way they're going to make a more powerful machine and not charge at least 700 for it. We know how Sony feels now about dropping the price on their current models, so a price drop on the PS5 Pro before the PS6 doesn't seem likely. 

And let's not forget the lack of a disc drive. Remember, the original design of the PS5 suggests that the inclusion of a disc drive was an afterthought. Sony was ready to go all-digital THIS generation, but changed their mind to let physical gamers buy discs, but Sony is now ready to put an end to that. They're testing the waters one more time to see just how many gamers still care about their physical games, so if you're like me and still hold on to your physical copies, then not buying a PS5 Pro is even more important. We are definitely losing the war, that much is certain, but I want to hold out as long as I can. 

The crux of the debate should not be about whether or not one can afford a PS5 Pro, but whether or not we can afford to let Sony (and other companies) keep getting away with exploiting us. We are frogs in a boiling pot, and the temperature is continuing to rise. It's time to wake up and really start paying attention.