Sony says its new PS5 Pro is the 'full package' with 'exceptional value' for gamers at $699

Sony announced its PlayStation 5 Pro console not too long ago, with beefed-up internal hardware and a higher $699 price that has gamers divided.

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Well, the company itself has started talking about the pricing of its new PS5 Pro, as well as the decision-making process behind leaving the disc drive out of the package. In a new interview with IGN, PlayStation Senior Principal Product Manager, Toshi Aoki, explained: "Well, the technologies that I just mentioned that we are putting in to deliver new experiences for game players, and also not just the technological differences, but the SSD, the Wi-Fi 7, and the new technologies that surround the gameplay as well. So it's more of a full package that will give that exceptional value to the players... the most engaged players that we're targeting".

He continued: "With the PS5 Pro, we are offering all these new tech innovations, and we added the two terabyte SSD, as well as the Wi-Fi 7. We believe as a full package that it offers for the most players. For the disc drive, it is an option for players. Not all players have discs, even though most players may...but we have the option for being able to add that for those players. So I think it's more of the balance of the value proposition that we're giving".

• Read more: Gran Turismo 7 will feature 'experimental support' for 8K 60FPS on the PS5 Pro
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• Read more: Sony announces 7 more games that are PS5 Pro Enhanced, 20 games ready for PS5 Pro

Aoki also confirmed that Sony has been working on the tweaked PlayStation 5 Pro console before the standard PS5 was released in November 2020. He added: "We started discussing it before the PS5 actually came out... because the PS5 specs were already locked in. We were ready to launch and everything. We knew, of course, as you mentioned, technologies evolve every year".

• Read more: Sony announces PS5 and PS5 Pro '30th Anniversary Limited Edition' bundles
• Read more: PS5 Pro Benchmarked: 1600p to 2160p @ locked 60FPS, could also run 8K gaming
• Read more: Analyst expects 13-15 million sales of PS5 Pro: says $700 console is for Superfans
• Read more: Sony's new PS5 Pro official: 45% faster, 2-3x faster in RT, launches Nov 7 for $699
• Read more: PS5 Pro games to get 'PS5 Pro Enhanced' label: upscale to 4K, constant 60FPS games

• PS5 Pro runs cool and quiet, around 200W of power: The PS5 Pro has recently been rumored to use around 200W of power, the same power connector as the standard PS5, and it runs cooler thanks to tweaks from AMD and TSMC's improved process node on the Viola SoC inside of the PS5 Pro.
• 45% faster than standard PS5: The new codenamed Trinity SoC is a beefed-up semi-custom design from AMD with a larger GPU and faster GDDR6 memory. The higher clock speeds on the GPU and some RDNA 4 tech are going to provide a huge upgrade in performance over the regular PS5.
• 2-3x faster in ray tracing than standard PS5: An increase of 45% in performance over the standard PS5 is impressive, but the new RDNA 4 GPU tricks inside of the PS5 Pro will reportedly provide an insane 2-3x performance increase on new "PS5 Pro Enhanced" games on a PlayStation 5 Pro console.
• AI-powered PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR) upscaling tech: The new PS5 Pro console will have some AI technology (of course) which will power an exciting new AI upscaling technology: PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution -- or PSSR -- which means we're going to see some of the best graphics we've seen out of a console yet with the PS5 Pro.
• PS5 Pro Enhanced label for games: Sony will have a new "PS5 Pro Enhanced" label for games, which will see games using PSSR to upscale the resolution to 4K, a constant 60FPS, and then add or increase ray tracing effects and performance.