What Sony's new PS5 Pro 'Enhanced' label means for gamers

It was only earlier today that a bunch of PS5 Pro specifications were confirmed by The Verge, and now the publication has put out more details regarding Sony's internal plans for tackling the "Enhanced" games.

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For those that don't know, Sony is planning on releasing the PS5 Pro alongside a new label that will be slapped onto PS5 games that meet certain graphical and performance improvements, with the idea that gamers will see the label and immediately know the game has met the graphical and performance standards set by Sony.

The Verge reports it has been told by sources familiar with Sony's plans that developers are being informed by the company to create a new PS5 Pro-exclusive graphics mode in games that combines Sony's new PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR) upscaling to 4K resolution with a 60fps frame rate and ray-tracing effects.

So, what qualifies as an "Enhanced" PS5 game? Firstly, 30FPS games can still meet the criteria for an "Enhanced" label, as developers will have the option of increasing target resolution for PS5 Pro games that run in a fixed resolution on PS5, or increasing the target maximum resolution for games that run at a variable resolution on PS5.

This means that games that run between 1080p and 1440p at 30FPS on the standard PS5 and 1280p and 2160p on the PS5 Pro at 30FPS will meet the criteria for an "Enhanced" label. Additionally, the publication reports that a fixed resolution increase from 1440p to 2160p would also meet the criteria. Furthermore, developers that choose to implement ray-tracing effects and don't increase resolution or framerate will also reach the "Enhanced" label. The same goes for developers that only want to increase framerate from 30FPS to 60FPS.

So, what won't get an "Enhanced" label? If developers only choose to make their games run more stable, the title won't receive the new label. Moreover, games running with a variable resolution and don't increase the maximum resolution will also not receive the "Enhanced" label. An example of this would be a game's variable resolution moving between 1440p and 2160p to 1800p and 2160p. Developers that choose this route would not quality for an "Enhanced" label.

Games that meet the aforementioned requirements and earn themselves an "Enhanced" label will be able to display the label on the disc packaging and on Sony's PlayStation Store pages.

This recent report from The Verge ties in perfectly with my recent report stating that Sony doesn't have any first-party system-selling titles to release alongside the PS5 Pro when it launches in the holiday season of 2024. Sony needs to show off a PlayStation-exclusive game taking advantage of the PS5 Pro's new hardware capabilities, and with none on the horizon the company appears it will be resulting to "enhancing" all of its standard PS5 system-selling titles.

With this recent report, we have learned Sony is pushing developers to achieve the standards to earn their titles an Enhanced label. The company has undoubtedly worked extremely closely with its own first-party developers, as it would be confusing for Sony to showcase third-party PS5 Pro Enhanced games on its brand-new console. Presumably, we will see the classic PS5 titles that sold the console in 2020 brought back to life.