Sony CEO Confirms The PS5 Pro Was In The Works Even Before The Base PS5

As the PlayStation 5 Pro starts to rear its head in early November, an interesting tidbit has surfaced as part of Variety’s interview with PlayStation CEOs Hideaki Nishino and Hermen Hulst. When asked about the roll-out plan for the Pro console and the type of audience it’ll cater to, Nishino replied with the following. 

So we have done Pro in the last generation. We learned a lot from there. When we were selling PS4 Pro, in addition to the PS4, 20% of customers actually got the PS4 Pro. It was high end, it was premium tier. So there are potential users acquiring those kind of units. Interestingly enough, it was not just about highly engaged users; actually, new users comes to PlayStation to get PS4 Pro, as well.”

Hideaki Nishino added, “So we started working on PS5 Pro even before PS5 launches — it was another five-year project for us. So there was a conversation around whether we wanted to do another Pro or not. But the main thing was, there are technologies we can grow up in three years time or five years time.”

Nishino, on behalf of the company, also holds the PlayStation 5 Pro to be the default console of choice for the platform, meaning that those who’d like to shift to PlayStation would opt for the Pro as compared to the base console. Of course, it all comes down to the price point, whether people would be willing to splurge on a $700 console or not. 

Sales reports and analysis following the release of the PS5 Pro should clear that up pretty quickly, although it’s understood that Sony does not expect the Pro iteration to sell that well anyway. 

A Fleet Of Enhanced Games Await The PS5 Pro’s Arrival 

The PlayStation 5 Pro will launch on November 7, 2024, with pre-orders currently live and racking in money from all over the world. So far, we’ve got God of War Ragnarok, Lies of P, Dying Light: The Beast, and plenty more crawling their way to the console with Pro-optimized features, and more are on the way. 

In other news, it’s been rumored that all major Xbox titles, including the upcoming Fable and Gears of War, are in development for the PS5 and the PS5 Pro. This makes the case even more solid for both existing and new users to stay hooked to the PlayStation platform, because with the way things are going for Microsoft’s gaming division, exclusivity for Xbox might already be a thing of the past.