It’s been about a month since the PS5 Pro was announced and just days since pre-orders opened. Already stocks of the regular and 30th Anniversary editions of this high spec version of the now four year old console have dwindled. Some have been found in the inventories of scalpers trying to flip them for thousands of dollars. It’s 2020 all over again.
But in a trying economy of spiraling living costs and stagnating wages, who really has money for the sports car edition of a gaming console, least of all one declared by Sony itself to be entering “the latter stage of its life cycle”? Even taken in good faith as something other than a cash squeeze of the brand’s loyal followers, an inevitable PlayStation 6 hangs like Damocles sword over the PS5’s remaining years.
The price of the PS5 Pro is rightly the focus of criticism here, as well as the question of how much people are willing to pay for incremental tech gains (and the diminishing returns of said gains over the past two generations). But it’s important to realize that memes and tweets aside, I sincerely doubt Sony expects to sell the PS5 Pro to anyone but the most ardent enthusiasts. For them luxury is the point.
Sony is rightly banking on the PlayStation brand, which has deep hooks in many gamers. Here in the Philippines, when you think gaming console, you think PlayStation and the many classics that have defined the memories of anyone over the age of 30. But it also signals a possibility that by focusing only on the brand, Sony has chosen to ignore the future of gaming.
One of the questions posed to me by PhilStar Tech editor Jayvee Fernandez, is whether or not PS5 Pro has a place in the lifestyle of a young twenty something gamer. And my answer to that is that young people don’t have the kind of cultural or emotional investment in gaming consoles their elders (that’s us, Jayvee) have. We can see that in the slowing sales of both hardware and software.
Sony has chosen to focus on an audience that already loves PlayStation for what it is, but it also makes the console and its portfolio feel extremely limited. For example, its studios have doubled down on lavish story-focused action-adventures with cinematic presentation like God of War and Marvel’s Spider-Man, while cranking out remasters of established hits like The Last of Us and Horizon.
But it’s a problem when Sony chooses to spare no expense on these games. The margins for this vision of the PlayStation brand have declined amidst a shrinking percentage of players who grew up with a Dual Shock controller in their hands. Sure, they’re also brewing live service projects like Fairgame$ and Marathon, but last month’s Concord was a tremendous catastrophe.
The narrowing appeal is really the issue here. Younger gamers have an increasing demand for flexibility and an expectation that videogames accommodate them. They want multi-platform availability and cross-platform multiplayer. They want cross-progression and cloud saves and compatibility with the Steam Deck and other handheld PCs. Even a Switch meets them halfway.
This isn’t to suggest that the PS5 Pro or its direction as a publisher and developer of software is wrong for the company. In many ways, Sony is becoming more like Nintendo. Team Red’s focus on specialty hardware designed for its bespoke IPs has resulted in a platform that every publisher at least thinks about. No developer rules out making games for 141 million Switch consoles.
For things to work out, the PlayStation needs to expand their appeal so they can have the same leverage Nintendo does. Sony needs to make its partners come to them, and meet players where they want to be. Already, Sony has admitted the PS5 Pro isn’t for everyone, and they don’t expect to sell at a 1:1 ratio to the base PS5. That tells us that Sony knows the limits of the PlayStation fanbase.
Sony has already spent the past four years venturing into the PC space. But a recent decision to impose PSN requirements on games like Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut and God of War Ragnarok is troublesome. As we saw with Helldivers 2, it’s a choice that keeps out players from territories not supported by PSN, reducing the number of copies they can sell.
The future of PlayStation isn’t going to be decided by how many PS5 Pro’s are sold, nor is it at any risk of ‘losing’ to anyone. But the demographics and desires of ‘gamers’ are growing, expanding, changing and evolving. Maybe its time for the PlayStation brand to keep up with them.
