SHOUT OUT - PS5 Pro clearly serves a niche market but has launched with strong support
Justification stations.
By Jonathan Garrett
19/11/24
NOTE: Shout Out’s are not sponsored content. They’re games, developers, individuals, or issues that we want to highlight and share purely out of interest.
There’s no question that PS5 Pro is aimed squarely at a dedicated subset of the console audience looking to tap in to PC like features without taking the plunge on a full blown commitment to a desktop gaming rig. It’s ultimately a first world proposition; removing the trade off between Quality and Performance settings and letting folks enjoy both without compromise firmly places this as an iterative luxury item that is unlikely to meaningfully shift broader market share.
Regardless, it plays to a fanbase hungry for a definitive console experience, who want the ease of a plug and play set up without too much fiddling to make it sing. Despite the hefty price tag, and in some cases only marginal improvements, the broad list of software support at launch, with the promise of more to come, is a pleasing show of intent from a company not always known for giving their own hardware a chance to flourish.
Given Microsoft’s reluctance to follow suit this gen with a Series X refresh, it’s entirely possible that this might be one of the last half way point console upgrades we’ll see from major platforms (outside of any stereotypical Slim or XL variants). Regardless of what the future may bring, the PS5 Pro remains a frivolous but powerful piece of kit that is perhaps still waiting to be fully leveraged.
TARPS?
At the bottom of some of our articles, you’ll see a series of absurd looking images (with equally stupid, in joke laden names). These are the TARP badges, which represent our ‘Totally Accurate Rating Platform’. They allow us to identify specific things, recognise positive or negative aspects of a games design, and generally indulge our consistent silliness with some visual tomfoolery.
