What is the elevator pitch for a PS5 Pro? | Opinion

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A few weeks ago, I wrote about the unusual situation we’ve found ourselves in regarding console hardware – with the Nintendo Switch on one hand being seriously strained by an over-long tenure (despite being pretty low-powered when it launched), while the current Xbox and PlayStation consoles are technically into the latter half of their cycles but feel much newer due to the ripple effects of pandemic-era shortages.

One update strongly rumoured to be in the pipeline at that point was a PS5 Pro model, which most people expected to see sometime in mid-2025.

Now we have a lot more clarity on Sony’s hardware plans, thanks to the fairly inevitable leaking of technical documents about the Pro which were released broadly to the company’s development partners a few days ago. A PS5 Pro is on the way, codenamed Trinity, and will mostly replicate the hardware strategy of the PS4 Pro last generation, being primarily a bump to the GPU specifications.

I’ll leave the analysis of the actual hardware to the likes of Digital Foundry; to my mind, the most interesting aspect of this leak from a business perspective wasn’t the specifications (though they’re certainly relevant), but rather the projected launch date, with Sony planning to get this device onto shelves in time for holiday 2024.

That’s a fair bit earlier than most people were expecting. It probably puts the console head-to-head with a similar spec bump and redesign for Microsoft’s Xbox Series X – which may be the point, since in the absence of the expected Switch 2 debut this year, Microsoft seemed to have a clear run at Christmas with its new hardware.

The reality is that, with some exceptions, the PS5 doesn’t have many games that are pushing its limits; the advantages of a Pro console will be harder to see as a consequence

More importantly, I think, it makes the PS5 Pro’s pitch a little more murky. I assumed, like a lot of people, that the new spec-bumped