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Realistically, what would have been an “acceptable” price for the PS5 Pro?

AmuroChan

Member
$599 with a disc drive. The PS4 pro launched 3 years later with double the gpu at the same launch price. This is launching 4 years later with 1.7x the gpu power.

That may have been possible if between 2020 and now we just had the average inflation rate of 2% annually, but that dream died when most countries around the world experienced double digit inflation rate the last few years and you couple that with the skyrocketing demand for high end chips and that's how we got here today.
 

ArcaneNLSC

Member
Free

giphy.webp
this gif has such a different meaning now. Like its a stare off to see who gets to baby oil who's ass first
 
$599 w/ disc drive probably would’ve gone over the best, but honestly, I don’t think they’re losing many sales from that to $699.

People who are in the market for this likely would’ve (and did) spent much more at the end of the day.
 

Mibu no ookami

Demoted Member® Pro™
I would love for those saying sub 700 or those saying that it should have been 700 and included the disc drive to give a breakdown of how much they value each new feature in the PS5 Pro compared to the $450 Digital

  • 2TB SSD
  • WiFi 7
  • GPU with 45% increased rasterization
  • CPU with 10% faster clock speed
  • AI Upscaling
  • Improved RTX

For those dismissing 2TB, look at it this way. Black Ops 6 takes up 309GB. How big do we think GTA6 is going to be? It's likely that these two games will take up the vast majority of your standard storage size. Throw in Ghost of Yotei and you're definitely going to be in trouble. 1TB is simply not looking towards the future.

WiFi 7 is going to be a crucial element for quality if they end up releasing a wireless PSVR2.

But anyways, would love for people to give an actual breakdown on how valuable each of these features are or what they would remove to get to the prices they're asking for.
 

James Sawyer Ford

Gold Member
I would love for those saying sub 700 or those saying that it should have been 700 and included the disc drive to give a breakdown of how much they value each new feature in the PS5 Pro compared to the $450 Digital

  • 2TB SSD
  • WiFi 7
  • GPU with 45% increased rasterization
  • CPU with 10% faster clock speed
  • AI Upscaling
  • Improved RTX

For those dismissing 2TB, look at it this way. Black Ops 6 takes up 309GB. How big do we think GTA6 is going to be? It's likely that these two games will take up the vast majority of your standard storage size. Throw in Ghost of Yotei and you're definitely going to be in trouble. 1TB is simply not looking towards the future.

WiFi 7 is going to be a crucial element for quality if they end up releasing a wireless PSVR2.

But anyways, would love for people to give an actual breakdown on how valuable each of these features are or what they would remove to get to the prices they're asking for.

holy shit

why the hell does black ops 6 take 309GB??? that's insane
 

Rockman33

Member
That may have been possible if between 2020 and now we just had the average inflation rate of 2% annually, but that dream died when most countries around the world experienced double digit inflation rate the last few years and you couple that with the skyrocketing demand for high end chips and that's how we got here today.
I factored in 20% inflation. An extra year. And the increase in power is less than the ps4 pro. I stand by $600 w/disc.

They saw a market that would pay them more without competition in this area and got greedy. Not saying it won’t sell to expectations, but they are definitely making way more profit off the ps5 pro than the ps4 pro when it launched.
 
499$ for the Pro. 399$ for the disc, 299$ for the digital Edition. Havent had price drops in 4 years(!!!!) only price increases.

It's because they want to take advantage of their consumer base, after seeing how Nvidia takes advantage of people who overpay for marginal GPU gains every 2 to 3 years. Sony's leadership confirmed it in their earnings release, they want to increase their margins to +10% despite the obsession with cinematic games with sky high development costs. Guess how this happens? They're going to try and make customers pay for it.

I'm with you though, new tech does bring with it economies of scale and a small upgrade as the PS5 Pro should not cost as much as the next gen console.
 
$600 All Digital Edition.
$700 w/ optical drive

I lack empathy for the cost of the vertical stand as I never orient my consoles vertically and the only PlayStation to ever come with a vertical stand included was the original version of the PS5--and given that it requires a horizontal stand as well, I chalk that up more to a design flaw than anything else. The fact the standard PS5 needs a horizontal stand is baffling to me and I'd have paid $30 more for a version that didn't require it.
 

Felessan

Member
This, sorta.

To paraphrase part of my post from the Pro announcement thread: In an ideal world where COVID didn't clusterfuck everything, the PS5 OG and Slim would have already seen price drops and then they would have slid the Pro in around the same retail price as the original. Maybe silghtly higher,something like $549 for the disk drive version and $449 for the digital one.
Why would PS5 OG should have significant price drop when its cost no going down? Problem is not imflation, 15% difference is like 70$ drop (thus making PRO a 600$ console still wo hard drive)
Many still try to live in a fantasy where Moore Law is still alive and kicking, while it's essentially dead and I expect that every new power-up will come with additional cost with very slow cost reduction.

If they really can't price drop, 599 with a drive would have been more reasonable. As it is, the calculous must be that it's not going to attract many new users. I think that's wrong but I don't have the numbers.
Give that PS5 OG is 499 with drive, 599 with drive would give us a very marginal upgrade, why bother to upgrade at all at this pace?

$599 with a disc drive. The PS4 pro launched 3 years later with double the gpu at the same launch price. This is launching 4 years later with 1.7x the gpu power.
The situation in tech not the same as it was when PS4 Pro launched.
 

Hoddi

Member
I'm fine with paying $700 for a console at the start of a generation but it’s a harder sell with just 3-4 years left in the gen. Had PS5 released at $700 then it could have been a stronger system with more memory.

I generally like the idea of mid-generation Pro consoles but the combined cost of these is now $1200-$1300 in addition to PS Plus. I'd rather just have a stronger $700-$800 console from the beginning.
 

Mibu no ookami

Demoted Member® Pro™
Why would PS5 OG should have significant price drop when its cost no going down? Problem is not imflation, 15% difference is like 70$ drop (thus making PRO a 600$ console still wo hard drive)
Many still try to live in a fantasy where Moore Law is still alive and kicking, while it's essentially dead and I expect that every new power-up will come with additional cost with very slow cost reduction.


Give that PS5 OG is 499 with drive, 599 with drive would give us a very marginal upgrade, why bother to upgrade at all at this pace?


The situation in tech not the same as it was when PS4 Pro launched.

It's just ultimately a disconnect between consumers and reality. One that largely won't be bridged until consumers look for alternatives and realize that there aren't better alternatives.

Sony was losing money on the PS5 hardware, their financial reports have cited this consistently, yet people ignore the financial reports.

The idea that they would take a BIGGER cut on the PS5 and release a cheaper PS5 Pro that they would take a further loss on simply doesn't add up.

I can see some people who invested in a 1, 2, or even 4 TB SSD wishing that the console only had 1 TB SSD, because they'd be happy with the combined storage that they have. I already bought a 2TB SSD, but I'm looking forward to having 4TB total. Not everyone has upgraded and even those who did, likely will utilize that space anyways. I'm already at the point where I have to delete games or retool where games are saved. I don't want to have to deal with that in the future.

I'm fine with paying $700 for a console at the start of a generation but it’s a harder sell with just 3-4 years left in the gen. Had PS5 released at $700 then it could have been a stronger system with more memory.

I generally like the idea of mid-generation Pro consoles but the combined cost of these is now $1200-$1300 in addition to PS Plus. I'd rather just have a stronger $700-$800 console from the beginning.

I think you're underestimating how long 4 years is and there is no guarantee that the PS6 comes out in 2028. They could very well extend this generation to 2030, it will be extended by virtue of cross-gen anyways. PS5 will have a longer cross gen lifespan than the PS4.

It's also weird that you're combining the prices rather than reducing the price of your old PS5 via trade in. Through Sony Direct and Backmarket you can get 280-300 dollars for your PS5 trade in (for some weird reason the PS5 Digital is worth 20 dollars more). Add an extra controller and they give you an extra 73 dollars...

That being said, I do agree with you. I would have paid more upfront for a more capable PS5 at launch, but the biggest problem with the PS5 launch aside from the pandemic and supply chains was the timing. These systems missed machine learning and honestly because they both went with AMD, they weren't going to get it for years, so it wasn't worth waiting for.
 

James Sawyer Ford

Gold Member
I'm fine with paying $700 for a console at the start of a generation but it’s a harder sell with just 3-4 years left in the gen. Had PS5 released at $700 then it could have been a stronger system with more memory.

I generally like the idea of mid-generation Pro consoles but the combined cost of these is now $1200-$1300 in addition to PS Plus. I'd rather just have a stronger $700-$800 console from the beginning.

$399 + $700 - $300 = $799 total cost of ownership over 8 years, or $100/year
 

Hoddi

Member
I think you're underestimating how long 4 years is and there is no guarantee that the PS6 comes out in 2028. They could very well extend this generation to 2030, it will be extended by virtue of cross-gen anyways. PS5 will have a longer cross gen lifespan than the PS4.

It's also weird that you're combining the prices rather than reducing the price of your old PS5 via trade in. Through Sony Direct and Backmarket you can get 280-300 dollars for your PS5 trade in (for some weird reason the PS5 Digital is worth 20 dollars more). Add an extra controller and they give you an extra 73 dollars...

That being said, I do agree with you. I would have paid more upfront for a more capable PS5 at launch, but the biggest problem with the PS5 launch aside from the pandemic and supply chains was the timing. These systems missed machine learning and honestly because they both went with AMD, they weren't going to get it for years, so it wasn't worth waiting for.
I don't really disagree but if PS5 had released with 24GB on a 384-bit bus then that could have changed a lot. ML upscaling is a great bandaid but it's still just a bandaid.

I don't agree that trade-in value matters though because it's not something that most people will bother with. It's like saying the RTX 4090 doesn't really cost $1600 because you can sell your old GPU. It's technically true but it doesn't really matter in this.
 
I would love for those saying sub 700 or those saying that it should have been 700 and included the disc drive to give a breakdown of how much they value each new feature in the PS5 Pro compared to the $450 Digital

  • 2TB SSD
  • WiFi 7
  • GPU with 45% increased rasterization
  • CPU with 10% faster clock speed
  • AI Upscaling
  • Improved RTX

For those dismissing 2TB, look at it this way. Black Ops 6 takes up 309GB. How big do we think GTA6 is going to be? It's likely that these two games will take up the vast majority of your standard storage size. Throw in Ghost of Yotei and you're definitely going to be in trouble. 1TB is simply not looking towards the future.

WiFi 7 is going to be a crucial element for quality if they end up releasing a wireless PSVR2.

But anyways, would love for people to give an actual breakdown on how valuable each of these features are or what they would remove to get to the prices they're asking for.
I consider the system to be worth $700 if it included the disc drive. The core system and of its features itself with a 1TB SSD would be worth $600 to me. I'll allow them the extra $100 for the 2GB SSD. I already have a 5TB external HDD that I use for all PS4 titles and for storing PS5 titles I'm not currently playing but am not finished with (case in point, I'm waiting for The Lake House DLC for Alan Wake II. When I've finished that then I'll fully uninstall the game).

I'm not one of the people who feel that the PS5 Pro is overpriced. Based on the current reality of economics, the price is mostly fair. My quibble is that the disc drive should have been included--perhaps just offering both an All Digital and Optical Drive version at the base $700 and including a year of PS+ Extra with the All Digital to compensate for the lack of the drive.

I will probably buy the PS5 Pro with a viable trade in offer for my launch PS5. Though I won't sell it for less than $300 since it's been well taken care of and has seen moderate but not heavy use--probably about 20 hours a week.
 

dcx4610

Member
Honestly, I think $700 is fine considering the regular is $500.

The big problem I have with it is the fact that it's a mid-gen console refresh when it's not really needed. This generation has been the weakest in my life time and there aren't any games begging for upgrades. It's $700 for a marginal upgrade only for the PS6 to come out in another 3-4 years. It's a bad trend that Sony has put force as a way to milk more money out of consumers. These are consoles - not PCs.

Also, they should absolutely be including the disc drive and vertical stand at $700. I think leaving the disc drive out is purposeful to shift consumers away from physical media.
 

Cakeboxer

Member
599 Euro with 1TB and the disc drive + stand.

PS5 Digital is ~350 Euro in my country, Pro is 800 Euro. We are comparing two (frozen) pictures next to each other to spot differences, how will you notice anything while playing (in motion) without direct comparison? You can't, PS2-->PS3 times are over. This just leaves you with the feeling that you play the better version when we talk about graphics.

To me it's just not worth additional 450 Euro, PS5 games look good enough.
 
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Bojanglez

The Amiga Brotherhood
I think the current price will prove to be acceptable to many people, once those sales have been exhausted they will probably adjust the price to capture the next batch of people that didn't think it was acceptable, as long as they are not taking a loss.
 
I remember this get thrown around in the PS3 era. It was cheap for what you're getting.

Remember the PS3 was priced at 600, but the parts were worth close to 900. That doesn't matter. Value and cost are two different things. I hope that's easy to understand..
Yes, I remember well. Spot on. It won't surprise you to learn that I was one of the few early adopters of the PS3 :messenger_tears_of_joy:
 

Generic

Member
$700 is high, and clearly the majority of people think it’s too high.

But it had to cost more than the base model ps5, which is currently $450 if we use the digital edition, which seems like the most logical choice since the pro is also digital only (still can’t believe that, btw…)

So the price would have to be between $450-$700.

So what is it? $600? $550? $650?

What would have been the price that gamers wouldn’t have their current level of sticker shock?
$500.
 

Mibu no ookami

Demoted Member® Pro™
Honestly, I think $700 is fine considering the regular is $500.

The big problem I have with it is the fact that it's a mid-gen console refresh when it's not really needed. This generation has been the weakest in my life time and there aren't any games begging for upgrades. It's $700 for a marginal upgrade only for the PS6 to come out in another 3-4 years. It's a bad trend that Sony has put force as a way to milk more money out of consumers. These are consoles - not PCs.

Also, they should absolutely be including the disc drive and vertical stand at $700. I think leaving the disc drive out is purposeful to shift consumers away from physical media.

I guess I don't know what that means. Weakest of your lifetime? I think people's expectations/understanding is skewed.

Gaming up until the PS3 generation capped out at 480p... We got 1080p with the PS3 but it was really rough. Largely games were 30 fps at 1080p and lower...

The PS4 was still largely 1080p30.

The PS5 can take a PS4 game and 2.25x the resolution and double the framerate... this is all in one generation.... The PS5 Pro gets us to double the framerate and double the resolution with additional IQ... That's really never happened in a generation since the PS3.

When it comes to PC, since the advent of high-powered GPUs, we haven't seen a major swing back towards console like the PS5 Pro. PCs are so out of whack more expensive than consoles right now for the same delivery.

I think you're guilty of what a lot of people are guilty of when they look at the visuals of fidelity mode vs PS5 Pro but ignore that one is at 30 fps and the other is at 60 fps. And what you're largely doing is comparing previous generations, when those games ALSO ran at 30 fps in most cases.

You say there aren't any games begging for upgrades, but that's hardly true and its the reason why basically every major AAA Microsoft game has been shooting for 30 fps recently: Hellblade 2 and Starfield. It's why Wukong doesn't play at 60 fps and why they're probably struggling with it on Series S. More and more games are pushing the resolution lower and lower on what are now the base consoles and the only answer to get these running is variable resolutions and poor FSR implementation.

Enjoy playing games at 30 fps for the next 4 years, especially with muddier resolutions.

Also 70% of their software sales last year were digital. You think its nefarious, but they're reading the tea leaves. That digital number rises annually. Consumers buy digitally, whether you're a part of that or not and you still have the option to buy a disc drive if you want. Somehow you want Sony to eat the cost of the drive the most people don't even use, to your personal benefit...

I think the current price will prove to be acceptable to many people, once those sales have been exhausted they will probably adjust the price to capture the next batch of people that didn't think it was acceptable, as long as they are not taking a loss.

I don't see a price drop until after GTA6, unless Microsoft drops the price of the XSX and sees GTA6 gains as a result.
 

BlackTron

Member
$600 for disc drive. This thing is still available on Sony direct. Hopefully Sony learns and discounts it for Black Friday

Maybe if their PS5 business depended on moving this console, but it doesn't. If they don't sell that many, they can simply sell through their stock and not make many more.

Not that I think they will have a problem selling them, but if they did. It's not like they are under pressure to move these consoles to build an install base or anything like that. There's a product for people who can't afford it called PS5....I'm sure they would prefer you buy one of those than to sell you Pro with a discount.
 

No_Cartridge

Neo Member
I think the price is about about right given the current financial climate. Anyone believing Sony could sell this for 499 without tanking the company is misinformed.

Xbox are selling a 56CU RDNA2 2TB console for 600. They're clearly unwilling to make a large loss on Series X consoles moving forward.

Sony want to me break even/earn a profit for each unit sold.

However I would like to see a stand and disk drive included in a "pro" model.
 

FingerBang

Member
I expected 599 without disc drive and thought it'd have been alright as a price. Not great but not terrible. 699 with no disc drive is a bit steep but it's not Sony's fault. It's still way more than a PC can offer for that price and above, and I bet it will be the same even when the new generation of cards drops
 

Justin9mm

Member
Australian price for the PS5 was $749 AUD. I think $999 AUD for Pro would of been fair, but they priced it $1199 AUD + an optional $159 for the disc drive.
 

Cakeboxer

Member
Sony want to me break even/earn a profit for each unit sold.
To me this is a testrun. Of course the Pro is more an enthusiasts product, but if enthusiasts are willing to pay 100% more than for the PS4 Pro (In Europe 399->799, even more with the disc drive), casuals also will pay more for the base product. If the PS5 Pro has sales compared to the PS4 Pro, i expect the PS6 to be 599-649 Euro without a disc drive.
 
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No_Cartridge

Neo Member
To me this is a testrun. Of course the Pro is more an enthusiasts product, but if enthusiasts are willing to pay 100% more than for the PS4 Pro (In Europe 399->799, even more with the disc drive), casuals also will pay more for the base product. If the PS5 Pro has sales compared to the PS4 Pro, i expect the PS6 to be 599-649 Euro without a disc drive.
I agree this is a test run and fully expect that the PS6 will be the most expensive 'core' console they've brought to market.

Die shrinks (the lack of) are not resulting huge savings like previous generations and the PS5 slim want up in price not down with a disk drive. If the PS5 pro is a success and I expect to be and people have shown willingness to continue to buy the PS5 despite its high price after 4 years.

Sony will not take a huge hit on PS6. Cross Gen and games library's will keep many in the Sony eco system regardless.
 

DinoD

Member
Australian price for the PS5 was $749 AUD. I think $999 AUD for Pro would of been fair, but they priced it $1199 AUD + an optional $159 for the disc drive.

AUD $999 without drive and AUD$1099 with Ddrive would have been fair. Anything above, is pure faken greed.
 

StereoVsn

Gold Member
But how does reducing the price of the base model justify the Pro price getting to where it is now?

As a person who bought the Pro I don't care if the price drops on the base model. I'm not buying that product and it doesn't make the Pro cheaper or change its stance. Maybe I'm missing something.
It’s about the spread between base and Pro models. I think dropping the price on base models, and keeping overall spread to $200 would have been better moves.

Sony still might do that but only after taking initial cash from early buyers.
 
I think $599 even without the disc drive would have gone over better. I think by this point most/many figured it wasn't going to launch at $499( with a price drop for the base model). We clearly aren't in that economy and to boot Xbox doesn't apply enough pressure for them to feel remotely compelled to eat the cost.

Also, the fact that the UK/EU prices are hundreds more than the USD is scummy as fuck ( and likely the result of Xbox being irrelevant in those areas).
 

Fess

Member
Also, the fact that the UK/EU prices are hundreds more than the USD is scummy as fuck ( and likely the result of Xbox being irrelevant in those areas).
Yeah they do it because they can. And next Xbox is going to increase prices even more if they go for a more highend product morphing into a PC of sorts. People now use the overpriced 2TB XSX that nobody is buying as an example how Pro isn’t actually all that expensive. Imagine what will happen when there is a $900 Xbox out… Will Sony still go for $699? Not likely.
 
Yeah they do it because they can. And next Xbox is going to increase prices even more if they go for a more highend product morphing into a PC of sorts. People now use the overpriced 2TB XSX that nobody is buying as an example how Pro isn’t actually all that expensive. Imagine what will happen when there is a $900 Xbox out… Will Sony still go for $699? Not likely.
Yeah the 2TB XSX model at most should have been $499( in essence replacing the price point of the 1TB model). Or as in
prior gens, all of these base models would be $300-400 by now. This gen just flat sucks for pricing, whatever the reasons....

But going back to regional pricing, I think the EU price for PS4 Pro was 399 and GBP was 349, time you did the conversions it may have been slightly more than the US price but not much( taking into account US sales rax). Thy just straight up give zero fuck this gen and outright taking the piss with the EU/UK markets.
 
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Alan Wake

Member
They probably couldn't go much lower if they want to make a profit. But I don't know. For a 700 price tag I would've at least have wished they'd included a disc drive. But obviously this is their way of step by step getting of rid of disc based gaming altogether. We know the digital part of game sales is increasing yoy, and with the future all digital PS6 they can point to this as well as how few actually bought the disc drive for their PS5 Pro etc.
 

Seomel

Member
I think people dont realize Pro is niche product marketed for minority of players. I think Ideal.would have been $699with disc drive.
I see some other saying how original should cost like $300-400 like lol, lmao even as some say. Its a console that does 1440p60 or more(or very rarely less) for most majority of new games. These consoles including series x are not as far behind as previous gens from average pc, so its kinda insulting that people expect them to be so cheap. Want cheap, go buy series s or used ps5.
 
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