PS5 Pro is still far cheaper than a PC

[Mummelmann]

The PS5 Pro's main issue isn't really the performance, or even the price in and on itself. It's its value proposition, which is very poor. There's a reason why high-tier PC components sell much, much worse than mid-range or even low-range; the value proposition is lower for the vast majority of potential customers. Paying up to and over 50% more for a slight increase (I had trouble spotting it myself) in visual fidelity is a poor proposition, just like it is in the PC space. For me, the PS5 overall, as a platform, lacks proper perceived value. I can get more than enough without one, the Pro does nothing to change that. I can afford one, but I have no interest in it, for what it is, and I won't be alone in thinking so. Sony's recent drive to release most of their biggest IPs on PC is likely to cement this sentiment for many.

So, the Pro doesn't look likely to pull in new demographics - there's not enough incentive to do so. And, it's a tough sell for existing PS5 owners as well, the performance boost just isn't significant enough to warrant the price difference. Add to that the fact that a disc-drive and a stand aren't even included, this is approaching Apple-levels of marketing feces, from where I'm sitting. Sony are also much more reliant on physical media than, say, Microsoft, with nearly 60% of their game sales still being physical copies. These figures are even higher for many first party titles (I believe Uncharted 4, among others, has almost 80% physical sales ratio). Apparently, there's been a surge in sales of external disc-drives this week, it would appear that physical disks still matter in their ecosystem. The amount of customers willing to spend up to 1100-1200$ to get a PS5 with the same capabilities as a base model, with minor visual fidelity increases, will likely not be huge.

In addition, bragging about RT performance is a huge mistake; AMD cards are famously much poorer at this. To make matters worse, FSR is also weak compared to DLSS, even Intel is catching up with XeSS. A more moderate performance hike, with the Pro model taking over the base model's price point, paired with a reduction in the price of the base model would have made much more sense in this market.