PS5 Pro accounts for low single-digit percent of US PS5 sales

[EricHiggin]

Hardstuck-Platinum said:

EricHiggin said:

Isn't about half the PS4 userbase still refraining from transitioning to PS5?

75M (PS5) + 58M (PS4) = 133M

133M - 117M = 16M

PS5 is also a bit behind PS4 launch aligned correct? So let's say 14M-15M.

How many of those 14-15 million are brand new gamers vs XB gamers transitioning to PS5?

This is a good point as people always ignore the PS4 when they shouldn't. There's still tens of millions of active PlayStation gamers on there and your right, there is no reason for them to be discounted. No way of knowing the split of migrating from Xbox/new gamers though? Is just pure speculation. 

EricHiggin said:

Why release a PS6? The majority were saying the same thing about PS5 Pro, rightly assuming this would be what followed. Poor sales (vs PS4 Pro).

SNY now knows in the future, that they can either launch a mid gen Pro again, but in the same manner as PS4 and not PS5, or they can skip Pro.

Either that or SNY copies XB Series and launches PS6 with a cheap base SKU and a more expensive Pro SKU.

Seeing leaks that XB will probably just have a high end PC like SKU next gen, which will be expensive, will allow SNY, and possibly push them to want to sell an expensive Pro SKU right from launch to have something to (indirectly) compete with XB.

Even if that's the XB approach, SNY cannot just pull another PS3 luxury expensive console again. If SNY launch a single PS6 SKU that's $599 or higher, it's going to lead to very poor sales and a terrible 10th generation.

It's too early to call the PS5 Pro a definitive failure yet. It might get a massively improved version of GTA6 and sales might explode for the Pro. I think Sony is going to wait until GTA6 can turn it around before making any final judgements on pro models. 

The problem with this post is, is that it doesn't take into consideration how much competition affects prices. The only reason we've had cheap consoles is because of the very intense battle for market share between Sony and MS. XBSX cost 700$ to make in 2020 but competition with Sony forced the price down substantially. Incredibly. it even went down to 350$ in holiday 2023. If there was no competition they would have just launched it at the price of what it cost to make, and there's nothing wrong with doing that. MS wouldn't have been greedy launching the XBSX at 700$, it would've just been a break even sale. 

Point is, people are going to be forced into paying whatever the production cost is for the PS6 because Sony now has no reason to lower the price to anything below because of MS no longer competing for cheaper consoles. This means the only way we'll get a cheap console is if they make one that is cheap to produce. 

No idea what the split would be, but with how much XB sales are down, wouldn't surprise me that there's millions of past XB owners in that 14M-15M.

Pro could see a bump, but I doubt it's going to be anything too substantial. Hardcore gamers don't tend to be big GTA fans, and I don't see many casuals paying Pro money just to get the best version of GTAVI. Also depends on the price of GTAVI, who knows, maybe it'll end up $100. Also depends on what next gen leaks are saying by the GTAVI launch. If there sounds like there's going to be a reasonable performance jump, if not a Pro SKU at launch next gen, some will wait a year for something better.

I wouldn't think SNY will highly subsidize PS6, but if they build a single $599 SKU that they think is a necessary jump for next gen, they're going to end up with more of a PS3 type situation on their hands again. People aren't simply just going to pay more because SNY asks that, competition or not. Too much is too much no matter how you slice it. XBSX selling at $700 at launch would've been suicide, even if PS5 also launched at $700. XBSX sales would be half of what they are now if MS tried that approach, and PS5 would've sold much less like it did and more so like Pro has.

I agree with this, but I don't see a problem with it. Just sell multiple SKU's. A sub $500 SKU and a $599 or above Pro SKU. Have a 3rd SKU that's either the handheld or a base console for $500 or less. In order for SNY to get those PS4 players to transition, they're going to need to offer them something sub $500, and plenty of PS5 owners aren't going to be all that interested in something sub $500 next gen, so you need something more powerful (and expensive) for them.