Sony has confirmed the long-rumoured PlayStation 5 Pro will launch globally on November 7^th at a price point of $699 in the US, €799 across Europe, £699.99 in the UK and ¥119,980 in Japan. This represents a 40% premium on the current disc-based model in the US, 46% premium on the UK price, 45% premium on the European price and a 50% premium on the newly announced Japanese price. The pricing of the existing PS5 models will remain the same following the launch of the new model.

The PS5 Pro will come without a disc drive and is compatible with the currently available drive, which can be bought separately. It will include a 2TB SSD, double the 1TB in the current PS5 model. While the PS5 Pro CPU remains the same as the current model, the GPU has been upgraded to include more compute power to improve rendering speed. PS5 Pro will be marketed as the most powerful console available. 

This new GPU also includes more advanced ray tracing and AI-enhanced upscaling to increase frame rates for supported games. PlayStation has named this technology PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution and it is based on AMD’s own FidelityFX Super Resolution. Sony aims to deliver more games at 4K with 60FPS using this technology. PS5 Pro also provides support for Wi-Fi 7, a new standard which supports higher throughput for better wireless connectivity.

Sony says it is presently tracking around 50 titles that will carry the ‘PS5 Pro Enhanced’ label and will take advantage of its new GPU capabilities. These will include Sony’s own releases and third-party games such as Alan Wake 2, Assassin’s Creed: Shadows, Dragon’s Dogma 2, and Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth. In addition, PS5 Pro will run an enhanced version of ‘Game Boost’ for catalogue PS4 and PS5 releases, with games potentially running more stably and with better image quality.   

The physical size of the PS5 Pro is a mixture of the original PS5 and the latest slim model. The height is the same as the original launch PS5 and width is the same as the latest model. The PS5 Pro will be compatible with the official interchangeable covers that are available to existing PS5 disc drive owners (not the slim version covers). 

Product positioning and strategy analysis: PS5 Pro versus PS4 Pro

The PS5 Pro release generally mirrors Sony’s product strategy from the PS4 generation: PS4 Pro was announced in September 2016 and launched two months later in November with its own PS4 Pro Enhanced games and a ‘boost mode’ for selected games. One noteworthy difference is that the PS5 Pro lands four years after the launch of the original PS5, compared to only three years for the PS4 Pro and launch PS4. This later arrival might be related to the disruption caused at the beginning of the PS5 cycle by the pandemic and could possibly impact when we see a next-generation PlayStation 6 enter the market. 

The aims of this repeat product strategy are closely aligned: To engage the enthusiast PlayStation audience that are eager to upgrade their PS5 mid-cycle, convince those that have not upgraded from PS4 to make the leap and tap into non-PlayStation owners that want to most powerful console experience. Ampere expects a large majority of PS5 Pro sales to come from within the PlayStation ecosystem, with a significant share coming from those wanting to upgrade mid-cycle. Like the PS4 Pro, we don’t expect the PS5 Pro to significantly alter the sales dynamics of the PS5 platform as most buyers will be a mixture of existing PS5 owners or upgraders from PS4 that have switched their attention to the Pro model instead of the standard PS5. However, Sony will be hoping that these power users will spend more on software and services helping its overall PlayStation business. 

Sony’s margin and product pricing 

The price point of the PS5 Pro will inevitably cause a lot of commentary. The price point differential between the PS5 and PS5 Pro is between 40-50%, which is significantly more than the differential between the PS4 and PS4 Pro at launch. In the US, the PS4 Pro launched at $399 and the slim PS4 was $299 at the time, a 33% differential.  Additionally, the slim PS4 had a retail price of $299 having dropped from the original PS4 launch price of $399. 

PS5 Pro pricing reflects Sony’s adjusted strategy to protect its margin, general supply chain inflation and a lack of direct competitor to its mid-cycle upgrade compared to last generation (where Microsoft was preparing the Xbox One X). The lack of competition means it is an easier decision for Sony to run with a higher price point to protect its existing margins. For most prospective PS5 consumers, the standard edition will represent the value sweet spot. 

Content and keeping the PS5 audience as one

Inevitably there is a ceiling to the impact a mid-cycle upgrade can have on sales dynamics. This is because hardware sales are driven largely by the availability of compelling content. As Sony is not looking to split its PS5 audience there will be no exclusives for the PS5 Pro and that will hamper overall demand for the console as it did with the PS4 Pro. Sony does believe that the PS5 Pro is easier to support from a developer perspective when building enhanced content compared to the PS4 Pro, which is likely to lead to more games with the ‘PS5 Pro Enhanced’ label coming to market. One hugely anticipated upcoming PS5 game - Take-Two/Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto 6 - will drive a wave of upgrades from PS4 to PS5, with a share of those users opting for the PS5 Pro.  

Expected sales and impact on market

Ampere forecasts that around 1.3 million PS5 Pro consoles will be bought by consumers in the 2024 launch window. This is compared to 1.7m PS4 Pros that were sold at launch in 2016. We expect the price point to soften demand with some consumers, but for PlayStation enthusiasts the pricing is less of a consideration. 

According to Ampere data, over its life, the PS4 Pro sold-through 14.5m units, around 12% of total PS4 sales. We’re expecting a similar dynamic for the PS5 Pro, with the expectation that it will sell-through around 13m units by 2029.  

Sony’s PlayStation business is now more global than ever. Eight years on from when the PS4 Pro came to market, PS5 is selling strongly in countries where there are increasing numbers of consumers with growing disposable income such as mainland China and Saudi Arabia. These markets represent a growing opportunity for PlayStation versus the PS4 generation.