Sony announced the PlayStation 4 Pro two days ago, and since then we've covered a lot of developers praising the new console (due for release on November 10th) and its enhanced hardware capabilities.
It's quite refreshing, then, to hear a more honest and thoughtful statement, especially from a first party developer. Speaking with Kotaku, Guerrilla Games' Technical Director Michiel van der Leeuw admitted that PlayStation 4 Pro is aimed at enthusiasts and doesn't drastically change the gaming experience.
It’s just a visual enhancement. It doesn’t drastically change the nature of your games... We do the same calculations. Normally we’re just limited by whatever the TV can display. We remove the cap and all of a sudden there’s something quite beautiful underneath. It doesn’t drastically change a thing. It’s just prettier and nicer, for the enthusiasts who are into that sort of stuff.
That's completely correct. PlayStation 4 Pro is essentially a system upgrade very similar to boosting your personal computer's hardware by purchasing a new GPU, for instance.
There won't be any exclusives for PlayStation 4 Pro, we've known that since the rumors began swirling, and for good reason: Sony couldn't possibly afford to leave behind its massive 40+ million install base.
As a result, the additional power cannot be used to create better games (for example by increasing the complexity of the artificial intelligence or the physics or by making a larger world), only prettier ones. That's perfectly fine, as long as everyone is aware that this is strictly a product for enthusiast level gamers who don't mind spending some money for graphical enhancements.
You can also be assured that Sony won't let developers compromise the frame rate of their games in order to push the graphics, though. In a comment submitted on the same article, author Stephen Totilo confirmed as much after speaking with Insomniac's Chief Creative Officer Brian Hastings.
Are you planning to buy a PlayStation 4 Pro once it hits stores on November 10th? Tell us in the comments section.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
Follow Wccftech on Google to get more of our news coverage in your feeds.
