One would think that Sony, by announcing the PlayStation 4 Pro, intended to beat Microsoft and provide a more powerful console to gamers one year earlier than the scheduled launch of the Xbox Scorpio.
As it turns out, the main reason could very well be an attempt to prevent the migration of PlayStation gamers over to the PC platform, at least according to Sony Interactive Entertainment's President and Global CEO Andrew House. In an interview conducted by the Guardian just after the PlayStation Meeting, he said:
I saw some data that really influenced me.
It suggested that there’s a dip mid-console lifecycle where the players who want the very best graphical experience will start to migrate to PC, because that’s obviously where it’s to be had. We wanted to keep those people within our eco-system by giving them the very best and very highest [performance quality]. So the net result of those thoughts was PlayStation 4 Pro – and, by and large, a graphical approach to game improvement.
That's hardly news. It's been happening for several console generations already - at the very beginning consoles might provide a fairly close graphical experience to the PC, but as the years pass the inevitable hardware improvements provide PC games with an ever growing edge, at least until the next console generation. During the last generation I made that same choice myself, ditching the consoles mid-cycle to focus on a powerful PC gaming rig.
It looks like now Sony finally opted to act on this data and deliver a more powerful console just three years after this console generation began, with the clear goal to keep enthusiasts in their fold. Microsoft is poised to make the same choice when it launches Scorpio next year, though in that case the increased time and power differential might be closer to a new generation.
It's hard to say if Sony will be successful in this bid. A top of the line PC, though much more expensive, can already beat the PlayStation 4 Pro and that's without mentioning many other advantages such as modding, which Sony seems obstinately refusing to bring to PlayStation.
What do you think, dear readers? You can vote in the poll below and express your opinions in the comments.
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.
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