PlayStation 5 Pro vs PC. Last week, my X/Twitter timeline was packed with value comparisons presented with an increasing level of mania. Is the latest Sony console so overpriced that a PC may actually offer more for your money? From my perspective, there are a couple of ways you can look at this. Firstly, are the costs of console gaming rising so much that a gaming PC is no longer such an expensive alternative? That’s a legitimate concern and worth some discussion. However, the actual argument seems to be that potential Pro buyers should opt for a PC instead and for me, that’s a less plausible idea. Both formats play games, but fundamentally they are very different things – and believe it or not, potential Pro users may already own a gaming PC and still want a Pro… or simply don’t want a PC at all!
The more you look at the latter argument, the less it makes sense. It’s unlikely that PS5 Pro will be anyone’s first console at that price – it’s a premium version of the existing machine and I’d put money on the lion’s share of its audience currently owning a standard PlayStation 5 and upgrading for a better machine. The notion that these users should buy a PC instead doesn’t quite make sense because not even the most powerful, expensive gaming PC in the world has access to your library of PlayStation games.
On a tangent, access to gaming libraries is one reason we’re really not happy about the disc drive not being included in the asking price: enthusiast PS4/PS5 owners must surely have a bunch of discs they’d like to play and not including an optical drive with PS5 Pro looks bad because it is bad.
I’d also suggest that while both PC and PS5 Pro play games – often the same games – the ownership experience is quite different. The value comparisons typically involve building the PC, shopping around for the best prices. It’s an exercise that automatically locks out a good proportion of the audience who may not feel confident in component selection or actually building the system. Then there are the complications of failing parts and myriad warranties. There are good value pre-builts out there, mind you, but how many mainstream gamers really want to contend with Windows 11, driver updates or multiple store launchers? The PC is far from a plug and play platform in the way a console is, meaning its accessibility and functionality in the living room – the traditional home of the console – is questionable.
The PC format has its own range of big advantages, of course. There’s no charge for online multiplayer. Free games are actually free games if you have an Epic Games Store account (or, cheating slightly, Amazon Prime). Pricing is more dynamic and you often get more from your money. You have crucial access to expandability and upgradeability in a way a console can’t match, while the lion’s share of technological innovations and advances happen on PC first. And yes, crucially, if you’re looking to run more games at 60fps or even beyond 120fps, you will have far more success on PC, #StutterStruggle permitting. That’s why I’m willing to bet that the enthusiast – and yes, affluent – PlayStation gamer looking at PS5 Pro may well already be a PC owner too. There are great reasons for owning both.
So, to summarise: PS5 Pro is aimed at PlayStation users who have an existing library of games and want the best experience from their console of choice. It offers a streamlined experience that is more user-friendly and doesn’t involve any kind of construction and minimal maintenance. In the vast majority of cases, everything just works and continues to work – an area where PC is more cumbersome. And in terms of the Pro itself, what you are getting in terms of ‘more GPU’, machine learning upscaling and enhanced RT is actually a decent round-up of the core innovations from the PC space, presented in console form with all the advantages of the existing platform and ecosystem. None of this is meant to justify the excessive price-point, but that is the nature of the Pro offering: outside of actually playing games, a console is still very different to a PC.
The concept of asking existing PlayStation owners with money to spare to choose between a PS5 Pro and a PC is a little odd then, but the nature of the £699/$699/€799 price-point opens up a very different and much more interesting discussion on the future of console pricing in general, outside of the idea of a premium SKU offering. Today’s PS5 Pro isn’t a mainstream proposition but one might imagine that the next generation PlayStation 6 definitely will be. The standard PS5 with a disc drive launched with a $100 premium over the outgoing PlayStation 4 Pro – which certainly raises awkward questions about future console pricing if the same thing holds true for PS6 vs PS5 Pro. I don’t think any platform holder can go into the tenth generation with Pro-level sticker prices and if they do, we could be looking at a repeat – or worse – of the PlayStation 3 launch disaster. And a situation like that with a brand new generation could see people looking over their options, and I think both Microsoft and Valve perhaps understand this.
By that time, I expect to have seen fundamental change in the PC market to the point where the platform is better equipped to replace a console. In looking at PC handhelds, Microsoft’s Phil Spencer has acknowledged that the worst part of the experience is Windows 11 and so I fully expect to see Windows transform into a multi-faceted operating system that can offer the same kind of user-friendliness as a console, while at the same time retaining its open nature and access to multiple storefronts. In some shape or form, Xbox digital libraries will be able to migrate back to Windows – something we already see with Play Anywhere and Game Pass. Does that sound like a pipedream? Perhaps, except that Valve has already shown that a PC operating system can work very well in a console environment in the form of SteamOS on Steam Deck. And inevitably, SteamOS itself will migrate to other hardware.
However, I still feel that the recipe still isn’t quite there. We will need greater diversity of PC hardware to compete with the advantages of a console and that means new form factors for pre-built computers. Remember the Alienware Alpha, or better yet, the Alienware X51? Mainstream manufacturers like Dell/Alienware, Lenovo and HP can definitely deliver that type of kit – the question is whether competitive pricing is possible. Of course, there’s every chance that the next-gen Xbox or Xboxes will be along those lines and maybe Valve will look to build upon its successes with Steam Deck with a more console-like box.
Even so, the basic idea of PC pricing being competitive with a console for similar performance is remarkable – and it does suggest that the PS5 Pro is overpriced, but there may well be reasons for this. I think there’s a strong chance that PS5 Pro is unsubsidised and Sony may even be looking to make a profit from it, while there may still be some kind of subsidy on the base model. However, the lack of meaningful cost reductions on the standard console in four years is surely alarming.
Another element to the pricing situation is that Sony is a Japanese company and the exchange rate for the Yen is highly problematic. Compared to this time five years ago, it’s over 23 percent down against the US dollar. This does not explain a similar situation with Xbox Series pricing, mind you, nor the massively expensive $600 2TB Xbox Series X, all of which suggests a more widespread issue with the bill of materials – and possibly a very long PlayStation generation.
For now at least, a console is a console and a PC is a PC. They’re both wonderful things and great for playing games, but they’re also quite different. For how long that remains the case remains to be seen, but I do expect that PlayStation 5 Pro and its pricing will be judged on their own merits – not on whether you can build a price-equivalent PC that’s as powerful.