After years of rumors, Sony formally announced the PlayStation 5 Pro last month, but not without some hiccups along the way. The $700 price tag has led to some outcry, and the lack of an included disc drive is also unpopular. Regardless, Sony Interactive Entertainment co-CEO Hideaki Nishino has reiterated the company’s commitment to both versions of the PS5, as well as a 10-year lifecycle for this console generation.
While speaking with Variety, Nishino said that he was happy to see that the “most engaged gaming users are interested in the PS5 Pro,” and shared his belief that “new users will grab the PS5 Pro as well.” “We design everything with having one ahead in our mind,” added Nishino. “It’s not like we just make a next step and we don’t know about the two steps ahead. That’s not our way of working, because we need to make sure that the 10-year-old, generation cycle continues to be going as well.”
The PlayStation 4 Pro was introduced in 2016, only four years before the launch of PlayStation 5. However, there are still PlayStation 4 games in production, which means its life cycle has now reached 11 years even though the PS5 has been Sony’s primary focus since 2020. Will Sony really wait until 2028-2030 to release its next-gen PlayStation 6 if Microsoft releases another generational upgrade of the Xbox first? Nishino didn’t address that, but he did stress that the PlayStation 5 Pro is not a next-gen console.
“I just wanted to say that the Pro is not a next gen,” said Nishino. “It is still in the PS5 generation. PS5 Pro will do everything what PS5 does. So it’s a consumer choice. If they see a need for more visuality, they will get it. So we wanted to provide an option for the consumer within the generation, that’s what we’re doing.”
PlayStation 5 Pro will launch on November 7.