Xbox Made The Right Call Skipping a PS5 Pro Competitor

ISSUE NO. 1

Waiting for next-gen is the way to go and Microsoft believing in its current consoles is the right move.Posted:

Oct 5, 2024 12:30 pm

This is the first in a series of guest columns from Pure Xbox, a loyal community dedicated to all things Team Green. We bring you all the biggest news from the world of Xbox, as well as features, polls, talking points, reviews and so much more!

The PS5 Pro, with its jaw-dropping price tag, is now a known quantity after months of rumours and speculation. But while I totally get the thinking behind mid-gen upgrades — console cycles are lengthy, especially compared to other tech — the PS5 Pro is a really tough sell, even for the most passionate fan. That’s why I firmly believe Microsoft has made the right call not to bother with its own PS5 Pro competitor.

The last time we had mid-gen systems in the PS4 Pro and the Xbox One X, 4K TVs were becoming much more commonplace so an upgrade that supported this tech made total sense. Additionally, Microsoft also had a weak console launch with 2013’s Xbox One and so there was an opportunity to flip the narrative by pushing out an upgrade. That’s exactly what happened, because the Xbox One X was a fantastic system and arguably the one to go for compared to PS4 Pro, because it provided a bigger leap from the base Xbox One and was ultimately more powerful than Sony’s offering. The One X certainly made the back half of last-gen a much better place to be as an Xbox fan and a follower of the industry.

Every Game Enhanced for PS5 Pro So FarFast forward to 2024 and the world – and the games industry – is a different place. Inflation has run rampant in recent years, which has meant the prices for goods aren’t coming down in the same way they did years before. Xbox Series X and PS5 are still, broadly speaking, at launch-day price levels. Heck, a PlayStation Dual Sense controller actually costs more now than it did at launch, and for hardware to maintain those prices after four years on the market would have previously been unheard of.

Enter PS5 Pro. Despite the immensely challenging times we live in, Sony has decided a mid-gen upgrade still worth pursuing. The problem for many is the $700 price tag attached to that upgrade, plus it still feels like this generation is only just kicking into gear with the existing hardware lineup, let alone something new. With the potential of the Xbox Series X and S to fully tap into over the next few years, I genuinely believe Microsoft doesn’t need another console in its lineup.

Xbox clearly believes there’s still has room to impress on Xbox Series X|S, and I’m inclined to agree

Sony is struggling to make a compelling case for the PS5 Pro, at least that’s what it looks like on the Xbox side of the fence. PSSR, its bespoke AI upscaling solution, will no doubt have a major effect on the platform in the future but it still feels like a distinctly ‘PS6’ feature at this stage. Early previews and impressions from tech outlets such as Digital Foundry are positive about PSSR but right now, I’m struggling to see where my $700 would be going. Admittedly I’m looking at the benefits of the improved hardware on YouTube and not natively on a PS5 Pro, but that’s the case for the majority of folks interested in buying this thing.

Right now we’re only just getting into the territory where actual, current-gen-only games are a thing. 2023 really was the year where both Microsoft and Sony stopped putting out games for their respective last-gen systems, and third-party developers are slowly following suit now too. Xbox clearly believes there’s still has room to impress on Xbox Series X|S, and I’m inclined to agree now developers are able to focus their efforts rather than worry about cross-generation performance.

I had to struggle through the barren spell at the start of the generation, along with the rest of Team Green’s followers, but at least we’re due a busier few years to come on Xbox Series X|S. 2025 should be a killer year for Xbox, and in my opinion doesn’t need a pricey hardware upgrade to achieve that. Phil Spencer himself believes it too.

So Xbox has made the right call to skip a mid-gen console this generation and, in a way, PS5 Pro’s existence might actually benefit the next Xbox, as third-party developers will no doubt be testing out some of the system’s work-in-progress features before they become a real fixture for next-gen consoles. For the time being though, I’m happy to save my $700 and wait a couple of years for Microsoft’s ‘huge leap’ of a next-gen system, and I’m fine sticking with ‘compromised’ performance modes on Xbox Series X in the meantime.

Ben Kerry is a Staff Writer for Pure Xbox. He’s been immersed in the world of Xbox for over 15 years, and doesn’t plan on leaving anytime soon.