There are a number of reasons why consumers will be drawn to the PS4 Pro when it launches in November. Its increased horsepower and 4K gaming support will draw in both new and established PlayStation consumes alike, earning new business for Sony. But judging by the early reception of the console and its controversial shortcomings, it might be a tougher sell than Sony was hoping for.
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Outrage has been stirred following Sony's PlayStation Meeting yesterday, where it made history by announcing the PS4 Pro. Below we will go over the top 5 reasons that the upcoming console isn't winning over consumers.
1. Ultra HD Drive Not Included
Did you know that the Ultra HD standard was created by several companies including Sony? This is a standard that has earned widespread adoption by allowing consumers to take advantage of their 4K displays. Despite this, no Ultra HD Blu-Ray drive will be included in the PS4 Slim or PS4 Pro.
The omission of an Ultra HD Blu-Ray drive means that only resolutions up to 1080p will be supported via Blu-Ray. So, while the PS4 Pro is being billed as a premium 4K focused product, it will only be able to display 4K resolution from digital sources, some of which require high bandwidth and data caps.
This is particularly staggering when you consider that Microsoft's new Xbox One S, which is effectively a competitor to the PS4 Slim, includes an Ultra HD Blu-Ray Player. It's likely that the Xbox One Scorpio will include one as well.
As the rumors go, including an Ultra HD Blu-Ray drive would have cost Sony an additional $15~ per unit, cutting into its profit margins. Considering the company was recently on the verge of bankruptcy, it's understandable that it takes profit very seriously, but this is already not sitting well with consumers.
2. It Can't Handle 4K Native
The main selling point of the PS4 Pro is that it can run games at 4K resolution. This is a bit deceiving, though. Its 4.2 TFLOPS capable GPU simply doesn't even come close to hitting the requirements needed to run games at 4K natively. It's no wonder why Sony said nothing about hardware specs during the announcement yesterday.
As it turns out, the way that the PS4 Pro will achieve 4K output in most games is by using hardware-based checkerboard "upscaling". This method renders a smaller portion of the 4K image, and then calculates the rest, heavily reducing computational costs in the process. Since it's rendering only half of the pixels, this leads to output that is certainly not the equivalent of 4K, but it's as close as we're going to get with the PS4 Pro.
This method will be built into the hardware and therefore will not require additional work by developers, which is a huge relief for studios that incur huge costs from having to optimize games on multiple platforms.
Although checkerboard rendering sounds fancy, what it means is that the PS4 4K is not really a 4K gaming machine, or at least not technically speaking. Instead, it requires tricks in order to simulate such a large resolution.
3. It's a Mid-Generation Hardware Upgrade
Since the dawn of home consoles, their one solution simplicity has been a major selling point. In general, console gamers like being able to pick up a console and know that it will run all the games built for it without any compromises. They also like the fact that games built for the device have been optimized to the hardware, in many cases resulting in strong performance efficiency.
Because of this, console gamers have been voicing their disinterest in mid-generation hardware upgrades since the moment that the PS4 Pro was leaked earlier this year. Many initially considered it to be an absurd rumor, and figured that such a move by Sony would be a deathknell.
Well, the PS4 Pro is definitely real, and it's coming sooner than imagined.
No matter how big of an upgrade the PS4 Pro offers, it's a mid-generation hardware upgrade that devalues the original PS4 and increases the complexity of the PS4 ecosystem. This is frowned upon by many console gamers, and will be a huge point of contention going forward.
4. It Suffers From the Same Issues As the Original PS4
The PS4 is on its way to becoming one of the best-selling consoles of all-time, and for good reason. It has great hardware, software, and offers attractive improvements over the PS3. But that doesn't mean it's perfect. The PS4 has some frustrating shortcomings, actually.
Take for example the DualShock 4 controller. It offers no more than 8 hours of battery life, can't have its light bar turned off, and uses cheap materials that rub off over time.
The PS4 is also a very loud console that runs hot, especially when compared to the competition. There's also an argument to be made that a lot of its first-party software hasn't performed well.
The PS4 Pro isn't rectifying any of these issues commonly experienced by PS4 owners. It'll use the same controller, and very similar cooling techniques on a heat-producing 28nm process. As such, it doesn't feel like iterative hardware.
5. Xbox One Scorpio Is Much More Powerful
The PS4 Pro would appear much more attractive if it didn't have hard competition, but it does. Not only does PC gaming look more alluring than ever, but in one year's time Microsoft will release the Xbox One Scorpio.
The Xbox One Scorpio will have a GPU capable of 6 TFLOPS of computation, and a faster CPU. For this reason it is expected to be around 45% more powerful than the PS4 Pro.
For the consumer who is concerned with graphics, and pays attention to resolution comparisons, there will be a huge distinction between the PS4 Pro and Xbox One Scorpio. In-fact, in terms of raw performance the margin will be more significant than any two competing consoles in the history of the gaming industry.
While the pricing of the Xbox One Scorpio is still up in the air, and it will launch around 12 month later, the point remains that it will become by far the most powerful gaming console whenever it does arrive, and this can't be ignored. It'll loom over the heads of PS4 Pro early adopters for the next 12 months.
