Sony announces digital-only PlayStation 5 Pro, costs £700

Sony has officially unveiled its next iteration of the PS5, or to give it its full name, the PlayStation 5 Pro.

The digital-only PS5 Pro is set to arrive on 7th November. It will cost £699.99/$699.99. Preorders will begin later this month, on 26th September. It will include a 2TB SSD, a DualSense wireless controller and – as the PS5 did – a copy of Astro’s Playroom pre-installed. As a general point, you will need to buy the vertical stand separately (£24.99).

The separate disc drive is also compatible – as per the current Slim model – but costs an additional £99.99. If you want to purchase everything, you are looking at a total of £825.

The main benefit of the PS5 Pro is it will allow for Fidelity level graphics at Performance level frame rates. It does this with three key features, as laid out by PlayStation:

Upgraded GPU: With PS5 Pro, we are upgrading to a GPU that has 67 percent more Compute Units than the current PS5 console and 28 percent faster memory. Overall, this enables up to 45 percent faster rendering for gameplay, making the experience much smoother.

Advanced Ray Tracing: We’ve added even more powerful ray tracing that provides more dynamic reflection and refraction of light. This allows the rays to be cast at double, and at times triple, the speeds of the current PS5 console.

AI-Driven Upscaling: We’re also introducing PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution, an AI-driven upscaling that uses a machine learning-based technology to provide super sharp image clarity by adding an extraordinary amount of detail.

Additionally, the console has PS5 Pro Game Boost, which PlayStation says will apply to “more than 8,500 backward compatible PS4 games playable on PS5 Pro”.

Says PlayStation: “This feature may stabilise or improve the performance of supported PS4 and PS5 games. Enhanced Image Quality for PS4 games is also available to improve the resolution on select PS4 games. PS5 Pro will also launch with the latest wireless technology, Wi-Fi 7, in territories supporting this standard. VRR and 8K gaming are also supported.”

As for how it will fit into your home, the PS5 Pro is the same height as the original PS5 model, and the same width as the current PS5 model.

PlayStation said several titles including Demon’s Souls, Alan Wake 2 and Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart (pictured above) will be patched with a free software update, which will allow them to “take advantage” of the PS5 Pro’s souped-up features. These games will all come with a ‘PS5 Pro Enhanced’ label within their title, so keep an eye out for that.

Here are all the games we know will have PS5 Pro support so far, with “more” promised down the line:

• Alan Wake 2
• Assassin’s Creed: Shadows
• Demon’s Souls
• Dragon’s Dogma 2
• Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth
• Gran Turismo 7
• Hogwarts Legacy
• Horizon Forbidden West
• Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
• Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart
• The Crew Motorfest
• The First Descendant
• The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered

As you would expect, all current PS5 accessories such as PlayStation VR2, PlayStation Portal, DualSense Edge, Access controller, Pulse Elite and Pulse Explore will be compatible with the PS5 Pro. Additionally, the user interface and network services will remain the same as those on PS5, PlayStation said.

Today’s PS5 Pro reveal comes as no real surprise. After all, Sony’s official 30th anniversary artwork, which the company shared towards the end of last week, appeared to tease the next version of its PS5 console, and here it is in all its glory much as the drawing depicted.

Earlier this week, Sony also increased the price of the PS5’s DualSense controller. Coincidence?

Are you interested in getting yourself a PS5 Pro ahead of the winter holidays? Let us know your thoughts.