A new DF Direct Weekly lands – as usual – today, with the team’s thoughts on the recent State of Play, reaction to the most recent RTX 5080/5090 leaks and, perhaps inevitably, more PlayStation 5 Pro. However, it’s actually a point raised in last week’s Direct that I want to tackle in this week’s blog. Many believe – with some justification – that the PS5 Pro is a step too far and that such a console isn’t needed. In fact, we’ve made the argument ourselves. Looking back at that piece, I warned about higher costs of a Pro console, but also looked at the potential improvements it could bring – all of which have come to pass with PS5 Pro. Microsoft declined the opportunity to follow likewise, but now we have some idea of why Sony has taken a different route and perhaps more of the strategy is now understandable.
Before we get into that though, I wanted to highlight an astute point made by one of our backers of the DF Supporter Program. If you’re invested in the PlayStation platform, if you’re going to skip PS5 Pro but will likely get a PS6, the arrival of an enhanced machine is likely very good news for you.
Let’s rewind to the launch of Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5. A fundamental aspect of their appeal was the fact that your existing library of games would carry forward to the new hardware. Microsoft made their plans clear to fans, but the message from PlayStation was confused – and yet, ultimately, PS5 back-compat worked almost as well as the Xbox equivalent. The continuity in game libraries from one generation to the next made the idea of switching platforms a difficult sell, something Phil Spencer himself pointed out.
0:00:00 Introduction0:01:16 News 1: Sony reveals new games in State of Play0:14:04 News 2: Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered analysed0:33:17 News 3: New PS5 Pro Enhanced titles announced0:44:48 News 4: Assassin’s Creed Shadows delayed0:55:07 News 5: Dragon’s Dogma 2: how is patch 9 on PS5?1:00:44 News 6: Monster Hunter PC specs spark concern1:14:01 News 7: RTX 5080, 5090 specs reportedly leaked1:35:52 Supporter Q1: Should console generations be extended further?1:42:44 Supporter Q2: Will the upcoming Microsoft handheld rely on FSR 4?1:45:57 Supporter Q3: Would the Series S/X divide be fine if the S came with more memory?1:53:47 Supporter Q4: Is there a difference between analysing provided footage and footage you captured yourself?
“We lost the worst generation to lose in the Xbox One generation, where everybody built their digital library of games,” he said. “I see a lot of pundits out there who want to go back to the time when we all had cartridges and discs, and every new generation was a clean slate, and you could switch the whole console share. That’s just not the world we are in today.”