7 ms·

Sony announces the Pro, a more powerful PlayStation 4 with a $399 price tag

26 points by Zweihander 10y ago

crims0n 10y ago
Although the console supports 4K, it does not support Ultra HD (4K) Blu-ray. I feel like this was a large missed opportunity. I was on the fence about upgrading before I heard this, now I don't think I will.
samfisher83 10y ago
Wasn't the whole point of consoles you wouldn't have to upgrade every couple of years?
- crims0n 10y ago
  You don't have to. It will still play current and future games at 30 fps or so - which if you are on console in the first place you are probably okay with.
  - geon 10y ago
    Found the pcmasterrace.
    - aboonaboo 10y ago
      The only way to game
- riboflava 10y ago
  No, it was just the last gen of consoles lasted so long. The bigger benefit is on the dev side by having a single hardware target and also hardware that can be put together much more intimately than a PC to really milk its performance. Though that could also benefit consumers because they could get the best performance experience for the cheapest amount and it would take PCs time to catch up in either absolute or affordable performance. The last gen of consoles was arguably the last gen, the current gen has been much less console-like in many ways. (You could build a PC matching the PS4's capabilities on the PS4's launch day for less money. The xbone almost shipped without disks.)
  - aboonaboo 10y ago
    Most console people say pc sucks because you have to upgrade so...this is ironic
dshibarshin 10y ago
Although it is more powerful and supports 4K gaming and streaming, it cannot play 4K Blu-Rays: https://twitter.com/thisisFoxx/status/773617609547849728 https://twitter.com/thisisFoxx/status/773617609547849728
- mightykan 10y ago
  So what's the point of getting one of these instead of the Xbone S, which _does_ have UHD Blu-ray support?
  - ethanbond 10y ago
    Well, the One S doesn't support 4K video games (thus why I'm waiting for Scorpio)
    - dogma1138 10y ago
      Project Scorpio will, the PS4 Pro won't support 4K gaming either, even a GTX 1080 won't do 4K @ 60 well with modern titles. The PS4 Pro will be a 1080p @ 60 console but nothing more regardless of how they are marketing it, the GPU it has is between the RX460 and the 470 in terms of performance and while they can push for 1080p @ 60 on medium/high settings* on most modern titles they can't run anything at 4K at playable framerates, not even "console experience" frame rates. *New upscaling techniques like UbiSoft's Checkerboard Rendering with decent Temporal AA/EQAA will be able to upscale some games with minimal image quality loss. UbiSoft renders Rainbow Six: Siege at 960x1080 and upscales it to 1080p.
      - pandaman 10y ago
        You realize they have shown playable 4k games at the announcement?
        dogma1138 10y ago
        And the Xbox One and PS4 have been shown playing games at 1080 during their launch events so what? The amount of games that are doing 1080p on either console is slim, they render often at sub 900p (especially on the Xbox One) resolutions with FPS locks to 30. When the Xbox Scorpio was announced which is still more powerful than the PS4 Pro most developers said they'll use the extra power to run the games at 1080p with higher settings than aim at 4K gaming. They will end up doing upscaling of some sort, they have gotten pretty good at it but true 4K pffttt dream on.
iammyIP 10y ago
I wonder why they advertise so much for 4k resolutions, when they still run with a 60degree fov on 30fps with resolutions under 2k. This is madness.
esturk 10y ago
I'm going against the grain here and say that not being able to play 4K Blu-Rays isn't as big of a deal as some are making it out to be. I'm someone that bought into the 'death of the physical media' era so the fact that games and streams can go 4k is enough for me. I have not and do not own a single blu-ray disc and I don't ever plan to. I consider this in the 'bells and whistles' category. It may be good to have but is probably something that I will never use.
m_mueller 10y ago
Has anyone been able to compare PS VR with Oculus / Vive? How big of a deal is the pixel density? Any noticeable lag?
jbb555 10y ago
How is this going to work? Are there going to be games for it that won't run on the cheaper version? Will they design games for this and simply cut out graphics features to make it run on the slower version? Will companies really invest the money in making two versions that both work well?
- ferrari8608 10y ago
  > Will they design games for this and simply cut out graphics features to make it run on the slower version? That's how the relationship between high-end PC games and the consoles work right now, so it's probably the case.
- forgottenpass 10y ago
  Are there going to be games for it that won't run on the cheaper version? NO. No, no, no, no, no.* (*Yes, in a few years. Once Playstation thinks you forgot and installation penetration numbers are high enough for the "news" to not give a shit they reneged.)

26 points by Zweihander 10y ago

Although the console supports 4K, it does not support Ultra HD (4K) Blu-ray. I feel like this was a large missed opportunity. I was on the fence about upgrading before I heard this, now I don't think I will.

samfisher83 10y ago

Wasn't the whole point of consoles you wouldn't have to upgrade every couple of years?

crims0n 10y ago
You don't have to. It will still play current and future games at 30 fps or so - which if you are on console in the first place you are probably okay with.
- geon 10y ago
  Found the pcmasterrace.
  - aboonaboo 10y ago
    The only way to game
riboflava 10y ago
No, it was just the last gen of consoles lasted so long. The bigger benefit is on the dev side by having a single hardware target and also hardware that can be put together much more intimately than a PC to really milk its performance. Though that could also benefit consumers because they could get the best performance experience for the cheapest amount and it would take PCs time to catch up in either absolute or affordable performance. The last gen of consoles was arguably the last gen, the current gen has been much less console-like in many ways. (You could build a PC matching the PS4's capabilities on the PS4's launch day for less money. The xbone almost shipped without disks.)
- aboonaboo 10y ago
  Most console people say pc sucks because you have to upgrade so...this is ironic

dshibarshin 10y ago

Although it is more powerful and supports 4K gaming and streaming, it cannot play 4K Blu-Rays: https://twitter.com/thisisFoxx/status/773617609547849728 https://twitter.com/thisisFoxx/status/773617609547849728

mightykan 10y ago
So what's the point of getting one of these instead of the Xbone S, which _does_ have UHD Blu-ray support?
- ethanbond 10y ago
  Well, the One S doesn't support 4K video games (thus why I'm waiting for Scorpio)
  - dogma1138 10y ago
    Project Scorpio will, the PS4 Pro won't support 4K gaming either, even a GTX 1080 won't do 4K @ 60 well with modern titles. The PS4 Pro will be a 1080p @ 60 console but nothing more regardless of how they are marketing it, the GPU it has is between the RX460 and the 470 in terms of performance and while they can push for 1080p @ 60 on medium/high settings* on most modern titles they can't run anything at 4K at playable framerates, not even "console experience" frame rates. *New upscaling techniques like UbiSoft's Checkerboard Rendering with decent Temporal AA/EQAA will be able to upscale some games with minimal image quality loss. UbiSoft renders Rainbow Six: Siege at 960x1080 and upscales it to 1080p.
    - pandaman 10y ago
      You realize they have shown playable 4k games at the announcement?
      - dogma1138 10y ago
        And the Xbox One and PS4 have been shown playing games at 1080 during their launch events so what? The amount of games that are doing 1080p on either console is slim, they render often at sub 900p (especially on the Xbox One) resolutions with FPS locks to 30. When the Xbox Scorpio was announced which is still more powerful than the PS4 Pro most developers said they'll use the extra power to run the games at 1080p with higher settings than aim at 4K gaming. They will end up doing upscaling of some sort, they have gotten pretty good at it but true 4K pffttt dream on.

iammyIP 10y ago

I wonder why they advertise so much for 4k resolutions, when they still run with a 60degree fov on 30fps with resolutions under 2k. This is madness.

esturk 10y ago

I'm going against the grain here and say that not being able to play 4K Blu-Rays isn't as big of a deal as some are making it out to be. I'm someone that bought into the 'death of the physical media' era so the fact that games and streams can go 4k is enough for me. I have not and do not own a single blu-ray disc and I don't ever plan to. I consider this in the 'bells and whistles' category. It may be good to have but is probably something that I will never use.

m_mueller 10y ago

Has anyone been able to compare PS VR with Oculus / Vive? How big of a deal is the pixel density? Any noticeable lag?

jbb555 10y ago

How is this going to work? Are there going to be games for it that won't run on the cheaper version? Will they design games for this and simply cut out graphics features to make it run on the slower version? Will companies really invest the money in making two versions that both work well?

ferrari8608 10y ago
> Will they design games for this and simply cut out graphics features to make it run on the slower version? That's how the relationship between high-end PC games and the consoles work right now, so it's probably the case.
forgottenpass 10y ago
Are there going to be games for it that won't run on the cheaper version? NO. No, no, no, no, no.* (*Yes, in a few years. Once Playstation thinks you forgot and installation penetration numbers are high enough for the "news" to not give a shit they reneged.)