If drawing distance is going to increase, you wont be able to enjoy a normal PS5 anymore.
If the promise of instant loading was a selling point of the normal PS5, then current games are already overtaxing its hardware.
Admittedly I don't own a PS5, but at the same time I can't think of any major modern game that I've played or even heard about on either PS5 or the Series X where draw distance has truly been a noticeable issue. In fact, the only "new" game I've recently played with significant draw distance/rendering issues was, of all things, Pokemon Arceus.
For me personally, better draw distance isn't quite enough to make me justify spending that extra $200. Since I grew up with and still semi-regularly play old PS1, 2 and 3 games, I'm one of those weirdos where relatively poor draw distance, and 30 FPS for that matter, aren't instant deal-breakers. Not everyone playing modern games has the eye for detail of the team running Digital Foundry.
Similarly, faster load times from what we currently have also doesn't sway me that much. Almost all of the current-gen games I regularly play load plenty quick as it is (with the notable exception of NFS Unbound) on my Series X, and I have a hard time believing that the Base PS5 lags significantly behind, if at all, in that department. To that extent, I have a really hard time seeing that whatever gains are made in loading time will be truly eye-watering.
I still am wondering about the price though:
why let go of a disc drive (to save money) but then add more storage space (yet I do understand that 500GB is basically nothing).
I'm assuming the price difference is the combination of the upgraded SSD, alongside the extra GPU upgrades in the Pro. Even with that, imo the disc drive at least should be included at that price point. It give the idea of the PS5 Pro being a significant upgrade over the base models a much stronger foundation, because otherwise it only exists as a $300 upgrade over the digital version.
IMO, the only upgrade that actually has some lasting significance with the Pro is the 2TB SSD from factory, and I also think in the long-run, it'd be a lot easier overall to sell the PS5 Pro if Sony ate the cost of the Disc Drive.
Series X 2TB is a competitor to the standard PS5.
Yes, but the 2TB SSD does put it in a similar spotlight to the PS5 Pro, and as such will invite some cross-shopping between the Pro and the Series X, despite the Series Xs relative lack of power. At that point, the main thing that helps the PS5 Pro is its exclusives, thankfully none of which are locked behind the Pro model in terms of access.
PS5 Pro will offer a substantial performance jump, arguably even bigger for 3rd Party titles that often use FSR2 and very low base resolutions. Sony 1st Party titles are always well optimised across all hardware, PS5 Pro just gives the best of both worlds (Quality & Performance).
If that is actually the case, then I feel Sony did a poor job really showing that potential by using a clip from Hogwarts Legacy that was still very clearly running at 30 FPS. And if 1st Party titles are already well-optimized, then unless other games have significantly greater jumps in performance compared to what was shown today, the graphical gains between the standard PS5 and the Pro model starts to enter the realm of diminishing returns.
It's for the 15-20% who are willing to pay for the best and have likely already had 4 years use out of the base PS5.
The Best, minus the disc drive and vertical stand that was built into and included, respectively, with the launch version of the PS5 in 2020.
Look, if you're wanting me to pay for a console that has a bigger price difference than the price gap between last-gen and current-gen, then I would expect a generational leap in upgrades to follow, both graphically and otherwise, and ideally without the removal (and subsequent nickel-and-diming) of previously established features.
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As an aside, looking at the price of the PS5 Pro in Yen and Googling the currency exchange really mad me realize how badly the Yen is currently doing.