Sony finally pulled back the curtain on the PlayStation 5 Pro, and the internet erupted—but not the way the company hoped.
The upgraded console lands November 7 with a jaw-dropping $699.99 price tag, and it does NOT include a disc drive or a vertical stand.
Seven hundred bucks, and you'll still be reaching for your wallet if you want to play physical games.
Let's break down what you're actually getting.
The PS5 Pro packs a beefed-up GPU with 67% more compute units, a feature Sony calls "advanced ray tracing," and something branded as PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution—an AI upscaling trick that promises sharper visuals at smoother frame rates.
The pitch is simple: your games will look better and run faster.
You need a compatible TV and a compatible game to even notice.
Here's the part that sent social media into a frenzy.
The console costs $699.99 in the US, yet the original PS5 launched at $499.99.
That's a $200 jump for a mid-generation refresh—something players historically got for the same price or less.
Add the optional disc drive at $79.99 and a stand at $29.99, and you're staring down nearly $810 before you've bought a single game.
Meanwhile, a capable gaming PC or a Steam Deck suddenly looks a lot more tempting to budget-conscious buyers.
The gaming industry is in the middle of a brutal wave of layoffs, studio closures, and price hikes across the board.
Dropping a premium console into that climate feels tone-deaf to a large chunk of the fanbase, and the comment sections have been merciless.
Memes comparing the price to a used car started circulating within hours of the announcement.
To be fair, the hardware itself is genuinely impressive on paper.
Early hands-on impressions suggest games like Marvel's Spider-Man 2 and Ratchet & Clank look noticeably crisper, with ray-traced reflections that finally feel worth the hype.
If you own a high-end 4K OLED TV and care deeply about image quality, the upgrade is real.
But for the millions of players still rocking a standard 1080p set, the difference may be nearly invisible.
Sony is betting on the enthusiast crowd—the folks who bought a PS5 on day one and want the best possible version of every new release.
That's a real audience, but it's a niche one.
The PS4 Pro launched at $399 and sold respectably because it felt like a reasonable upgrade.
This feels like a luxury purchase dressed up as a mainstream product.
The bigger question is whether the Pro model even matters this generation.
Most major games are still built to run on the base PS5, and developers have little incentive to push hardware that only a fraction of players own.
Until exclusive Pro-enhanced titles show up, the value proposition stays fuzzy.
Our take: the PS5 Pro is a fantastic machine trapped in a terrible price.
If you've got the TV, the budget, and the itch for the absolute best console visuals, go for it.
Final Thoughts
Everyone else should wait for a sale—or stick with what you've got, because your current PlayStation isn't suddenly obsolete overnight.