The Sony PS5 Pro will likely be announced later today, as part of a presentation that starts streaming at 4pm.
A nine-minute “technical presentation” will be held later today by Sony.
We know it’s related to the PlayStation 5 Pro not just because the console is regarded as an open secret within gaming circles, but game leaker account Wario64 also found the YouTube listing was originally titled “PS5 Pro” before being renamed “PlayStation 5 Technical Presentation”.
It will be live from 4pm on YouTube.
The presentation will be hosted by Mark Cerny, who was the lead systems architect of the PS5, the PS4 and the PS Vita. He is a wizard of the in-depth technical details behind modern consoles, and nine minutes is only just enough to get him started.
If you want a taste of Cerny magic, you can watch his 50-minute presentation on the original PlayStation 5 on YouTube.
PS5 Pro upgrades and features
What should we expect from the PlayStation 5 Pro? It’s likely to be a more powerful and more expensive take on today’s PS5, but there’s a little more to it than just upping the console’s horsepower.
There’s a generational upgrade in the PlayStation 5 Pro’s graphics hardware, according to leaked info. And it will have bespoke upscaling abilities comparable to those of Nvidia’s GeForce RTX graphics cards.
This could mean games will look higher resolution on the PS5 Pro without actually being rendered at higher resolutions, using machine learning to make up the difference. And, with greater graphics power on tap, this means more juice in reserve for higher frame rates, more advanced visual effects, or a combination of the two.
The PlayStation 5 Pro is also expected to deliver up to three times the ray-tracing performance of the current console. This is used to model the behaviour of light, resulting in great-looking reflections and shadows.
Our hope is the PlayStation 5 Pro reveal will be accompanied by a bunch of demos that show off what this power means in actual games, what the difference really is for players. Sony needs this because the new console will not be cheap.
In previous console generations, the hardware has become cheaper over the years. Not this time.
The PS5 launched at £449 in 2020, or £359 for the digital-only version. It now costs £479, or £389 digital-only. Perhaps we should be glad we’re not in Japan, though, where the cost for a PS5 has risen by 60 per cent, from ¥49,980¥ at launch to ¥79,980 today.
Best guesses from analyst Serkan Toto, via IGN, put the PlayStation 5 Pro price at around $650 (around £500) in the US, and you can expect to pay more for the version with a disc drive. It’s likely to look similar to today’s consoles, but with a trio of “go faster” style black stripes across its middle section, as seemingly confirmed in Sony artwork for PlayStation’s 30th anniversary celebrations.
The console is not expected to go on sale immediately, with the actual release likely to land closer to Christmas. Multiple sources claim a November release date is likely.