Welp, I only went ahead and did it, didn’t I? Despite the fact I recently wrote that I was struggling to get excited for the PS5 Pro, a month later I’ve literally just pre-ordered Sony’s supercharged console.
My seesawing takes/mood shifts are giving me whiplash at this point. So appropriately, even though I’ve now committed to buying the most powerful PlayStation ever, just 24 hours after placing my pre-order, it’s entirely on brand for me that I’m already semi lamenting the decision.
Right now, I can probably imagine what you’re currently screaming at your screen: “Just cancel your pre-order then, you damn fool!” And that’s an entirely reasonable argument to throw back at me.
Yet as someone who really likes buying the latest gaming tech, even when he’s seemingly not massively excited for said tech in this case, I can’t deny part of me does want a PS5 Pro. Although a larger part of me worries I won’t use it that much seeing as I own a gaming rig with an RTX 4090 in it.
I should probably be thankful I managed to secure a pre-order in the first place”
In all honesty, I should probably be thankful I managed to secure a pre-order in the first place. If you were following my colleague Rory Mellon’s excellent PlayStation 30th Anniversary Collection pre-order live blog a few days ago, you’ll know trying to snatch up even the “bog standard” Pro was a huge challenge. (If you’re still searching for one, be sure to bookmark our PS5 Pro preorders page).
Here in my native U.K. Sony’s beefed up 4K console sold out within four hours. Although technically, it’s actually an 8K machine. Codemasters is aiming to use the console’s “PSSR” upsampling wizardry to deliver a barely believable 8K/60 fps mode in F1 2024 (thanks, Games Rant).
Unhappy Anniversary
The demand for the regular PS5 Pro has nothing on the next level, global scale of thirsting aimed towards the 12,300 PS5 Pro 30th Anniversary Edition Bundles Sony has manufactured, though.
The collection includes a limited edition PS5 Pro, DualSense controller, DualSense Edge, disc drive cover (though not the optional disc drive itself) and a gamepad charging dock.
The entire range has been designed to mimic the now iconic style of the classic PS1, which first launched in ye olden times of December 1994 in Japan. Now while I think this retro-themed collection looks the absolute business, I have more chance of being elected president of Mars before I ever nab one.
Pre-orders for the $999 / £959 30th Anniversary Limited Edition Bundle sold out so fast, The Flash couldn’t have landed one… even if he was switching between a million laptops all logged onto the PlayStation Direct page at the speed of sound.
After all, what does gravity-defying speed matter when scalpers are gonna scalp, right?
Scandalous scalping
Just look at that utterly shameful screenshot above. Yes, that really is a disgusting eBay scalper trying to sell a limited edition PS5 Pro with a couple of pads for £10,000.
Ten. Thousand. Actual. British. Pounds.
And worse, it looks like at the time I took a screengrab of that auction on my PC, two people were seriously considering paying ten times what the bundle is actually worth. That’s wrong on a multitude of levels.
You know one of the main reasons I pre-ordered the PS5 Pro? To deny at least one scalper getting their predatory hands on one, before they suckered in some lifelong PlayStation fan to massively overspend on it.
I’ll admit I paid £150 over the PS5’s MSRP (or “RRP”, as we call it on my frigid British shores) back in late 2020 to get Sony’s console on launch day. It’s not something I’m proud of, let me be clear.
Yet the world was in lockdown, I had a bit of disposable cash, a lot of government-enforced freetime in the evenings to spend on my lonesome, and I really wanted to play Bluepoint Games’ masterful Demon’s Souls remake.
The Pro problem
If I do decide to keep my PS5 Pro — and there’s a reasonable chance I will — there are at least a couple of factors I can take comfort in. The first is that my obsessive eyes will relish replaying bonafide classics, like Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, Resident Evil 4 remake and Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart at higher resolutions and frame rates than the unshapely white box that’s currently sitting under my TV isn’t capable of.
For context, those trio of gems make up but a fraction of the 54 “PS5 Pro Enhanced” games that have already been confirmed by Sony.
And secondly, at least I can hopefully sell my PS5 for somewhere in the region of at least $250-$300 to claw back some of that eye-watering $699 / £699 outlay. A console, may I add, which is in such obsessively immaculate condition, you’d think I was a long lost descendant of Howard Hughes it’s so spotless. Yeah, I might be a smidge too obsessive about cleaning nearly every piece of technology I own with my armada of microfiber cloths.
But what about the scenario where I do a double take and decide buying a PS5 Pro was a slightly rash move, espeically considering I own one of the best gaming PCs? In that case, when it turns up on my doorstep on November 7, I simply won’t open it.
Seeing as I have a friend who couldn’t manage to nail down a pre-order last Thursday, I’ll just sell it to him for, y’know, its actual retail price. Although that said, my pal will get another chance to buy the prosumer PlayStation online when Sony makes a second batch of PS5 Pro pre-orders available on October 10.
Either way, screw scalpers. Whether I keep my PS5 Pro or not — and I do fear my amazing Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (2014) may stunt how much time I play on Sony’s latest console — one thing is for damn sure. If I sell my Pro, it will be to someone I know for exactly £699 and not a penny more.