I almost skipped the PS4 generation but got a PS4 Pro. As a result I had a huge catalogue of PS4 games to play and all at a decent price as they had been out for a while.

I was so impressed with the PS4 I purchased the PS5. Honestly the best thing about the PS5 is Astros Playground. Outside of that I'm just playing a remastered or patched PS4 game. The PS5 has been bitterly disappointing.

This is like saying new pcs barely have a reason to exist because old pcs can play some new pc games.

I disagree heavily.

I actually think that technologically speaking, the PS5 is unimpressive. But compared to the PS4 pro, calling it a “waste” is lunacy. The only reason you think this is clearly because you didn’t have a PS4 lol.

There's also questions around the game industry as a whole. I think the recent layoffs at major companies aren't just another cycle, but systemic. The market no longer bears production of giant games with crazy graphics that cost $70 and have a bunch of DLC and gambling mechanics attached.

Games won't go away, but they'll play fine on something like the Steam Deck, Switch 2, or modest gaming PC. What would high end console hardware bring to the table anymore?

Not even higher resolution. I mean, potentially on paper but consoles have been UHD capable(-ish) since the PS4 Pro and higher resolution’s are neither viable nor necessary. So it’ll just upscale a few titles a little less or run some games with a little higher fps…

Most people don't seem to care about the Steam Deck running Linux (I do), but they've been wanting a good handheld gaming experience, and nobody is offering it. Nintendo is stuck with decade+ old hardware, the PS Portal doesn't work w/o network, and the Windows handhelds kind of suck.

Steam Deck works well with minimal effort, and people love it.

I don't know about the rest of the world but my country is in a recession. There are no jobs and no houses. Rent is huge.

The number of people who can buy expensive toys is going down. People want good value for money, and good value for money is winning the market.

If Microsoft is working on an enhanced model it's a new development, their console development plans leaked during the Activision purchase thing, it had their next gen plans and the digital only Series X but no enhanced model.

Yes, if they want to grow hardware sales, they should aim for cheaper hardware. Given how most games are still cross-gen, they could have sold a PS5s or smg with a PS4 pro level of performance, but PS5 design, Dualsense features, etc.

I also feel they missed the mark on the Portal, it’s a niche gimmicky tool, instead of a powerful competitor in the growing handheld market.

PS5 Pro is a stupid idea, maybe in 2 years it would make sense, but still doubtful. Due to the slower development of tech and covid supply chain issues, the real start of the generation got “delayed” a few years, which should be taken into account.

The question is who would want one?

If you're a big graphics nerd, who really needs the highest quality everything, you probably have a PC. If you're an average consumer , the PS5 is fine. A PS5 Pro seems unnecessary.

Here's the thing though, when you're CPU-limited (and a lot of the games that struggle on current gen are) the upgrade won't do much.

You should expect better resolution, ray tracing and possibly better image quality if devs implement PSSSR and it's better than whatever upscale solution they'd use instead. Maybe if a game is pretty close to hittong its frame target it'll give you a smoother performance but don't expect much last that