PS5 Pro: Is the Million-Won Price Tag Worth the Upgrade

Sony’s new game console, “PlayStation 5 PRO” (hereinafter referred to as PS5 PRO), which is the leader in the console gaming market, has a shocking price tag – a whopping 1,118,000 won. Moreover, this price is the price of the version without disk drive, so if you buy the additional driver, which costs about 160,000 won, it becomes a high-end gaming machine that costs a whopping 1.27 million won.

The price of the previous version, PS5, was also 558,000 won for the digital version and 628,000 won for the disc driver version, so there was a lot of talk about it being expensive, but this time the price is more than doubled higher . Even though the inflation rate is huge nowadays, it is a culture shock to have to pay more than 1 million won for a game console.

PlayStation 5 PRO (source = official trailer)

According to Sony’s announcement, the PS5 Pro’s built-in storage capacity (SSD) has increased to 2TB compared to the existing PS5, and the resolution and frame rate have been improved by strengthening the graphics processing unit (GPU). Additionally, pixel-level improvements are said to be seen through improved ray tracing features and AI-powered upscaling. To put it simply, the game is faster and the graphics are better. Previously, when switching from PS4 to PS4 PRO, the game was much better thanks to the impressive performance improvements, so it is expected that this time too you will be able to enjoy the game much more smoothly.

However, as this is a new device, the performance could be improved, but the key is whether it will be able to provide the equivalent satisfaction at twice the price. It used to be a few hundred thousand won, so it wasn’t a huge burden, but now the price is high enough to make it difficult to buy a computer. If you are an adult and your hobby is video games and you buy them with your own money, you may not worry, but as a parent, if your child asks you to buy them, it is an amount that cannot be decided easily.

PS5 PRO has improved features such as ray tracing. (Source = Official Trailer)

The technical presentation video where the PS5 Pro was released has over 170,000 “dislikes”, which shows that there are many people dissatisfied with the price of the PS5 PRO.

Of course there are conflicting opinions. Our position is that in order to enjoy high-end games you need to buy a very expensive computer and we must also understand that the price of game consoles has increased. Nowadays, smartphone prices are so high that they are close to 2 million won.

In particular, in the case of graphics cards that have caused computer prices to skyrocket, you need to purchase a class 4090 or higher, which costs over 3 million won, to comfortably enjoy games with 4K graphics such as PS5 PRO. Although it is significantly improved compared to the previous version, it can still be considered a convenient device compared to a computer. I hear the next 5090 will be bigger and more expensive, so I’m scared of how much the price will go up.

NVIDIA’s RTX GeForce 4090 costs over 3 million won (Source = NVIDIA website)

However, if you don’t necessarily want the PS5 PRO but see it as a way to enjoy the latest games, I would advise you against buying it right away.

Since PS5 just released, all the latest games support PS5. I don’t know if there will be any games released in the future that only work on PS5 PRO, but for now you can enjoy all the latest games with your PS5. Even newer games often support the PS4 version.

Another variable is that Sony is quickly releasing exclusive games on PC. Previously, to enjoy Sony exclusive games like Marvel Spyman and God of War, you had to buy a PS5, now you only have to wait about a year for the PC version to be released, so you can enjoy Sony exclusive games on your home PC even without buying a PS5 You can.

Spider-Man 2, PC version released in less than two years (Source = Steam game presentation page)

In other words, there was once a time when the most reasonable way to enjoy console gaming was to buy a PS5, but that may no longer be the case. Since each individual’s situation will be different, their position on the price of PS5 PRO will also be different. We recommend everyone to consume rationally according to their individual circumstances.