The PlayStation 5 Pro has finally been unveiled

Sony has debuted the PlayStation 5 Pro. The new console will land on November 7, 2024 and retail for $699.99.

The PS5 Pro will feature three key upgrades including a larger GPU for rendering that's up to 45 percent faster than the base model. Sony also made major upgrades to ray-tracing by taking a "streamlined and accelerated approach that allows for calculation of rays at double or even triple the speeds of PS5."

Finally, the company added custom hardware for machine learning via an AI library called PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR) that analyses game images pixel by pixel and can "add an extraordinary amount of detail that boosts the effective resolution of the games."

Elaborating on why Sony has focused on those areas specifically, PS5 lead architect Mark Cerny said the company wanted to address developers' "desire for more graphics performance." He said the PS5 Pro will lessen the need for developers and players to choose between performance mode and graphics mode.

"When asked to decide on the mode, players are choosing 'performance' at least three quarters of the time. Removing that decision, or narrowing that divide, is one of the key targets for PlayStation 5 Pro," he said. "We wanted to give players the graphics that game creators aspire to, at the higher frame rates players typically prefer."

He added that PS5 developers are already working on adding PS5 Pro support to existing titles such as The Last of Us Part II, Horizon Forbidden West, Gran Turismo 7, and Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart to enhance performance across the board. New titles will also support PS5 Pro.

In terms of how those older releases will benefit from the extra firepower, Cerny said the "goal of delivering almost fidelity like graphics at 'performance' frame rate has been achieved across a broad set of [older] titles."

Contrasting the PS5 Pro experience with 'Performance Mode' on PS5, he said players will be able to see an obvious "difference in detail." He said the Pro is "much sharper and crisper" than its forebear, and claimed distant details and small flourishes will be much clearer as a result.

Lighting and visual effects should also receive a shot in the arm due to that expanded GPU, allowing titles like Gran Turismo 7 to add ray-traced reflections without compromising its target of 60 frames per-second. "Simply put, it's the most powerful console ever built," added Cerny, "and a worthy addition to the PS5 family."

Can the PlayStation 5 Pro revive hardware sales at Sony?

This isn't the first time Sony has refreshed its PlayStation hardware lineup mid-cycle. The company launched a PlayStation 4 Pro to pack more power into its last-generation machine. Microsoft has also taken a similar approach, bolstering the Xbox One range with the launch of the more powerful Xbox One X and slimline Xbox One S. 

The PlayStation 5 had sold-through over 56 million units worldwide as of April 30, 2024. The current-generation console launched on November 12, 2020, but it looks like sales have already started to slide away.

According to Sony's latest fiscal report, PS5 hardware sales totalled 2.4 million units during Q1 FY24, down from 3.3 million units in Q1 FY23. That downturn wasn't unexpected. Back in March, Sony senior vice president Naomi Matsuoka told Bloomberg it expected annual PS5 hardware sales to lose momentum–and even indicated the console was entering the "latter stage of its life cycle."

"We will put more emphasis on the balance between profitability and sales," added Matsuoka. "For this reason, we expect the annual sales pace of PS5 hardware will start falling from the next fiscal year."

It'll be interesting to see whether the launch of the PlayStation 5 Pro can change the narrative.