It has been four years since the release of the PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series. I’ve been console gaming since my early youth, starting with the original PlayStation. By the time of the PlayStation 2, I had learned to expect consoles to iterate and evolve, and that the next horizon would happen sometime later on.

However, I wouldn’t ever think about the following console. I loved my PlayStation 3 and knew a PlayStation 4 would follow, but it was never more than a reality I did not think about.

Yet, during this console cycle, at only four short years in, I am noticing and thinking of the next cycle. And I am constantly dreading the reality.

I suppose it was Astro Bot that helped my eyes crack open. Celebrating everything Sony has accomplished through the PlayStation brand (with the noticeable exception of Square Enix properties) truly reminded me how much these cycles have given us. I enjoyed Astro Bot, although admittedly not to the GOTY sentiment I see from other fans and publications, but remembering the previous PlayStations' lives did show me how much the PlayStation 5 has not had much of a life after all.

There has been a focus on remastering classics from the PlayStation 3, and pointless remasters of PlayStation 4 games which occasionally are barely five years old. The live-service games came and went, leaving no lasting impressions or sometimes even a first impression, such as Foamstars of the disastrous launch of Concord.

To shift gears and discuss Microsoft and the Xbox Series of consoles, we are still waiting on the promised games such as the Perfect Dark reboot and the next chapter for Halo. The rut has yet to end, and the console has become little else but a “Game Pass machine”.

I was content with the PlayStation 1, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox One, and every Nintendo handheld I’ve ever owned. While I did know to expect a horizon, I was still able to love living in the moment. I can’t do that with the PlayStation 5 or the Xbox Series, as even though I do find them stronger versions of their previous console interactions, that is all they feel like. I turn on my PS5 or my Series X and feel like I’m still playing my PS4 or Xbox One but with better user interfaces.

There have been console exclusives I’ve loved, as I heavily enjoyed Marvel’s Spider-Man 2. But when it comes to console exclusives I truly only think of the ones from Nintendo as of late. And with their next console already teased, I actually do see myself excited as long as it’s little more than a more impressive Nintendo Switch.

Which is a funny contrast, and there is instead a growing fear from me for both Sony and Microsoft in how their consoles don’t feel like anything but an upgrade. Xbox’s limbo for the past decade has made things feel like they are moving sideways instead of forward, their momentum is completely stagnant. I can’t be excited anymore as I stopped expecting a comeback, and I even stopped subbing to Gamepass. I’d rather just play my back catalog instead of pretending I’m hyped.

For PlayStation, it’s the growing discomfort in their comfort zone. I may enjoy Spider-Man 2 more than Astro Bot, but the refreshing genre contrast of Astro Bot is still what I would prefer to see more of. PlayStation has enough third-person sandbox story games, as good as they may be. I feel this is a major reason for the disgust I and many others had for the announcement of the PlayStation 5 Pro. When all the games look the same anyway, due to playing the same anyway, what’s the selling point that they will now be a few pixels sharper? Variety is a better spice than 8K and 120 FPS.

I can think hard about the Nintendo Switch, but I lose my train of thought with the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X. They lack the identity that the Switch so easily earned, and after four years on the market with no drop in price, it’s hard not to worry.

Realistically, both companies have plenty of time to learn, but it’s more than fair to say I’ve waited long enough. If this console cycle feels stagnant and samey, it worries me this is a rut too hard to move out of.

I trust Nintendo to innovate even if the next console is little more than Nintendo Switch 2. I don’t currently trust the PlayStation 6 to be anything but a PlayStation 5 Pro. I worry that Xbox doesn’t even try to do anything besides revamp the Series until it sells or they give up.

There are great games right now, and plenty of places to play them. But I worry the next console cycle will feel like nothing. Not even an upgrade. Only time will tell.

As you may know, today (September 10th, 2024), Mark Cerny of Sony Playstation revealed the Pro line for the PS5 family of systems. At only around 10 minutes of video, this was a short but informative video on the enhancements promised by the system.

The big elephant in the room, and the likely talking point no matter how interested (or not) a potential customer may be, is the price point of $699.99. Making this a steep $200 increase from the base model. To cut to the point, whatever negatives I also have with the information provided, there was nothing the PS5 Pro could have done right to justify such a sharp asking price. Considering the wide range of taxes from state to state, this console could easily set you back around $1000, and I doubt taxes in other countries will be too different from this final price. It gets worse when considering that the vertical stand is not included with the Pro, despite how there is a stand included with the base PS5, and how collectors of physical disc games will need to shell out an additional $80 as the required disc tray is also not included.

This screams of corporate greed from a company assuming they can get away with it. Sony’s PlayStation brand earned a lot of goodwill in the past console cycle thanks to the underperformance of both their competitors (The Xbox One and the WiiU), and I fear this mask is starting to crack. A showing of ego, gained by a company deciding the general public now loves them to the point they can do no wrong. I can only imagine, and even assume, that between this and the shutdown of Concord, more than a few PlayStation fans are asking a few questions about their brand loyalty.

But let’s forget speculation, and discuss my other problems with the PS5 Pro. For starters, as profound as it may have sounded from Cerny that developers wish to show how great their games truly look while keeping the framerate the way players want, I feel this also shows a hand. Gamers have started to push back on games going for graphics over writing and/or gameplay, and to openly admit that gamers want FPS over graphics in a professional video from Sony feels like a statement they should have proofread.

I cannot speak for developers, but I honestly doubt the statement is even entirely true. I’m sure developers want their games to be good, absolutely, but graphical fidelity has always been a talking point from publishers and CEOs instead of anything I earnestly heard from a developer. A small issue, true, but a statement that pricked my ears regardless.

As for that fidelity, let’s be frank and say YouTube is the wrong place to do side-by-side comparisons. As an uploader to the platform myself, YouTube’s bitrate compresses image quality so much that true 4K does not exist on the site. Vimeo would have showcased the details far better, but YouTube is the platform more people watch, and I don’t blame Sony for YouTube’s poor render qualities. That said, the side-by-sides looked no different to me.

I have gamed on both a 4K TV and a non-4K TV with my PS5, and I can tell the difference. Even with YouTube’s compression, the only difference I saw was that the Pro version tended to be zoomed in slightly more, which is an odd choice to do for a true side-by-side. As for the framerate discussion, sadly, both videos still looked the same to me. If there is a difference, it’s in the single digits, something I’m sure I would feel but not see.

This type of console is more the more tech-savvy individual, something I somewhat am, as evident by the fact I’m an owner of Sony’s PS VR2, an expensive headset I enjoy so much I have worked it into my exercise regiment. I understand that with high-end tech, feeling can be far more important than seeing

But frankly, even before I knew the price, I was not impressed. These looked like the same old games the PS5 ran very well already. I understood the need for a PS4 pro, as the PS4 was underutilized in terms of slow load times and abysmal download speeds, but I’ve owned a PS5 for a year and have had no issues of the sort. There is no need for the Pro version of the PS5, and at 700 dollars, I only see a flop.