Sony (SONY.US) releases the PS5 Pro, launching in November for $699

Zhitong Finance learned that Sony Group (SONY.US) will launch a new version of its popular video game console with faster speed and higher price to stimulate sales before the holiday sales season. The company said on Tuesday that the PlayStation 5 Pro will be launched on November 7, priced at $699, 200 dollars higher than the standard version.

Mark Cerny, chief architect of PlayStation 5, said in a video demonstration that the new high-end gaming machine would allow players to play PlayStation 5 games at higher resolution and frame rate without switching between different modes. Sony revealed that the GPU computing unit of PS5 Pro is 67% more than that of PS5, and the memory speed is increased by 28%. In actual operation, the game rendering speed of the new machine will be increased (up to) 45%. Like the trend of the semiconductor industry in recent years, Sony's new chip has significantly improved the light tracing performance, which can reach "2-3 times" that of the current host.

Cerny said that the rendering speed of PlayStation 5 Pro would be 45% faster than the standard PlayStation 5. He said: "In a nutshell, it's the most powerful machine we've ever created."

Sony expects the technological upgrade to help drive PlayStation 5's sales. Since its release in 2020, PlayStation 5 has sold over 59 million units, but slightly lagging behind PlayStation 4. The higher price of PlayStation 5 Pro may affect demand.

PlayStation 5 Pro does not include a disc drive, reflecting a trend in the video game industry that users are shifting from physical media to online services. The disc drive will be purchased separately.

In a blog post, the company said that the new machine would improve the performance of old games and "provide players with free software update patches to take advantage of PS5 Pro's features", including Hogwarts Legacy, Final Fantasy VII: Remake and Marvel's Spider-Man 2.