So, remember how in my last post, I decried the ever-rising cost of gaming hardware and stubbornly concluded that I was going to game on the hardware I already own until I no longer can? Uh, so about that … I now own a PS5 Pro.
Let me explain.
I feel like a massive hypocrite, but what I ultimately am is an extremely frugal person who does everything she can to talk herself out of making big purchases. The bile literally rose in my throat as I inserted my card into the POS terminal; while I punched in my PIN, a little voice in my head said “you are part of the problem, you are giving the capitalist pigs exactly what they want.” Thing is, though, I’ve already invested so much money into the PlayStation ecosystem, a large part of my physical and digital game library has been inaccessible to me for the past few years, and I can afford the PS5 Pro – even though I absolutely still think it’s overpriced, and didn’t want to spend quite that much money on it.
After deciding to leave PC gaming behind circa 2014 (that’s a long story for another time), I gamed exclusively on a PS4. I was then lucky enough to snag a day one PS5, and soon built up a small library of physical and digital PS5 games to supplement my sprawling PS4 library. My PS5 was sadly stolen a little over year later during a home invasion. That was (obviously) an extremely traumatizing experience for me and my husband, made even worse by the fact that it was impossible to buy a new or used replacement PS5 at that time.
When we finally plucked up the courage to risk buying another console, our only option was to go backwards with a PS4, or to buy an XBOX Series X (on sale) as a stop-gap until the PS5 became available again. I couldn’t deal with the thought of returning to locked 30 FPS, so we went with the XSX.
I never did end up buying another PS5 when the shortage ended; I felt like I couldn’t justify it, since the XSX was a perfectly serviceable replacement from a hardware perspective, and a lot of the games I had on PlayStation were available on Game Pass. I also had an entry-level gaming laptop – originally purchased for hobby video production, not gaming – with plenty of cheap games on Steam to tide me over whenever my husband was playing on the XSX.
As much as I enjoy Steam sales and our XSX, though, PlayStations and PS-exclusive titles have always held a special place in my heart.1 I have, for instance, played and adored almost every single Naughty Dog game released since Crash Bandicoot. I had actually just bought The Last of Us Part II when my PS5 was stolen, and couldn’t bring myself to repurchase the game on my mediocre gaming laptop when it eventually came out on PC. There’s an upcoming Naughty Dog title I desperately want to play as well (Intergalactic), plus the rumoured Uncharted 5 and The Last of Us Part III.
Sony recently announced that PC will no longer receive PS-exclusive ports, so I would have had no way to play Intergalactic or any other future Naughty Dog game if I’d stuck with my original plan of running my extant hardware into the ground. There are also so many other PlayStation exclusives I love that have never been officially released on PC, like Demon’s Souls, Bloodborne, and the like. Also, what if Insomniac Games releases another Ratchet & Clank? I had already resigned myself to the thought of never being able to play the upcoming Wolverine, but the possibility of not being able to play another Ratchet & Clank… I know emulations exist, but they’re often finicky and too much hassle to set up.
And so, the more I thought about it, the more it felt like I was making the wrong choice by snubbing my nose at the PS5 Pro before the next inevitable price hike. It would have felt very good to stick it to Sony,2 but it feels even better to actually play games I love. Games matter more to me in the long run than saving an extra $1099 for retirement, and that was what ultimately decided things for me.
Think of me as a fickle fool soon parted with her money if you must, but I feel like I’m in a much better position now to weather the RAM/GPU apocalypse. I’ve regained access to my PlayStation backlog (which was far more substantial than my Steam or XBOX backlog), I’ll be able to replay games I love, and the Pro gives me a nice performance bump that’ll serve me well for the next few years of AAA gaming. I can also play all of the PS-exclusive games I wanted to play over the last few years, but couldn’t, plus all of the PS5 exclusives yet to come. Then, if Bethesda ends up releasing The Elder Scrolls VI as an XBOX exclusive (doubtful, but there’s always a chance they’ll do something stupid like that), I’ll be set with the XSX. And I can still use my laptop to play ultra cheap, much less demanding classic game remasters or indie titles via Steam.
I highly doubt I’ll be buying a PS6 without a disc drive, so the PS5 Pro may end up being my last ever console… If that’s the case, then as needlessly expensive as it is, it’s a great console to go out on. I didn’t have a chance to spend much time with it yesterday, but I can tell it’s already a significant upgrade over my laptop and the XSX – and that’s on a 1440p LED monitor3 that isn’t even making the most of what the system is capable of.
Between my old laptop, XSX, and now the PS5 Pro, I shouldn’t feel much (if any) need to upgrade my gaming hardware for at least another four to five years. And hey, who knows? Maybe by that point in time, OpenAI and Anthropic will be mere footnotes in tech history, and components will be reasonably priced again for console gamers and PC gamers alike! One can hope, right?
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have the day off and plenty of PlayStation games to play. 🙂
Footnotes
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My very first console was an original NES back in 1994, but the console that made me fall in love with gaming was the OG PlayStation my sister and I got for Christmas in 1996 – pre-analogue sticks and all. ↩
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They’re certainly giving us lots of reasons to … the primary one being their decision to phase out physical discs by 2028. I don’t mind purchasing games digitally (in fact, I’d say about 75% of my games are digital), but I hate it that they’re effectively shutting out members of the playerbase who can only afford gaming because of their ability to buy game discs used, or to trade discs with friends. ↩
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I’ll eventually invest in a 4K OLED next time there’s a really good sale on, and I’m looking forward to replaying all of my favourite PS5 games on the Pro when I do! ↩