PS4 Slim and PS4 Pro Announced With Lackluster Reception
Today Sony announced that a new slimmer and lighter PlayStation 4 (CUH-2000 series) with a 500GB HDD will become available in Japan, North America and in Europe starting from September 15, 2016, at manufacturer’s suggested retail price $299 USD.
Sony didn’t stop there as they also announced the introduction of PS4 Pro (CUH-7000 series), which delivers enhanced experiences through improved image processing capability and support for 4K quality images. PS4 Pro will be available on November 10, 2016, in Japan, North America and Europe at a manufacturer’s suggested retail price of US$399.
For those of us in Canada the PS Slim will retail for $379.99 in Canada and the PS Pro will retail for $499.99.
This marks the first time ever in the history of PlayStation that a higher-end system will be introduced in the middle of the platform’s lifecycle.
It all sounds great, right? Unfortunately those in attendance at Sony’s “meeting” in New York didn’t seem all that thrilled with the announcements. The rest of us watching the stream and commenting online didn’t seem all that energized about the announcements either.
Part of the problem is we all knew this was coming and there is nothing we saw today that truly blew us away. The bulk of the presentation today was spent yammering on about 4K resolution and HDR while all of us at home are watching away on our 1080p monitors. Hard to get jazzed about 4K gaming when you really can’t see it an action. I guess you had to be there but even those in attendance weren’t exactly cheering away from the rafters. There was a quick mention of a larger HDD and GPU but aside from that, Sony did little to convince everyone they need to invest in a Pro.
Sure the games will run better with the PS4 Pro but the PS4 does a pretty bang-up job running games as is. There won’t be any PS4 Pro exclusives that don’t run on your existing PS4. It won’t feature a 4K Blu-ray drive. All in all, the PS4 Pro feels like a mid-cycle refresh as opposed to a significant piece of innovation.
There just isn’t any excitement around today’s announcement. Maybe because we don’t all have 4K TV’s or maybe we are all trying to wrap our head around the costs of a new PS4, 4K TV and PSVR. Whatever the case may be, Sony failed to hit a home run today. At best, this is a bunt single.
Are you excited about the announcements? Tell us in the comments below.