The PS4 Pro reveal was underwhelming. Between Sony lead architect Mark Cerny extolling the virtues of 4K gaming with an unnervingly soft voice, which sounded like a mix between a YouTube ASMR expert and a man with a collection of severed heads stored in his basement, and the revelation that its hardware won’t be powerful enough to run many of its games in native 4K, it certainly wasn’t in keeping with the company’s tremendous run of crowd-pleasing press conferences since the PS4 was first revealed. It could be argued that there’s no easy way to successfully unveil a 4K-capable console via blurry live streams transmitted to predominantly 1080p monitors, but either way, the event was uniformly uninteresting and especially disappointing for those who had, once again, been convinced that we’d finally see the unveiling of Red Dead Redemption 2.
However, despite the PlayStation Meeting itself being a damp squib, I’ve seen plenty of chatter on Twitter from those who honestly believe that it will prove to be detrimental to the PS4 Pro’s success, or lack thereof. I’ve even seen some express that this could be the end of Sony’s winning streak with its consoles, and that come 2017 we could see this console generation turned on its head following the launch of the Xbox One Scorpio. But regardless of these murmurings from those who seem to believe that a Twitch-streamed live event could actually irreparably change the course of Sony’s finances, I have a far more reasonable assumption to make: the PS4 Pro will be an unmitigated success, while the Xbox One Scorpio faces the biggest uphill battle of the two systems.
It may be disappointing that the PS4 Pro can’t churn out native 4K for each of its releases, but this a small price to pay for it retailing at $399. That the Pro will be able to display games in an upscaled 4K resolution will be of little concern to the average consumer, which is what many frantically flapping about Sony’s future seem to overlook; though the PS4 Pro may not have appealed to those who scoff derisively when a developer announces their game will run at 900p rather than full HD, for most the knowledge that their PS4 games will look better when using the PS4 Pro will be enough. That they will be able to obtain this system for a price not far removed from the current retail point of the standard PS4 will make it a hot seller come this Christmas, with the addition of PS VR also set to contribute to its success.
On the other hand, you have the Xbox One Scorpio. The Scorpio is set to be more technically impressive than the PS4 Pro, with Microsoft branding it the “most powerful console ever.” It’ll boast 6 teraflops of computing power compared to the PS4 Pro’s 4.2 (and compared to the 1.32 featured in the original Xbox One), 320GB/s of memory bandwidth, and will be capable of running a high-quality VR headset, which many believe to be the Oculus Rift. With these specs, the console will certainly be able to run more games at native 4K than its Sony rival, though it’s still very unlikely that its games will be displayed in consistent, native 4K sans upscaling unless there are some major alterations in areas such as rendering quality and graphical fidelity. However, with all that technology packed beneath its hood, it’s nigh-on impossible to imagine it approaching the PS4 Pro’s retail prices, with most guesses falling between the $500 – $600 mark.
This is where, in my opinion, the Xbox One Scorpio will falter. Even though the Scorpio will be more powerful than the PS4 Pro, the latter technically still offers 4K gaming at a thoroughly reasonable price point, along with the extra appeal of the more well-established PS4 brand and its larger player base. The vast majority of consumers are not going to be overly concerned by the discrepancies in its ability to play games in native 4K compared with the Scorpio and its more robust hardware – they will instead be sold on the fact that it’s a PS4 that can handle 4K and, at the very least, provide a graphical boost to their library of games. If Sony makes the smart move and also advertises its PS VR capabilities (whatever they may be), then they have the advantage of selling a relatively low-priced console alongside a similarly low-priced VR headset.
On the other hand, the Xbox One Scorpio will potentially have the opposite problem. Though it may be impressive in the hardware stakes, it’s still dealing with convincing a smaller player base to jump onto a new console at what will more than likely be a higher price point. With its strongest selling point likely going to be that it will do 4K gaming and virtual reality better than its competitor, the fact remains that the PS4 Pro is still capable of doing those things, only with a wider audience, sold a year earlier and at a likely cheaper price point. Regardless of how Sony went about staging its new console’s big reveal, the fact remains that an upgraded PS4 displaying in 4K – upscaled or not – is enough to send it straight to the top of plenty of Christmas lists. The only thing Microsoft could have done to prevent this from happening was by being more forthright about what the Scorpio will offer, but unfortunately, the vague assertion that it will be the most powerful console yet is unlikely to keep our wallets from leaving our pockets for the PS4 Pro.
The prospect of the Xbox One Scorpio delivering a more consistent 4K and VR gaming experience is an exciting one, but talk of teraflops simply isn’t going to prevent the PS4 crowd from making the jump to the Pro this holiday season, nor is it likely to prove to be that enticing to average consumers. The hard truth is that people loved the PS4 and felt decidedly less admiration for the Xbox One, and regardless of how much effort Microsoft is putting in to try to improve the Xbox brand again, an upgraded PS4 would sell even if Mark Cerny revealed it while holding a knife and wearing overalls covered in blood.
