Controversy swirled around the announcement of the PS5 Pro and its price tag with some coming out to condemn it while others are defending it. Now, PlayStation designer Toshi Aoki has thrown their hat in the ring of PS5 Pro defenders, asserting the console is for the “most engaged” of players.
In an IGN interview, Aoki defended the price tag, noting its real audience is the engaged gamers. That is to say not the people who casually boot up their PS5 to play a game or two.
“Well, the technologies that I just mentioned that we are putting in to deliver new experiences for game players, and also not just the technological differences, but the SSD, the Wi-Fi 7, and the new technologies that surround the gameplay as well. So it’s more of a full package that will give that exceptional value to the players… the most engaged players that we’re targeting.”
It’s worth noting that later in the interview, it was discussed why the PS5 Pro lacked a disc drive, something that was also a hard criticism, as it means those who do have discs have to purchase another accessory just to play games they physically own. Specifically, Aoki notes that this is about “giving players choices.”
In fear of bleeding personal opinion in, we don’t think it’s controversial to say this doesn’t sit right and it’s more likely Sony just not wanting to mess with sticking a disc drive on a $700 — at minimum — machine. The disc drive will tack on another $79.99 and if you wanna stand your PS5 Pro vertically, you’ll need its $29.99 stand.
We’re not sure this is actually giving “exceptional value,” but this is a high-ranking PlayStation employee defending PlayStation’s hardware, so what do you expect?