Sony (SONY.US) releases PS5 Pro, which will be launched in November and priced at $699.

Sony Group (SONY.US) will launch a faster and higher-priced new version of its popular video game console in order to boost sales before the holiday season. The company announced on Tuesday that the PlayStation 5 Pro will be released on November 7th at a price of $699, which is $200 more expensive than the standard version. Mark Cerny, the lead architect of PlayStation 5, said in a video demonstration that this new high-end gaming console will allow players to play PlayStation 5 games at higher resolutions and frame rates without having to switch between different modes. Sony revealed that the GPU compute units of the PS5 Pro are 67% more than the PS5, and the memory speed has been increased by 28%. In real-world performance, the game rendering speed of the new machine will be improved by up to 45%. Like the trend in the chip industry in recent years, Sony's new chip has significantly improved ray tracing performance, reaching up to "2-3 times" the current consoles. Cerny stated that the rendering speed of the PlayStation 5 Pro will be 45% faster than the standard PlayStation 5. He said: "Simply put, this is the most powerful console we have created." Sony expects that this technological upgrade will help drive sales of PlayStation 5. Since its release in 2020, PlayStation 5 has sold over 59 million units, but slightly behind PlayStation 4. The higher price of PlayStation 5 Pro may affect demand. The PlayStation 5 Pro does not include a disc drive, reflecting a trend in the video game industry where users are shifting from physical media to online services. The disc drive will need to be purchased separately. In a blog post, the company stated that the new console will enhance the performance of older games and "provide players with free software updates to take advantage of the capabilities of the PS5 Pro", including "Hogwarts Legacy", "Final Fantasy VII: Remake", and "Marvel's Spider-Man 2".