For all the skepticism surrounding the PS4 Pro, there’s no denying that it presents an interesting new direction for consoles to go in as far as mid-cycle refreshes go. Speaking to The Guardian, president and global CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment Andrew House noted that it was the PC that ultimately pushed Sony to create a more powerful console.
“I saw some data that really influenced me. It suggested that there’s a dip mid-console life cycle where the players who want the very best graphical experience will start to migrate to PC, because that’s obviously where it’s to be had.
“We wanted to keep those people within our ecosystem by giving them the very best and very highest [performance quality]. So the net result of those thoughts was PlayStation 4 Pro – and, by and large, a graphical approach to game improvement.”
PS4 Pro isn’t a reaction to Scorpio since “there wasn’t a word about Project Scorpio in the marketplace” and as a whole, House and Sony aren’t too concerned about Microsoft. “We’re 40 million units into this lifecycle [and] our declared goal is to be a further 20 million units above that by the end of next year. At that point we’ve got a pretty good sense of where the momentum of the lifecycle is, but I think the Pro can be something new, innovative and possibly take us in a slightly different direction.”
That 20 million additional PS4 units includes sales from the PS4 Pro as well. The PS4 Pro goes on sale this November so stay tuned for more information.