The PS4 Pro has made history by being the first iterative, incrementally upgraded console ever made- assuming it takes off, then it and the Xbox Scorpio, and Nintendo’s New 3DS, should kick off a new era for dedicated gaming devices, one of constant, rolling updates, without any clearly delineated generations.
But if that is the eventual end goal, then Sony aren’t committing to it just yet. They have famously stated previously that the PS4 Pro will be the last upgrade to the PS4 ever- but if you thought that the success of the Pro had changed their minds on that, well, that doesn’t look to be the case. In fact, in an interview with Digital Spy, Sony’s Shuhei Yoshida appeared to be fairly non committal to the idea of a PS4 Pro Plus, or anything of that nature.
“The PS4 Pro is an incremental update from a hardware standpoint, but making PS4 Pro is not an easy thing to do,” he said. “We have complete compatibility; it is part of the PS4 Ecosystem. So the system is very carefully designed to maintain that one community between the standard PS4 and PS4 Pro.
“So we don’t talk about future plans, but doing something like PS4 Pro take a lot of effort. We are very happy with PS4 Pro, and we’re happy with the reaction and analysis of the games that have already come out, analyzed by lots of professional tech-driven media. So you can’t just talk about numbers, you really have to see the games that are designed to work well on PS4 Pro to see the value of it.”
It’s a lot of words without saying anything- I have no doubts that Sony will eventually make more incrementally upgraded consoles, especially if the PS4 Pro maintains its momentum- but whether those will be for PS4, or a hypothetical PS5, is what remains to be seen.