PS4 Pro: Everything We Know So Far

4. The Focus Is On Graphics, Not Performance

Uncharted 4
Naughty Dog

The PS4 Pro signals that Sony isn't as in-touch with the console community as their excellent handling of the PS4's launch would suggest. As important as graphics can be to an experience, they're not what makes a game memorable - some of the greatest games of all time now look terrible by modern standards, but their mechanics remain solid.

And yet, with the Pro, Sony's made the mistake of focusing on graphical improvement, when in reality, console gamers simply aren't that fussed if Nathan Drake's rugged beard looks a tiny bit sharper.

PlayStation boss Andrew House reckons he's seen some data that suggests "players who want the very best graphical experience will start to migrate to PC." He goes on to say that Sony wants to "keep those people within our eco-system by giving them the very best and very highest [performance quality]. The net result of those thoughts was PlayStation 4 Pro – and, by and large, a graphical approach to game improvement."

People who game in the console space enjoy the fact that they get one box every five years that plays games as smoothly and beautifully as possible, before being introduced to another box which blows the old box out of the water. The Pro does not blow the old box out of the water, and it means that Sony has mistakenly blurred the lines between the PC and console audiences, when they're two completely different things.

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Danny has been with WhatCulture for over ten years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. In 2022, he took charge of WhoCulture and has grown it into the biggest Doctor Who channel on YouTube, and one of the biggest Doctor Who communities on the web full-stop. He has been writing and video editing since his early teens, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers, off the back of a burning obsession with the Matt Smith era of the show. Like many his age, he first got into Doctor Who with the 2005 revival, but has since gone back and fallen in love with the classic years too. If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order, or to give you a random factoid about the making of Gridlock, Danny is the person to ask!