PS5 Pro is expected late 2024, with the PS6 expected 2028. If Microsoft is to try to keep pace, as someone who doesn’t have either console, it will be interesting to see if they also brand this as a mid-generation refresh or if they stick to their guns they’ve been touting for a while of being “beyond generations”.
Obviously it varies from person to person but Sony exclusives would be the main reason most people want to be in the PlayStation ecosystem. As others have said even when those exclusives do eventually reach PC, the ports are usually lackluster at best and unplayable at worst. So why upgrade to the 5 if you have a 4? For me the difference in load times alone justified early adoption. Probably not everyone can justify the cost and hassle just for faster loading of their PS4 library, but as someone whose time is at a premium and who still tries to play a lot of games often, I have probably saved countless precious hours of time and therefore played far more of my gaming library in the same time frame just be being on the 5.
Lackluster at best isn’t really accurate, most of their ports have been more than functional and usually get performance patches. Alot of these issues are also poor optimization more than anything which means alot of issues can often be brute forced with stronger rigs so it adds value to upgrading whenever its time for that.
The issue is the consumer who is most likely to consider buying a console doesn’t want to have to worry about waiting months for a port and then another several months for performance to be fixed, nor do they want to pay for a very expensive gaming PC and then regular hardware upgrades to play new games. As I was saying to someone else, Sony isn’t really competing for PC gamers. They’re two different markets and Sony knows this which is why they do release a lot of their games to PC eventually. But for people who want to play Sony games when they are relatively new and active, either to experience the story with others and avoid eventual spoilers, or to play in an active online community that may not last, waiting for a functional PC release isn’t worth it, especially at the higher cost it brings to have a decent one compared to a console.
Cost to performance ebbs and flows with each console generation, and console generations are getting longer, or perhaps disappearing if Microsoft is to be believed. PC gaming’s market share has been steadily rising for over a decade now, to the point where PC versions of some games that used to be console-only releases now outsell their console counterparts. There are a lot of reasons we could guess as to why this is, but I don’t think they’re wholly two different markets, and I don’t think Sony thinks this either, regardless of what they said in court. They’re preparing to set up their own PC storefront, probably without anything that will make people want to use it besides exclusives, even though that’s failed for everyone else who tried it, but signs are pointing toward them preparing to do it.
I feel Sony exclusive console draw no longer holds a much weight as it used to for PC gamers. In the past I “knew” Sony games would never ever come to the PC, so it was to only way to play them so I got them. Now I just have to wait, and I never buy games at launch either and never bought consoles until the exclusive library could stand on its own without taking into account future releases so I ended up getting consoles mid Gen or end of life anyways. So being first mover on the console never mattered to me.
The thing is I don’t think Sony cares about peeling PC gamers away anymore for exactly the reasons you said; they just release most of their games to PC eventually anyway. But PC gamers and console gamers are not the same market. There are certainly people who play both, but I rarely play PC games anymore because my whole gaming setup is centered around the couch with family now. I simply don’t have time to also park myself in front of a PC and game that way as well, and as far as purpose built PCs that connect to a TV go, well, none of those bring the same features for the same cost the way the PS5 does. Pretty much the only PC gaming I do now is on Steam Deck and those games are chosen for playability on the go. So you’re not really comparing Sony exclusivity to PC at that point, you’re comparing it to Xbox. And between the two Sony wins on exclusives so far this generation.
My PC is a prebuilt I got for not that much a year and a half ago, and it plugs directly into my TV with an HDMI cable, the same as my consoles. It’s actually next to my TV, and I play with a wireless controller. You don’t need a special set up anymore for that, so long as your TV uses HDMI.
I simply don’t have time to also park myself in front of a PC and game that way as well, and as far as purpose built PCs that connect to a TV go
I just got a fiber optic hdmi cable hooked up to the TV and use a controller if I want to play on the couch. Don’t really see a point as result for my case to get a console specifically just for console gaming.
I get it for people who aren’t going to have a gaming PC to begin with or PC is too far to connect to a TV, but otherwise don’t see the draw to picking up a PS5 anymore. Not offering me anything novel in terms of hardware since already got the couch experience. If it was capable of being a httpc then yeah that’d be neat, but otherwise find it a hard sell to spend money on something that is just for gaming which my PC already does.
For me I guess. PC is just a Xbox, Sony, and to some extent Nintendo all in one now. Just been nice side effect of digital purchases not being as fractured and then locked into console hardware anymore, since pc is something I’m going to keep using anyways and stuff like steam deck is more then sufficient to play them too as you mentioned. I guess just got tired of being locked proprietary hardware over the console generations and losing compatibility and also having to wait for years hoping for remasters to play games at better settings.