By Marc W. Polite
Good evening, my readers. Some of you may have surmised from reading my posts over the years that I am a gamer. It is a hobby of longstanding with me, and I go way back to the original Nintendo with it. Keeping up with news in the gaming industry is something I just do, and recent news gives me reason to write about it. So when I heard that the Playstation 5 Pro will be coming out at 700 dollars, that made me sit up and take notice.
Here’s the damaging details about this buffed up console. Number one, it is one of those mid- generation upgrades, a relatively recent gaming development that I as an older gamer aren’t too thrilled about no matter who does it. The entire enterprise is a cash grab, and a way to siphon more money out of folks pockets with incremental upgrades.
Second, the console doesn’t have a disk drive. You read that right. That part is an extra 80 something bucks. There’s also no stand for it. That’s yet another extra part. So, if you want the PS5 Pro that is fully equipped, it’ll run you about 800 plus bucks altogether. That’s not including taxes and a game either.
The third damning point here is that if Sony feels emboldened enough to charge 700 bills for the PS5 Pro, then what will that charge for Playstation 6? Will it be 1000 dollars? 1200?
This, is an outrageous amount of money to charge for a console. Some have stated that it’s Microsoft’s fault for not being competitive this generation, so that Sony can feel that they can charge that much for the system. Blaming another company for another one’s greedy maneuver is wild business, but okay.
The real possibility that people should be concerned about is the market precedent this sets. If Sony gets away with charging this much, then there’s no reason to believe that Microsoft wouldn’t attempt the same thing. These corporations follow suit in gouging folks if they go unchecked. The end result is that the average person could get priced out of console gaming.
If this continues, and solidifies as the gaming status quo, then yours truly may just have to wrap it up with console gaming after this generation. Retro gaming is looking pretty good right about now. Just saying.