The PS5 Pro was announced last week, and it was a controversial launch in many ways. I had said a few days before, when the teaser dropped, that it would wind up being a boring and confusing presso. Because they usually are when they're hyper technical with Cerny involved. Great if you're deep diving as a nerd, but otherwise a bit of faff for the sake of it.

And certainly that seems to be what happened. Making it worse is the fact that the price appears really high. But people are ignoring some basics about this. First, the 'normal' PS5 still exists, and is at a reasonable(ish) price. A 'pro' console isn't the entry point for new PS5 gamers. And with the 'pro' (which, make no mistake, will absolutely sell out), it's likely to sell into the existing install base more than create a new one, thus giving the second hand market a bunch of consoles.

A few days later, with some more detailed technical analysis, it actually seems like this console is indeed a technically brilliant addition to the family. But it didn't do much for the CPU, making everything about up-scaling and graphical fidelity. Very, very clever graphical fidelity to rival nVidia's AI work.

The big open question is who this is really for. I don't see the need to upgrade from PS5 (which is largely just a Gran Turismo box) unless things are improved enormously. For my case, by the time Grand Theft Auto 6 arrives, we'll probably be looking down the barrel of a PS6, too.

Tabs

• Warner learned nothing from Suicide Squad
• Arco. New one published by Panic!
• Valve's new secret game. By the time I publish this, it might be a lot less secret!
• Playdate pizza box
• The last Irish game store. Not really true but a nice article all the same.
• Bee Magic
• A PS1 Tetris clone. Open Source gaming fun.
• Prominent accessibility advocate never existed
• Secret Level. Interesting trailer.
• Rise of the robots
• Zucknet
• Unity is cancelling the runtime fee
• Hydra launcher. 🏴‍☠️
• Astrobot gets rave reviews
• Phil Spencer admits he's made atrocious decisions. No shit.
• Aliens Neoplasma 2. I need someone to port Spectrum Next to Analogue's OS!

What I've been playing this month:

• Assetto Corsa Competizione
• Thank goodness you're here