PS5 Pro's biggest failure is Sony's awful marketing, as per usual

The PS5 Pro might actually be a decent purchase for players, but Sony's marketing for the console has been atrocious.

[Obscure_Observer]

You don´t really know what´s "awful marketing" truly means for consoles when you don´t have Aaron Greenberg running your marketing business.

[mandf]

Yeah can’t disagree with that

[Cacabunga]

Most awful thing is lack of first party exclusives taking full advantage of it like PS4Pro did in 2018

[LOGICWINS]

Haven't seen a single ad for Indy and that comes out next month. How Aaron Greenburg still has a marketing position at MS astounds me....

[InUrFoxHole]

It's on the xbox dash but other than that... idk. Marketing this gen has been trash.

[jwillj2k4]

It’s because they know the game is trash. It’s going to be ”decent” at best 6.5/7 out of 10.

[Knushwood Butt]

Cost saving!
He'll get a promotion.

[InUrFoxHole]

Rofl... facts!

[mandf]

They got 700 from me today some failure

[Aloymetal]

Me too, my failure is out for delivery right now. Can't wait!

[Neonridr]

$1500 for me (Canadian) for the 30th Pro Bundle.. I'm a sucker for collectors editions

[CrimsonWing69]

I don’t think the marketing has anything to do with it. I can only say this as someone who pays attention to what Sony releases, and it’s the price for what it offers that turns me completely off to it. Had this been like $500 I’d have bought it regardless, but at $700 and $80 for the disk drive for a 30% bump in visuals, yea no thanks.

[Tacoboto]

$650 would've had me day one with the disc drive.
The 2TB SSD does nothing for me, I would've just transferred the 2TB one I installed in my base machine over and still be content on space with a 1TB base.

As it stands now, I'll only get the Pro on an Amazon or Costco sale that makes enough sense. There's a 0% chance of me paying full price on this. But damn do I want to play Rebirth on it...

[CrimsonWing69]

Yea, I mean if it’s on sale for a decent price, I’ll happily pick it up. But I’m with you, that price AND all that the reviews showed what it offers for that price, is absolutely not worth it for me.

[RedDevils]

Same here. I just wait for PS6 instead.

[hiawa23]

The base model sells for $500 so there is no way the Pro was going to be that price. Reality this gen seems to be these console manufacturers are not subsidizing the consoles like they have in the past. They make them cheaper but keep the profits to themselves and given how this gen started and all the the issues with Covid, chip shortages, inflation, these companies operating costs have increased. I guess I am not surprised at the prices. I mean a Switch still sells for near full price as it did 7 years ago.

[CrimsonWing69]

To be fair, Nintendo is weird with their prices. Their games rarely go on sale and even if they do it’s like $20 off.

[andy85]

It's not really a 30% bump though in a lot of games. Maybe on first party because they're so polished already.

[BLow]

I mean you have the right to not buy something but $500 lol? The 2tb glitter Series X is $600 and it's has no upgrades. The Pro is a PREMIUM product and it's not for the mainstream.

There are plenty of products on the market that have base and premium option yet when it comes to consoles people don't want to spend the money. The PS4 Pro was even less than $500 and we heard all the same. And it had a disk drive. It it sold like 20% of sales.

You said only 30%. Well it could be over that too. And this is only the first taste of games. Developers will get more get more out of this machine because of the NEW tech inside of it. For consoles that is. I expect to see this same energy when graphics cards come out for PC and it only offers a 30% increase. Or a phone. Or any other piece of electronics. We need to start to complain of those prices as well.

We all want 4k ray traced visuals at 60fps but don't want to pay for it. PSSR is a game changer for console and this tech will push gaming forward. Now all those extra resources can be used to push these games even further. I'm looking at the bigger picture here. Now this tech is on a mainstream console and it will make all upscalers even better. Its a win for us all.

Just imagine it will get so good that maybe a game could render at 360 or 480p but still look like 4k. Just imagine that for a sec. Who knows? And don't tell me a game needs to be a certain rez to upscale. We have no clue what is possible. I don't care what some random person on a comment section tell you. That's the things I think about. The possibilities because I KNOW it can happen. This tech will get better and better. Even Guerilla Games have their own upscaling tech that even better than PSSR at the moment. Like I said, the possibilities and the developers that are willing to push tech further. This is why I like Sony and their developers. They push the envelope, they push each other, and that is good for us as gamers.

No disagree from me because your entitled to your opinion as am I. I just popped in Horizon and the Last of US Part 1 and WOW!! Both look stunning. Horizon Remaster looks crazy. I have the day off so I'm going to be playing with my new toy today. I can't imagine Last of US 2 or Spiderman yet. Final Fantasy Rebirth I haven't even played yet. Now I can do it in all it's glory. Stellar Blade too. A lot of games I held back because I knew the system was coming. Resident Evil 4 and Village. My backlog is massive lol. I might even take a look at Dead Island 2 again too. I played plenty of that game.

Oh btw, I don't have a stand and it stands up just fine without one lol. As do all the other models lol. I not going to complain about something that I will enjoy and spend hundreds of hours on withy favorite hobby.

[CrimsonWing69]

That’s the thing that matters most, how you feel about your purchase. I’m not trying to take away from that, I’m just throwing a comment with my personal opinion in the comment section, is all.

[hiawa23]

They got $700 plus $80 for a drive plus $30 for stand from me so I think that is not too bad for marketing especially since I have a digital launch PS5. Waiting for that failure to be delivered any minute now.

[Aloymetal]

Same boat here, happy gaming and enjoy it;)

[jznrpg]

I bought a metal stand for 17$ instead of the Sony one from Amazon. I thought metal could be sturdier. I put it horizontal and I like it that way for the time being so I may return it.

[DefenderOfDoom2]

Not sure about the specific marketing plan for the PS5 Pro.But I do think, Sony does a excellent job promoting the Playstation brand . The Playstation brand is heavily promoted in soccer , hockey, baseball, football, basketball stadiums and arenas all over the world .

[MetroidFREAK21]

Nah, not including a disc drive out of the box is the systems failure

[Bathyj]

So glad I didn't have to pay for a disc drive.
The failure is putting 2tb in it when they could have stuck with 1 and released the same price as the new Xbox.

[MetroidFREAK21]

My OG PS5 I didn't have to pay for a drive either... and I have 69 physical games to play on it too

[MrNinosan]

@MetroidFREAK21
Did you buy the Digital PS5? How do you play physical on it?
Or did you actually pay extra to get the one with disc drive? 😏

[andy85]

It has been marketed terribly tbh it's places like DF that have shown what it can do better than Sony

[Smitty2020]

Apparently Royal Mail tried to deliver my console today when I was in all day :/ not happy :(

[CrashMania]

lol typical royal mail, glad mine was delivered via DPD.

[Smitty2020]

glad u r enjoying ur new console, my mrs said u will get it tomorrow i was like thats why i preordered it for launch day to play on the day of release lol. she doesnt understand

[Knushwood Butt]

Just be glad your Posty isn't trying to flog it down the local boozer.

[Ra3030]

Failure!?....wait what!!.....The PS5 Pro is "The Most Powerful Console Ever Made" for gaming! Or does that only matter when Microsoft says it? Sony don't need to market that it'll market itself. Sony says the Sales target is 13 million by 2029 for this console and they'll come very close to hitting at about 2 million a year if not surpass that number....Sony gon be ok with that "failure"

[Jin_Sakai]

No way would I pay $700 for a mid gen upgrade and I consider myself a hardcore gamer.

[Bronbron92]

My failure got delivered today lol

[Toecutter00]

It's a marketing failure because it's a business failure. Marketing can't show what the ps5 pro does because it doesn't do much. How do you sell that it's a "boutique " item for enthusiasts, but the disc drive is sold separately. How do you sell that you'll only notice mostly minor gains, but only if you own a 4k 120hz HDTV that is at least 75 inch? But, honestly, most people would've bought it in spite of the price, inspite of the incremental gains if they hadn't been so greedy to make the disc drive separate. That caused everyone with fomo to pause and ask themselves "do I really need this?"

[gold_drake]

yehbi don't quite understand why they wouldnt give us all the supported games when they revealed it.

[Grievous]

Marketing it heavily is wasted money. The target demographic for the pro model knows what it does and how to get one. The average console gamer doesn't care and just wants the cheapest PS5.

[Aloymetal]

Bingo👍

[LoveSpuds]

I don't think this is a product you market to the mainstream, the audience here is the more hard-core gamer or Playstation user. I saw loads of Playstation 5 advertising this week as it is European club football competition week again, so huge crowds at the dozens of games, millions upon millions watching on the telly. All of whome would have seen the electronic advertising billboards emblazoned with PS5 signage.

They just need to focus on selling PS5s to the masses, they know it's people like us who are on game websites and listening to gaming podcasts who are buying the PS5 Pro and at the moment, it's all I hear about.

[Lexreborn2]

Gotta say this, any article coming out on Ps5 pro I want to see is an impression review of someone who owns one. And graphics comparisons, any other opinion pieces can kick rocks.

I don’t need to keep hearing about why someone won’t buy the upgrade to a system they already own because they are content. I don’t care if the thing is 700 dollars and someone feels that’s too much for them. I’ll DM people if I want their opinion on opting out.

Right now, I want COVERAGE of the system that just released with breakdowns on the differences. Regardless if someone can tell the difference or if it’s a 8k enabled game now! I just want confirmation of WHAT the thing can do and how well it does it.

[Jingsing]

$700 no disc drive, no stand, no exclusive software.

[Kurt Russell]

If my OG PS5 kicks the dust I would deffo be picking this up. But in terms of upgrade incentive, currently I don't really need what it is offering.

I just hope performance mode doesn't disappear from the base PS5 as hitting 60fps is my minimum for gameplay.

[anast]

I think gaming companies should spend less on marketing and more on the product. It's not good for advertisement sites though.

[__y2jb]

No disk drive no sale

[Vithar]

actually happy about this, was able to walk in Best Buy and buy one, I had to get the OG from Scalpers

[bunt-custardly]

I think the issue here is, the PS5 Pro much like the PS4 Pro is aimed more towards the enthusiast gamer who has much more knowledge of these things than your regular Joe gamer - who probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference or care of any visual/performance improvements it offers. Hence the limited marketing.

[kryteris]

with the price hike and the pro being lighter or less cooling the pro should have been a replacement model.

[hiawa23]

I have been playing around with the Pro for a day now, installed the drive, stand, got all my PS4/PS5 games loaded and tested, and I absolutely love the Pro, and the added storage. Money is no object and for me, I say money well spent as I am a console only gamer and needed to replace my launch digital PS5 as back in 2020 could not find a disc PS5, and it allows me to retire my PS4 Pro since many of my PS4 games are physical. It probably is not needed for all gamers but I am fine with it.