The high price of PS5 Pro ($699) is still a hot topic in the industry. While many fans are still disappointed with the pricing, analysts and even game developers have publicly stated that the pricing is reasonable considering the market and its hardware makeup.
As for Sony itself, the company recently weighed in on the topic of pricing (and the decision to make the optical drive a separate purchase) in an interview with IGN. Toshi Aoki, senior principal product manager at PlayStation, said:
"Well, the technologies I just mentioned are what we're investing in to bring new experiences to gamers, and it's not just the technical differences, but SSDs, Wi-Fi7, and new technologies around gaming. So it's more of a complete package that will bring extraordinary value to gamers...our target gamers.
With PS5 Pro, we're delivering all these new technological innovations with the addition of a 2TB solid-state drive and Wi-Fi 7. We believe it provides a complete package for most players. When it comes to optical disc drives, it's an option for gamers. Not all players have discs, although most probably do...but we can add this feature for those players. So I think it's more of a balance of the value proposition that we offer. "
Interestingly, ToshiAoki also confirmed that Sony was developing the PS5 Pro even before the launch of the base PS5 model in November 2020.
"We started discussing this before the PS5 was officially released... because the specifications of the PS5 have been determined. We are ready for everything. Of course, as you said, we know that technology is developing every year."