but for PS5 , is obvious that Sony lied to the customer base when promoting the console,
That's the thing isn't it. The PlayStation 5 was marketed on 3 things: 1) 60 FPS 2) Faster Load Times 3) Ray Tracing
Native 4K and support for 8K was also a thing.
Yet here we are, almost 4 years into the generation, and 60 FPS is indeed present, but with heavy visual compromises in many cases. Native 4K is rarely a thing and often image reconstruction (usually AMD's FSR 2) is relied upon. 8K was an actual lie that was finally removed from the PlayStation 5's box earlier this year. The faster load times was delivered on. Ray tracing, while present, generally is too expensive to be worth it.
So it does feel like the PlayStation 5 Pro is a console designed to deliver what was promised 4 years ago. Which is... pretty bad actually. A combination of "Quality" and "Performance" modes, a better upscaler in PSSR, and significantly improved ray tracing support.
... wait and see PS6 what will happen...
Here's the thing though: is the price of the PlayStation 5 Pro suggestive of what the cost of the 10th generation consoles will be? Is the lack of a disc drive an indication that even for PlayStation, they'll be going all-digital next gen? Those are important questions, and as
@Eji1700 says, when you're getting to this price point, honestly, for a bit more you can get a gaming PC that can simply do more, including play PlayStation first party titles.
Microsoft is too much imcopetent...
I always find it funny when people say this, as Xbox actually isn't. People simple don't want to give them a chance and there's nothing but unwarranted negative perception against them for things Sony themselves do and get away with. Layoffs and treating studios poorly? Sony does this too. Releasing poor games? Sony does this too (though Microsoft actually supports failed projects i.e.
Red Fall while Sony just axes things i.e.
Concord. Remember, many of Sony's first party titles are not being received in the starry-eyed light they were several years back).
Xbox tends to be more honest and has better value then what PlayStation offers. I've posted about this in detail before, and many of these features people here simply didn't know existed before. In brief, things like Xbox Play Anywhere (buy a game and get both the console and PC version) and cross progression between PC and console, Microsoft Rewards (I've earned well over $100 CA in less then a year doing next to nothing) is infinitely better then PlayStation Stars, Game Pass is vastly superior then PlayStation Plus, etc.
The other thing to realize is what a console is: it's fixed platform that's sold for a loss where profit is made on software sales. It's a subsidized business model., Phil Spencer has stated that business model no longer works in today's market with the current development costs of games, thus why they've been seeking other revenue models. Xbox has been far less concerned in selling consoles this generation, and more focused on selling Game Pass subscriptions, becoming the world's largest publisher and going multiplatform, and strengthening support and position in the PC space.
The PlayStation 5 is the best selling console this generation and thus the "winner," yet the console has failed to meet Sony's sales targets
and they've officially stated console sales will continue to decline. That's not exactly a market position to be excited about. Why do you think Sony is also much more focused in branching into the PC space now? Because consoles alone are no longer cutting it.
While both PlayStation and Xbox are committed to consoles for the upcoming 10th generation, Digital Foundry actually suspects the console as we know it will fade/change drastically for the 11th gen. They also think that what Xbox is doing now does look odd and even counterproductive, but down the road they suspect Xbox will come out stronger and be in a better position because they're adapting/changing to the market faster then Sony is. Time will tell, of course.
is almost a monopoly we will see here, and they will do whatever they want
Monopolies are never good things though. And it is interesting as PlayStation may indeed have a monopoly on the console market soon, and Xbox may have one on the publishing side.
The games industry is in such an odd place.
Update: One thing I forgot to elaborate on is that the console market is not growing. This generation, according to Phil Spencer, people who had PlayStation 4 consoles are buying PlayStation 5's, and people who had Xbox One's are buying Xbox Series. Makes sense, of course. The thing is, new customers are not coming into the fold to help off-set the development costs of the software.
Sony stated they wanted to have all PlayStation 4 customers on PlayStation 5 consoles after (I believe it was) 3 years. A few months back, Sony revealed that about half of active PlayStation Network users are still on PlayStation 4 consoles. So the PlayStation 5 failed to meet their sales targets. The "winning" console of this sorry generation is a "failed" console. Again, that's why Sony is branching out to the PC space (something they did far later then Xbox), because PlayStation needs to get their games to new customers, they need that revenue for it all to be commercially viable.
Last gen, the mid-gen consoles made up about 20% of total sales. I'm curious to see if the PlayStation 5 Pro will even hit 10%. Xbox stated a while back they were not doing a mid-gen refresh this generation, and I think they made the right call here based on how the market as a whole is doing.
