My first console was a Sega Master System. It was awesome. My second console was a Sega Mega Drive. It was awesome. My third console was a Sega Mega CD. It was awesome (for me). My fourth console was a Sony PlayStation. It was awesome. My fifth console was a Nintendo 64. It was awesome. My sixth console was a Sega Dreamcast. It was awesome. My seventh console was a PlayStation 2. It was awesome. My eighth console was a GameCube. It was awesome. My ninth console was an Xbox. It was awesome. My tenth console was an Xbox 360. It was awesome. My 11th console was a PlayStation 3. It was awesome. My 12th console was a Wii. It was awesome. My 13th console was a PS4. It was awesome. My 14th console was an Xbox One. It was awesome. My 15th console was a PS4 Pro. It’s awesome. My 16th console is an Xbox One X. It’s awesome. My 17th console is an Xbox Series X. It’s awesome. My 18th console is a PS5. It’s awesome.
Some of these are imported, so I’ll buy them before they come out in the UK, because that’s a really cool thing to do. I haven’t included the later consoles I bought in order of release (Saturn, Jaguar, SNES), all the peripherals, nor the handhelds. Does this make me a “hardcore” gamer? Have I also dedicated my working life to video games and the worlds they inhabit? Am I unhappy with the price of the PS5 Pro? Yes.
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Obviously, as this is the games media, we have to capitalise on the latest industry controversy, and I’ve been thinking about the £700 / $700 price tag for the PS5 Pro since it was announced on Tuesday afternoon.
I’ve seen a lot of these discussions and rolled my eyes a lot. “You don’t have to buy it, you know” and “It’ll sell no matter what you think” are two common phrases I’ve read, mostly in the comments under articles and on social media. Of course, these people are right, because yes, I won’t buy it, and yes, I do think it will sell. But that’s not the point.
For the first time in my life – and I’ve bought over 20 consoles, most at launch – mainstream devices feel out of reach. Of course, I made those choices because you could argue I could afford them, but I have limits, and the price of the PS5 Pro is above a limit I didn’t know I had (I’d pay £550, by the way).
So, when I was writing about video games for the first time in my life and trying to tell as many people as possible why video games were so great, I felt like I didn’t belong.
It’s completely understandable that Sony would choose to release a console that 90% of its audience would be disappointed with, but part of the reason I was shocked was that I didn’t expect this to happen – and I was one of those 90%. That’s certainly arrogant, but it’s the truth.
Through some savvy saving (I worked two jobs until I was a teenager), selling old hardware, and having few other expensive hobbies/vices, I’ve never really considered giving up a console due to cost. So, yes, the price of the PS5 Pro feels a little unexpected. Either part of an industry I love is saying I’m no longer a part of it, or I don’t love it enough to be a part of it. Both options bother me a little.
My gaming interests have evolved over the years, and lately I’ve been into retro handhelds and consoles, but I’m always most interested in what the new consoles have to offer. A new console is like magic, it does the seemingly impossible.
I used to obsess over every detail in magazines of the past, and every little screenshot would be pored over for months. The PlayStation let me play arcade games in my bedroom (it was actually one of the reasons I gave for buying one in the document I gave my parents at the time), the Xbox made online play easy, the Xbox 360 had truly cutting-edge graphics power, and the PS5/Xbox Series X has brought us to the point where most things we can imagine seem possible. I learned about the PS5 Pro almost entirely through YouTube videos.
“It’s just a gaming console with better graphics, stop complaining”, I’m sure some of you (probably those who only read social media posts and not articles) are thinking of typing such thoughts in the comments.
If you’ve read the above, you’ll know it’s much more than that. Maybe it feels like a deeply sad end of an era.
