While Sony had always done some kind of hardware refresh for each PlayStation console generation, before the PS4 Pro that refresh never went beyond a Slim model of the console.The PS4 Pro however set a new precedent, so the PS5 Pro was a move players saw coming far before it was announced. And they were right to, because according to PlayStation’s chief executive officer Hideaki Nishino, the PS5 Pro began its development before the PS5 even launched.In an interview with Variety, Nishino confirmed that the PS5 Pro was a “five-year project” kicking off ahead of the base PS5 getting into players hands.“We have done Pro in the last generation, we learned a lot from there,” said Nishino. “When we were selling PS4 Pro, in addition to the PS4, 20% of customers actually got the PS4 Pro.”“It was high end, it was premium tier. So there are potential users acquiring those kind of units. Interestingly enough, it was not just about highly engaged users – actually, new users came to PlayStation to get PS4 Pro, as well.So we started working on PS5 Pro even before PS5 launched — it was another five-year project for us. So there was a conversation around whether we wanted to do another Pro or not.But the main thing was, there are technologies we can grow up in three years time or five years time. So the innovation and technology advancement is more quicker in a modern world. Phones are updating every year, PCs are updating every year. I don’t think we’d go every year updates, but there are things we can package together to bring the greatest things into the game console segment range. So that’s the vision.”Nishino went on to talk about how PlayStation is always planning ahead. That they’re always thinking of new hardware, and would never release something without already having what’s next already in mind.“We design everything with having one ahead in our mind. It’s not like we just make a next step and we don’t know about the two steps ahead. That’s not our way of working, because we need to make sure that the 10-year-old generation cycle continues to be going as well.”Source – [Variety]
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