Sony Could Learn A Thing About Being Pro-Consumer From Valve

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Since I’ve gotten my Steam Deck OLED, it’s become the console (I’m using that term very loosely here) I use the most. It allows me to play games on the couch, in bed, on the plane, on the bus – I could go on. If I’ve decided to play a game, there’s a good chance I’m checking for Steam Deck compatibility before deciding which platform to buy it on. In all the time I’ve had it, I’ve never wished for a newer version.

To be fair, I have the OLED, and not the original LCD model. This is the most recently released version, and I got it because the display is better and it has far more battery life. It isn’t perfect, but runs triple-A games just fine, and while I’m sure we would all love a Steam Deck with infinite battery life and even higher resolution graphics, the OLED was already a significant improvement on the first version.

Stock is still readily available at the majority of retailers.

I could say the same for my PS5, the console I default to for triple-A games with more demands on hardware. The console is a powerhouse, games look incredible, and unlike my PS4, it doesn’t sound like an airplane taking off in my living room every time I boot up an open world RPG.

And yet, while Valve has explicitly stated that it will not be releasing a new Steam Deck every year because it’s “not really fair to your customers to come out with something so soon that’s only incrementally better”, Sony is releasing a PS5 Pro that is, by all accounts, it’s only incrementally better.

Judging from the details we’ve learned about The Last of Us Part 1 and Alan Wake 2’s PS5 Pro enhancements, the Pro will scale resolutions to 4K with PSSR and simultaneously reach a frame rate of 60 frames per second. For most people, this will be entirely unnoticeable, an almost insubstantial upgrade that, at a mind-boggling price point of $699, most people aren’t going to purchase at all.

In fact, the reaction to the PS5 Pro’s announcement was downright hostile, with fans furious over the price and the fact that there are barely any games on the platform that will take advantage of this slight tech upgrade.

To be fair to Sony, the PS5 was released in 2020. The PS5 Pro will be launched this November, in 2024. That’s not a yearly release, and yet that doesn’t make it any less egregious a product – the PS5 is barely dated and doesn’t even have that many big exclusives. Sony is no stranger to mid-gen tech refreshes – it also released a PS4 Pro, but that console, at least, was a substantial upgrade necessary to support more demanding games. The upgrades that the PS5 Pro offers aren’t nearly as drastic or as necessary.

According to Valve designer Lawrence Yang, Valve wants to “wait for a generational leap in compute without sacrificing battery life before we ship the real second generation of Steam Deck”. That is, of course, the way that companies should be approaching hardware releases. To release a mid-gen refresh at the PS5 Pro’s price point with barely any technological improvements is ridiculous.

Of course, they’re just supplying the product. There are customers who will still buy it, and it’s not up to me to decide whether those people feel like they’re being ripped off or not. But the whole thing is just deeply anti-consumer, creating demand for a more expensive product without all that much use. I can’t help but think that Valve is doing the right thing here, and yet this is just the bare minimum. Once again, capitalism wins, and we lose.

Valve's handheld has finally cast its spell on me, and all it took was an OLED screen.

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The Pro is going to run most games with comparable(sometimes better or much better)graphics at twice the framerate. That is far from meaningless.

I love my steamdeck but the resolution and framerate can still be downright nasty on many games.

If I could have a new one with twice the framerate on every game or much higher res with fps isn't a concern I would be pissed if they don't make it.

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