A few confirmations of the PS4 Pro’s hardware have come out, and they are quite promising. Up first, you can switch out the HDD – as is common in most consoles. Second, comes how the backwards compatibility to the PS4 is going to work. Turns out, the PS4 Pro has a “base” and “pro” mode depending on what game you’re playing. To do so, Sony built in a copy of the PS4 hardware into the PS4 Pro. Mark Cerny, lead architect of the PS4 Pro, told Eurogamer that “we doubled the GPU size by essentially placing it next to a mirrored version of itself. That gives us an extremely clean way to support the existing 700 [PS4] titles. We just turn off half the GPU and run it at something quite close to the original GPU.” So a PS4 Pro title will use both chips, doubling the GPU while the CPU operates at the same rate.
In addition, Cerny wanted to make clear that “as a mid-generation release” Sony wanted to ensure that the forward and backwards compatibility between the PS4 and PS4 Pro would be easy for developers. He added that, “we showed Days Gone running on PS4 Pro at the New York event. That work was small enough that a single programmer could do it. In general our target was to keep the work needed for PS4 Pro support to a fraction of a percent of the overall effort needed to create a game, and I believe we have achieved that target.” It seems that compatibility is a lot easier this way.
That said, we were told that the PS4 Pro is not a replacement for the PS4 and there will be no exclusive titles to the PS4 Pro. Well, I think all of us have been pretty doubtful about that. PS4 Pro is a hardware upgrade, pure and simple. It’s 4k compatible, and everything is faster and shinier. This new hardware information only seems to cement that were will be PS4 Pro exclusives, not the other way around. Sure, it will allow current games to work, but eventually someone is going to make a game (probably a multiplayer) that needs the PS4 Pro specs and will not work on the PS4. The differences are slight, but enough for a developer to consider the exclusive upgrade.
However, a title exclusive to the PS4 Pro is bad in a lot of ways. First of all, it gives the game a huge loss in consumer base, as most gamers already own a PS4 and likely aren’t interested in shelling out more money quite yet. Especially since the PS4 Pro isn’t as big a jump in technology from the PS4 as, for example, the PS3 to the PS4 even with 4k. It is simply too early in the market to start selling 4k and HDR content on its own. HDR and 4k televisions are just beginning to rise and are still too expensive for the average consumer.
The upgrade in the PS4 Pro comes in the form of the PlayStation VR. This is why people will buy the console, not for 4k or HDR, but for the higher rendering the PS4 Pro provides for VR. Novelty or not, the VR will sell during the holiday and all developers are going to want a piece of that profitable cake.
Whether these two chips seal the PS4 Pro’s fate as the next generation of console for exclusive titles is still up to Sony. However, with the upgraded hardware it easy to see how developers would be happy to make a bigger and better game. Especially with the new technology of the PlayStation VR running more smoothly on the PS4 Pro, it’s going to be very tempting for developers to push for games that simply can’t run on the original PS4.