Is Sony Hiding Developers’ Disappointment With PS4 Pro?

Have you heard about all the issues and underwhelming performance of the PS4 Pro? It looks like game devs have, too, and Sony is not pleased.

It’s only been a couple of months since the PS4 Pro was released, but instead of the expected hype of people throwing themselves at the PS4 Pro, we get a tepid response from the PS4-loving community.

The PlayStation 4 Pro released last November 2016, and as GamesRadar has quickly laid down the facts, it’s basically an upgraded PS4 with enhanced GPU, including 4K output and HDR. But after all the big words and promises that PS4 Pro is going to be a hypercharged version of the PS4, it looks like customers are not satisfied with how the PS4 Pro is performing—nor are the devs.

First off, the PS4 Pro is designed and has been marketed as a PS4 that will let you enjoy the best of the best graphics in stunning 4K and HDR. Right off the bat, you have three issues here: one, is what if I don’t have an HDR TV; two, I can’t get HDR to work on my beautiful, expensive TV; and three, will you even notice the difference?

With 4K and HDR on the horizon, more and more people are grabbing bigger and more expensive televisions. It is a conundrum, still, however, for people who are lured by the power the PS4 Pro promises but could not slip a new 4K TV into their budget. With the extra computation power that the PS4 Pro promises, you’d think that you’d get more beautiful textures and gameplay anyway, so maybe not having a 4K TV doesn’t sound too bad. But then again, too bad for you, because not all native PS4 games will run better on the Ps4 Pro, contrary to theory.

Eurogamer sampled a few PS4 Pro-enhanced titles and found that performance is painfully inconsistent. Sometimes you get promising results on the PS4 Pro such as in Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, Battlefield 1, and FIFA 17, but then you turn around and try other titles such as The Last of Us and Watch Dogs 2 and you get stupendously worse framerates from the PS4. For such a premium price, you would think Sony makes sure you get what your money’s worth but with the PS4 Pro, sometimes you do, sometimes you don’t.

And don’t event mention how Sony is still mum over the TV compatibility malfunction that Forbeshas so generously pointed out. All throughout November, a lot of new PS4 Pro users experienced problems with connecting their PS4 Pro units to their respective TVs, with issues ranging from not getting pictures, not recognizing connected TVs, and not reading HDR modes.

In fact, you know that mid-cycle console upgrades such as the PS4 Pro is not a great idea when the game developers themselves aren’t exactly on board with the console makers. The Verge reports that according to findings from a survey conducted by the Game Developers Conference, only 18 percent of developers view consoles like PS4 Pro and Scorpio as a positive thing for the industry, with 41 percent undecided, 36 percent felt neutral, and 5 percent are passionately opposed.

For many developers, the issue is the extra effort involved in creating multiple versions of the same game, when you’re not even sure if the other version is paying off the extra work.

Surveying more than 4,500 creators, the results found that the bottom line is the uncertainty of it all. It’s unbelievable work enough for a developer to create a game for three platforms (the PS4, Xbox One, and the PC). Imagine the effort and money it would take to put it on the PS4 Pro when at the end of the day, you don’t even know if your investment on that market is paying off.

All of these factors has iDigitalTimes wondering if Sony is hiding the tepid response to the PS4 Pro from the public. The report argues that Sony has been very silent about the PS4 Pro and it’s surprisingly true. There is little to no commotion about the PS4 Pro, no huge deals or discounts, no exciting port that would urge people to forget how inconsistent the PS4 Pro and just buy it.

As iDigitalTimes pointed out, despite the good numbers Sony has turned out for 2016, PS4 and PS4 Pro sales have been lumped together, so that we are unable to really pinpoint if the PS4 Pro is performing any better on the part of the market. With lumped sales and company silence put together, you know off-the-bat that there must be something fishy. Especially with the Nintendo Switch making such a big ruckus, you kind of need all the marketing that you can get—but Sony isn’t doing any of that for the PS4 Pro.

Microsoft is geared towards launching the Xbox Scorpio, a console that they says will be a beast of a device. If the Scorpio turns out to be what it is promised to be, and if Nintendo Switch makes its much-expected comeback, and if the PS4 Pro remains the same inconsistent chunk of metal that it is, there’s much concern for Sony going forward.

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