Growth, Games and the Whys of PS5 Pro

Baldur's Gate 3 continues to collect year-end honours as the expansive RPG from Larian Studios took home the top award at the 20th BAFTA Games Awards held in London late Thursday. The Dungeons & Dragons-style RPG was crowned as the Best Game, in addition to winning in four other categories on the night. Acclaimed survival-horror sequel Alan Wake 2, Nintendo platformer Super Mario Bros. Wonder and British indie Viewfinder won two BAFTAs each, while Cyberpunk 2077 continued its redemption story with a win in the Evolving Game category.

The BAFTA Games Awards 2024 winners have been revealed, with this year's big victor — perhaps unsurprisingly — being Larian Studios' hugely acclaimed Baldur's Gate 3.

PS5 Pro specs have been the subject of numerous leaks over recent months, and the last couple of weeks in particular have shed a great deal of light on alleged details on the rumoured mid-gen console refresh. But with supposed enhancements like its proprietary supersampling tech dubbed PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution Upscaling (or PSSR), 45 percent faster rendering, and more, how exactly is Sony hoping developers will take advantage of the console’s more powerful hardware?

Rumors are running rampant about a supposed PlayStation 5 Pro, or PS5 Pro for short. Just like we got a mid-generation upgrade with the PS4 Pro last console cycle, many are expecting PlayStation to release an incrementally more powerful machine the bridge the gap between the launch unit and an eventual PlayStation 6. Leaks have been coming out from some fairly credible sources with a lot of juicy and very specific details about what a hypothetical PS5 Pro could look like. As credible as these sources may be, we do still need to take everything we see with a grain of salt until Sony officially confirms this system even exists. Until then, here are all the rumors out there we could pull together regarding the PS5 Pro.

There have been two big stories on the ground at GDC this year: Xbox’s flatlining brand and the purpose of the PS5 Pro. Speaking as part of a podcast, GamesIndustry.biz’s well-connected reporter Christopher Dring noted that he didn’t meet a “single person” at the show that understood the point of Sony’s mid-gen upgrade, which is rumoured to release later this year.

Although it's yet to be officially announced, we all know that the PS5 Pro is real, and it's likely dropping later this year. A mid-gen upgrade on the PS5, Sony will probably position the refreshed console as another premium product — something that it's been doing throughout the generation so far, with stuff like PS Portal and the DualSense Edge.

Recently on the GI Microcast, GamesIndustry.biz founder Christopher Dring discussed falling sales for Xbox in Europe and how the “majority” of its titles would come to PlayStation 5 at some point. During GDC 2024, he also spoke to different developers about the rumored PS5 Pro, whose specs recently leaked. The verdict? “I didn’t meet a single person that understood the point of it.”

There is mounting evidence that Sony is preparing to release a more powerful PlayStation 5 model, and sooner than you might think. Analysts have confidently predicted the new machine will launch at the end of 2024, while a series of leaks detailing its specs — sourced from official Sony documentation distributed to developers — gives us an idea of how big an upgrade it will be. The strategy seems very similar to that followed by both Sony and Microsoft one console generation ago with the release of PlayStation 4 Pro and Xbox One X: deluxe versions of their console platforms with upgraded specs, released in the middle of the console generation.

The days of developers pushing for native resolutions feel like they’re coming to an end. The reality is that it’s a waste of resources, especially as upscalers like DLSS (or Deep Learning Super Sampling, to give it its full name) get better and better. It’s no surprise Sony is exploring similar technology with PS5 Pro, and it looks like this is all part of a long-term plan which will eventually expand to PS6 as well.

Sony's own upscaling tech for the rumored PlayStation 5 Pro - PS5 Pro PSSR (PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution) - is said to offer vastly improved image quality for current PS5 titles.

Sony is reportedly undertaking an internal investigation to determine how exactly the specs for Trinity, the codename by which the colloquially-named PS5 Pro is internally known, leaked so entirely over the weekend. The incident occurred during a third-party developer rollout, and while we may never learn the culprit's identity, there will undoubtedly be additional security ramifications for other third-party devs moving forward.

According to all rumours and reports, Sony is working on its own reconstruction technology similar to DLSS, or Deep Learning Super Sampling. The feature, named PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution according to Insider Gaming, seems like a long-term play by the platform holder, with the first iteration planned for the PS5 Pro.