UPDATE: Sep. 30, 2024, 4:00 p.m. EDT This story has been updated with current availability of the PS5 Pro and the PS5 Pro 30th Anniversary Limited Edition Bundle. (Spoiler: The latter is long gone.)
The PlayStation 5 Pro is now up for grabs. Hope you started saving for it yesterday.
Priced at $699.99, preorders for Sony’s upcoming console began at 7 a.m. PT/10 a.m. ET on Thursday, Sept. 26 — and for the time being, U.S. shoppers can only purchase it through the PlayStation Direct storefront. Preorders will open at other participating retailers starting Thursday, Oct. 10, including Amazon, Best Buy, GameStop, Target, and Walmart. The PS5 Pro will start shipping four weeks later on Thursday, Nov. 7.
At the time of writing, the PS5 Pro was still in stock at PlayStation Direct. Preorders are limited to one per customer and require a PlayStation Network account.
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Mashable previously reached out to Sony to find out whether the company expected the PS5 Pro to sell out quickly at launch since initial availability is limited to one retailer. We didn’t hear back, but it seems shoppers weren’t exactly clamoring for a $700 mid-gen update.
In stark contrast, our sister site IGN reports that a 30th Anniversary Limited Edition Bundle featuring a special variant of the PS5 Pro sold out at PS Direct “in seconds” Thursday morning. The bundle included a PS5 Pro decked out in the ’90s gray aesthetic of the very first PlayStation, plus matching DualSense and DualSense Edge controllers, a DualSense charging station, a disc drive cover, a vertical stand, and a handful of collectibles. It was priced at $999.99 and limited to 12,300 units — and scalpers are now reselling it on eBay for thousands of dollars.
A PS5 Slim Digital Edition 30th Anniversary Limited Edition Bundle that omits the DualSense Edge controller and charging station for $499.99 has also sold out at PS Direct. However, it will be available at third-party retailers like Best Buy, Target, Walmart on Oct. 10. (Note that paid Walmart+ members get first dibs on the big-box store’s inventory.)
Credit: Sony
The PS5 Pro was formally unveiled on Sept. 10 during a nine-minute “Technical Presentation” led by Mark Cerny, Lead Architect of the PS5, on the PlayStation YouTube channel. The announcement followed months of speculation and leaks, including one that seemed to come from inside the house.
With a larger GPU than the original PS5, ray tracing upgrades, and new custom hardware for AI-powered upscaling, Cerny said the PS5 Pro is the “most powerful console we’ve ever built.” It also brings support for WiFi 7, 8K gaming, and a new “Pro” version of the PS5’s Game Boost feature that can upgrade the performance of over 8,500 backward-compatible PS4 titles. It has 2TB of storage, or double the capacity of the original PS5 (which is now nearly four years old).
Notably, the PS5 Pro does not come with a disc drive: You have to purchase it separately for $79.99. (IGN reports that it’s been selling out consistently across major retailers ever since the PS5 Pro was announced.) A vertical stand that’s compatible with the console is also available for $29.99.
Next-gen upgraders who balk at the price of the PS5 Pro and its add-ons might consider purchasing a used system at a discounted price. Certified refurbished PS5 and PS5 Digital Edition consoles are “Coming Soon” at PS Direct, as the X account Wario64 pointed out. They’ll cost $399.99 and $349.99, respectively, or $100 less than their new counterparts.
The PS5 Pro marks the fifth iteration of Sony’s current flagship console (not counting any bundles), which had a much sloppier launch and faced years of pandemic-related supply issues after the fact. Along with the standard PS5, it joins the PS5 Digital Edition, the PS5 Slim, and the PS5 Slim Digital Edition.
