With PlayStation 4 Pro now available (our review), Sony Interactive Entertainment America President Shawn Layden and SIE Europe President Jim Ryan offered up their thoughts on the new console, with Ryan saying:
We’re thrilled to announce that PlayStation 4 Pro is available today across Europe, South Africa Australasia and the Middle East. Offering dynamic 4K quality visuals, vibrant, lifelike colours supported by HDR technology (as with all PS4 consoles), smoother performance and faster frame rates, PS4 Pro truly is the world’s most powerful console. It delivers an unparalleled gaming experience.
They both continued by talking about how there’s more than 40 games that support PS4 Pro on day one, including Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, The Last of Us Remastered, Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, Rise of the Tomb Raider: 20 Year Celebration, and Titanfall 2. Layden then added, “Looking ahead, all first-party titles launching in or after 2017 will support dynamic 4K gaming.”
While PS4 Pro doesn’t include a 4K Blu-ray player, it does have 4K video content. Thanks to new updates, the Netflix app now lets you watch “hundreds of hours of TV shows and movies in stunning 4K quality,” YouTube now supports 4K content, and Hulu received a PS4 Pro update, “providing best-in-class video services at launch.”
To output a 4K signal with your PS4 Pro, you’ll need a 4K TV and a Premium HDMI cable (one’s included with PS4 Pro). You can see how to set up your PS4 Pro on your TV in the below video, as well as on PlayStation’s Support site.
As for PlayStation VR, Layden says, “PS4 Pro can deliver an enhanced experience for some PS VR titles thanks to PS4 Pro’s increased processing power.” To learn more about using PlayStation VR on PS4 Pro, head over here.
For a list of PS4 Pro features, check out this breakdown from Sony:
Resolution
- PS4 Pro HD – PS4 Pro outputs game resolution ranging from 1080p to 1440p.
- Dynamic 4K Gaming – PS4 Pro utilizes enhanced resolution techniques to increase game resolution to approach 4K.
- Native 4K on Pro – PS4 Pro enables game resolution output at native 2160p resolution.
Graphics
- Greater Draw Distance – Improved visibility of objects further in the background with greater focus and more detail.
- Anti-Aliasing – Images with soft features such as rounded corners and faces appear smoother and more visually realistic.
- Visual FX – Visuals with very small features like smoke and steam have a heavier look and realistic feel.
Environments
- Vivid Textures – PS4 Pro enables more elaborate design of the images that create the detail we see in games, like dirt on clothing or rust on metal.
- Deep Shadows – PS4 Pro enables sharper shadows with cleaner detail at a greater distance, creating depth and image context.
- High Fidelity Assets – PS4 Pro displays imagery that is more intricate, increasing the amount of images on screen at once.
HDR
- HDR balances the light in games, coming closer to the full spectrum of light we see with the human eye (also available on Base Model PS4).
Frames-Per-Second Boost
- PS4 Pro produces faster targeted frame rates, or smoother locked frame rates.
If you’re picking up a PS4 Pro, keep in mind that it only includes firmware update 3.70. You’ll need to update to version 4.05 to use network features and transfer data from your PS4.
[Source: PS Blog (1), (2), PlayStation, Chris Owen, PlayStation]
