I thought that was the issue Iroboto was concerned with, consumer overload. For devs it's no worse than Pro or the 4 SKus of previous or targeting PCs. Perhaps even easier, if XBSX+ is XBSX at solid 60 fps with better RT, the kind of upgrades being talked about here. The plus would just run XBSX better without being a particular new target (which is what the Pros were).
Yea which is the problem. It’s very difficult to market that to consumers. You’ll get better ray tracing, but it’s hard to sell that which most players can not see. Selling 8K is much easier for instance.
The midgen refreshes if they arrive are going to land much more awkwardly than last generation: not enough power to really get away from what’s there today, and not really anything to showcase its marketing grunt.
You’re really just selling on Spec, which is a weird thing to do in console land. If PS5 pro does launch, people will point out that it has the same number of CUs as XSX. And if XSX+ launches, there’s no spec that it could release with that would make sense, other than to jump clock speed, because doubling 52CU is insanity, and shrinking and boosting clock speed isn’t worthy of a midgen refresh - very tough to market.
Oddly 8K is the easiest marketing move, and no one owns one of those. A new console should grant you something new, the existing ones do 30, 60, 120fps and resolutions up to 8K. Though they don’t really offer 8K gaming.
It may be normal for PC users to look and purchase off spec, but a singular device marketed and on its own usually cannot unless it’s part of a family of devices. For phones, Max models have larger screens, and Pro models have better cameras.
There’s just got to be more than better spec. Very curious how Sony will position Pro, but I just don’t see a spot for MS.