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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 mid-gen console began at around 7 am PT/10 am 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, Target, and Walmart. The PS5 Pro will start shipping four weeks later on Thursday, Nov. 7.
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Mashable reached out to Sony to find out whether the company expects the PS5 Pro to sell out quickly at launch since initial availability is limited to one retailer, and if it had any plans to avoid inventory shortages. At the time of writing, we hadn’t heard back.
A 30th Anniversary Limited Edition Bundle featuring a special variant of the PS5 Pro will also be available for preorder today, according to a PlayStation blog post. It includes 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.
The bundle is limited to 12,300 units, with each PS5 Pro individually numbered, and it will presumably be very expensive; Sony hasn’t confirmed how much it will cost yet. A PS5 Digital Edition 30th Anniversary Limited Edition Bundle that omits the DualSense Edge controller and charging station will also be for sale.
Credit: Sony
The PS5 Pro was formally unveiled earlier this month 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 includes 2TB of storage, which is 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. (Our sister site 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.
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Sony’s upcoming PlayStation 5 Pro console is now available for preorder through PlayStation Direct for $699.99. It’s set for release on Nov. 7.
