When it comes to my thoughts on the Sony PS5 Pro, my heart sings. I want one, but I also can’t do the financial calculations to justify buying one, although I hope I’ll save a ton of mental energy if I just bite the bullet and get on with my life. Regardless of my own actions, a lot of people will buy a PS5 Pro, and I expect a large portion of those people will likely be Xbox Series X owners looking for the most powerful console on the market. If Xbox doesn’t release this generation’s equivalent of the Xbox One X, tech-hungry Xbox fans will have only one option left: give up on Xbox.
Back in 2017, I did the opposite. The PS4 Pro is great too, but as someone who wants the best, I bought an Xbox One X and never looked back. That’s when Game Pass was really starting to take off, and Xbox (much like the Xbox 360 era) quickly became my platform of choice. I’ve played almost every game on Xbox One X, so my library of digital games continues to grow. When the Xbox Series X was the most powerful console on paper, I saw no reason to change that, but now I do. Others will have the same idea.
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If I want the best console gaming experience ahead of the next generation of consoles, my only option is the PS5 Pro.
While many may not think Xbox cares about people leaving its ecosystem, it does. People investing in Xbox and buying an Xbox console will be more profitable for them than PS5 owners buying the same games. Coupled with the possible launch of a monthly Game Pass subscription service, Xbox has every reason to keep its audience on its platform. If I jumped to PlayStation now with a PS5 Pro and spent the next three or four years building up my library, would I go back to Xbox? Given how things are going right now, I’m not sure.
Sony didn’t need the PS5 Pro, but in creating it, it delivered another blow to the Xbox. In my opinion, Game Pass and console performance are two strong reasons to stick with Xbox even if its exclusive games are coming to other platforms. In my opinion, the Xbox has a performance advantage over its competitors, mostly because that’s what it’s been like for most of its time on the market. With that gone and even Game Pass starting to look less attractive, it will be interesting to see how Xbox games on PlayStation perform on PS5 Pro. Raiders of the Lost Ark is part of my Game Pass Ultimate subscription this December, but if the game looks significantly better on PS5 Pro, then my resolve will be tested and my subs will start to seem less important.
That’s the problem Xbox faces, and I think there’s only one way to stop the exodus: Tell us about the next Xbox (if it’s coming soon). There is a growing feeling that Xbox will launch its next console earlier than expected, possibly even in 2026. Or how long until any other name is released. I also don’t think announcing a new console two years after launch will have much of an impact on console sales. I doubt the average person buying a console four years from now will be thinking far beyond what’s right in front of them, and let’s face it, gaming will be spanning two generations for quite some time after 2026 – with the new PS4 and An Xbox game will be released in 2025, 12 years after these machines were launched!
To be honest, I’d prefer Xbox’s stopgap solution to compete with the PS5 Pro, with the next-gen console launching in 2028 or later, but since that’s not happening, I need Xbox to give one a go while Sony dominates Reasons to Stick with Xbox Console Performance Department. It could say any old crap and I’d probably live with it. I’m currently a consumer on Team Xbox and I just need a carrot to keep things going.
