In a Digital Spy interview with top Sony exec Andrew House, he clarified that the Playstation 4 Pro was not going to be upgradable like a PC.
When asked if he could ever foresee a PlayStation with upgradable components, he replied, “It's very tough for me to envisage that at this point.”
Part of House’s interview was about primary audiences for the Playstation 4 Pro. That audience, in part, consists of players who want the very best graphical power . House suggested that those players have been underserved in the mid-to-late console lifecycle. He stated, “players answering "yes" to that question inherently do tend to gravitate towards the PC, and perhaps do so at a certain point within the console lifecycle.”
His response aligns with that of Xbox boss Phil Spencer. Commenting on Major Nelson’s latest podcast, Spencer stated:
“Am I going to break open my console and start upgrading individual pieces of my console? That's not our plan," he said. "There is something special about what happens with a console. You buy an appliance-like device; you plug it into your TV; it works when you plug it in. It's not like I'm going to ship a screwdriver set with every console that comes out."
Spencer’s vision for Xbox appears to align with Sony’s for PlayStation. “What I'm saying is as hardware innovations happen we want to be able to embrace those in the console space," Spencer said. “But as a longer-term vision statement I wanted to make sure people understood what we're doing I think is good for the console space in addition to being good for the PC space."
Neither company is heading in the direction of upgradable consoles, but making sure savvy players don’t migrate off console because the hardware can no longer keep up with PC is a priority for both. While Microsoft’s Xbox Scorpio is more than 40 percent more powerful than the PS4 Pro, the PS4 Pro has a year’s headstart.
Where are you placing their bets for this industry-first iteration of a mid-cycle console war? Feel free to discuss Sony and Microsoft’s console plans in our comments section below.
