“You can buy a gaming PC for 120,000 yen.” Japanese people have been seeing an increasing number of advertisements worded this way in the past few days. But what else costs 120,000 yen? A PlayStation 5 Pro, as recently revealed by Sony.
The announcement of the PS5 Pro’s steep price tag has caused significant dissatisfaction both in the US and Europe, where the console will set gamers back $700 and €800 respectively. But much like European gamers, Japanese players are faced with paying even more for the console than people in the US. The 119,980-yen price point is equivalent to over $840, based on recent conversion rates.
To make matters worse, Sony recently hiked the price of standard PS5 console models in Japan. On September 2, the suggested retail price jumped from 66,980 yen (about $463) to 79,980 yen (about $552). Apart from severe backlash across social media, this decision caused the console to sell out all over the country in the days leading up to the price increase and even gave the Xbox a boost in sales.
The point is, why get the PS5 when you can just play Steam games? If you don’t have a PC already (sounds like you do though?), you can pick up a Steam Deck for about the same price as a PS5, and if you want to play on a TV, pick up pretty much any Bluetooth controller (I use a PS4 controller) and you’re golden (main caveat is certain MP games). If you do have a PC and your TV is a smart TV, you can probably just install the Steam Link app on it and you’re golden.
It sounds like you already have a PS5, but the point is, if you didn’t, there’s really no reason to get one unless you really want to play certain PS5 exclusives and you’re unwilling to wait for them to come to PC. A Steam Deck doesn’t quite have the same performance as a PS5, but it’s pretty good and probably good enough in most cases.
The steam deck is fine for a handheld, but the performance on a TV is not even close to competitive with a PS5.
Yup, if you want PS5-level performance, you need to build a PC. If you just want to play games, a Steam Deck will do fine.
I’m not talking about “PS5 level”. I’m talking about tolerable.
The performance on modern games is only playable because it’s a handheld. It’s painful on a TV. If you are looking for a device to play modern games on a TV, the steam deck is an awful buy.
Upscaling isn’t that bad. If you target 720p, the Deck should be able to keep up in most games. And if you mostly play casually, it’ll probably work well enough. But it all comes down to the games you play and the performance you expect. 30-40 FPS should be achievable on most games running @ 720p on medium settings.
Or you could build a PC. If you’re intending to play on a TV, this can be under $1k. That’s a little more than a PS5, but you’ll probably make that up in lower game prices before needing an upgrade, at which point an upgrade should be comparable to buying a new console (assuming you’re trying to match consoles, not go for high-end).
I have one, and yes, it is bad.
But I wasn’t talking about resolution. 40FPS is semi-tolerable on a handheld. Anything less than 60 on a TV is a miserable experience, with or without adaptive sync.
Eh, I’ve played plenty of Switch games at ~30 FPS and it’s fine. 40 is much better, and I honestly don’t see a point in 60 on a TV. That said, I don’t tolerate much below 60 on my PC though, and I generally avoid playing more intensive games on my Steam Deck (I prefer to play indies that give 60 FPS). Framerate matters more for me the closer I am to the screen.