Grand Theft Auto publisher Take-Two Interactive chimed in on recent rumors about the Pro variant of the PlayStation 5 and the possibility of a new mid-generation Xbox console. This bit of industry insight follows yet another wave of insider claims that the PS5 Pro is in active development.
Rumors of an upgraded PS5 model have been around for years by now, with one of the latest reports on the matter alleging that PS5 Pro dev kits will start shipping to developers in the second half of 2023. Claims that Microsoft is preparing a similar mid-generation upgrade to the Xbox Series X/S haven't been as prevalent, although they still cropped up on an occasion over the course of the last year.
At a pre-briefing call ahead of Take-Two's latest earnings report, CEO Strauss Zelnick was asked whether he expects to see another round of iterative hardware in the vein of the PS4 Pro and Xbox One X during this console generation. The executive said that will "probably" be the case, adding that the Grand Theft Auto publisher isn't expecting the PS5 Pro or a mid-generation Xbox console to have a significant impact on its profits. Not least because neither the PS4 Pro nor Xbox One X affected Take-Two's business "very much," he explained.
Even should Zelnick's intuition prove to be correct, it's debatable whether mid-generation PS5 and Xbox Series X/S upgrades are actually on the horizon. Not least because the industry has only recently started transitioning away from the cross-gen phase, as underlined by the fact that even Sony's first-party titles such as Gran Turismo 7 and God of War Ragnarok have mostly been cross-generation releases up until this year. The company's decision to continue supporting the PS4 is believed to have been influenced by pandemic-induced semiconductor shortages that inhibited PS5 sales for years, preventing Sony from meeting consumer demand for the system.
Microsoft's ecosystem is in a similar situation, as the majority of upcoming Xbox Series X/S games are also slated to release for the Xbox One, with Starfield being the most high-profile exception. It's dubious whether Sony and Microsoft can justify near-term investments in new production lines for revised consoles given how their latest systems barely have any exclusive titles that push their hardware to the limit in the first place.
Moreover, the PS4 Pro and Xbox One X both tempted consumers with the promise of 4K gaming, which is something that their successors offer by default. A hypothetical mid-gen upgrade to either the PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X would lack a comparably significant technical selling point. And while the Xbox Series S is capped at 1440p in most games, the Series X already fulfills the role of its "Pro" counterpart. It thus remains to be seen what kind of advantages Sony and Microsoft intend to offer this time around, assuming Zelnick proves to be correct in thinking that both companies are planning to revise their systems during the current console generation.