“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 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.