Respawn and Battlefield boss says the PS5 Pro's $700 price tag is "actually not that bad," and "if you get a $700 PC, you're not getting the same performance"

PS5 Pro official screenshot showing close up image of the console's new design
(Image credit: Sony Interactive Entertainment)

Vince Zampella - the Call of Duty boss turned Titanfall and Apex Legends boss who's now also the Battlefield boss - is just like the rest of us in that he has opinions on the PS5 Pro's $700 price tag. He reckons it is not that bad, actually.

"I think it's expected and anything that gets us better performance for the people that really love it," Zampella tells IGN. "To me, it's an amazing thing. I was watching something on it where the price... where they look at is it the most expensive. And it really isn't. If you go back, some of the older consoles were just as expensive and probably adjusted for inflation were probably more. So it at first seemed a little shocking, but it's kind of like, it's actually not that bad. And if you get a $700 PC, you're not getting the same performance that you're getting out of it."

Zampella is certainly right that, adjusted for inflation, PS5 Pro is not the most expensive console ever released - it's not even the priciest machine that Sony's ever put out, as that dubious honor belongs to the PS3. And if you're going the PC gaming route, you're likely looking at a machine equipped with something like an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070. That graphics card alone rivals the price of a PS5 Pro.

"It's a balance," Zampella says. "Is it expensive for people? Absolutely. Not everybody will be able to afford it. Would it be better if it was cheaper? Sure. I want more people to have it. But it makes sense, really."

If you'd like to make your own decisions on Sony's upcoming hardware, check out our guide to the PS5 vs PS5 Pro specs. PS5 Pro pre-orders go live next week, so if you're on the fence about being an early adopter, you don't have much time left to decide.

Former Blizzard boss says the $700 PS5 Pro is really more like a $350 upgrade because it's aimed at people who can trade in their PS5s at "places like GameStop."

Dustin Bailey
Staff Writer

Dustin Bailey joined the GamesRadar team as a Staff Writer in May 2022, and is currently based in Missouri. He's been covering games (with occasional dalliances in the worlds of anime and pro wrestling) since 2015, first as a freelancer, then as a news writer at PCGamesN for nearly five years. His love for games was sparked somewhere between Metal Gear Solid 2 and Knights of the Old Republic, and these days you can usually find him splitting his entertainment time between retro gaming, the latest big action-adventure title, or a long haul in American Truck Simulator.

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