Sony’s newly revealed PS4 Pro managed to impress the majority with its new features, but it’s fair to say that the omission of a 4K Blu-ray player has a lot of us scratching our heads.
After all, Sony really pushed Blu-ray with the PS3, and the new beefed up console is all about true 4K gaming and visual quality so crisp it’ll burn your retinas, so what gives?
PlayStation president Andrew House has stepped in to explain Sony’s decision. He recently told The Guardian that dropping the 4K Blu-ray player was done as a response to the demand he’s seen for streaming video content on PS4.
He said:
Our feeling is that while physical media continues to be a big part of the games business, we see a trend on video towards streaming. Certainly with our user base, it’s the second biggest use case for people’s time on the system so we place more emphasis on that area.
During the PlayStation Meeting reveal event, it was announced that the PS4 Pro will be getting new Netflix and YouTube apps that specialise in 4K goodness, so those seeking 4K content won’t be entirely without choice.
If the lack of a 4K Blu-ray player is something you can forgive, the PS4 Pro goes on sale November 10, and costs £349.
Ewan Moore is a journalist at UNILAD Gaming who still quite hasn’t gotten out of his mid 00’s emo phase. After graduating from the University of Portsmouth in 2015 with a BA in Journalism & Media Studies (thanks for asking), he went on to do some freelance words for various places, including Kotaku, Den of Geek, and TheSixthAxis, before landing a full time gig at UNILAD in 2016.