Sony has started to remove 8K branding labels from its PS5 boxes in both the US and UK. It’s a long time coming, but it’s also a move that’s fuelling speculation surrounding the upcoming PS5 Pro’s intentions. After all, there’s no point in celebrating a mid-cycle refresh’s new feature if the previous generation was also capable of it.
The PS5 is technically an 8K console. At launch, we were promised that the device would play nicely with the very few 8K TVs that had made their way into people’s living rooms (via a long detour through the bank balance), with a future update to add actual 7680×4320 resolution output should the market call for it. Unfortunately, the market never picked up the phone.
The only game to have touted 8K compatibility in the PS5’s life so far is The Touryst, which was ultimately forced to squeeze down to 4K when the console’s firmware never received its 8K update. That little ‘8K’ symbol at the top of every PS5 box is, and has been for a long time, dead. So it makes sense that Sony has started to remove it from the shelves. But why now?
The PS5 has been sitting pretty for years with its almost-false 8K advertising for all to see, and yet Sony chose 2024 to start phasing the messaging out. It’s easy to see why – the PS5 Pro is just around the corner. It’s unlikely that the refresh will suddenly herald in a new era of 8K gaming. The install base for these pricey TVs is far from what it needs to be for Sony to go all in on the next step up. It’s more likely that the PS5 was premature in its prediction of the market over the last few years but the brand wants to make sure it’s there from day one regardless. Sony may have expected 8K tech to be in more homes by now, and hedged its bets with the previous generation accordingly. The very same thing could be happening again with the PS5 Pro, but we could equally be on the cusp of change.
The key difference this time around is that 8K TVs really could be entering the mainstream market after another three years. We’re already near the ceiling of new features, refresh rates and panel technologies within the 4K generation. Gaming TV updates are getting iterative and when that starts to happen we know that brands will be looking to 8K to bring the next big thing to market. As more displays hit the shelves (which they will do over the next couple of years) and 8K components grow cheaper, things can pick up pretty quickly.
What’s more, we already know that the PS5 Pro is working with upscaling tech a lot more than its predecessor. At the moment, general consensus dictates that this new tech will be used to push 1080p games up to 4K natively. But with the increase in power, the new console could well be looking to bump its existing 4K games to 8K without any further updates from developers.
So Sony wants to push 8K capabilities in its PS5 Pro rather than diluting its product range through the base Slim model, in the hopes that it actually will be able to make good on its promise this time around. But who knows, we could be having the exact same conversation when the PS6 takes center stage. We’ve been frogging between generations, never quite reaching that 8K carrot on the end of the stick, but that could all change towards the end of the Pro’s lifespan and Sony wants us to imagine such a future when we’re buying our new consoles today.
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