Sony recently revealed the list of 30+ titles that will be receiving additional benefits from the PlayStation Pro such as resolution rendering up to 4K, HDR enhancements and more stable frame-rates. Unfortunately for PlayStation Owners who might be dropping the $399 USD on this enhanced console this list of supported games raises some and conflicts with previous reports about PlayStation Pro support.
For starters here is a list of the PlayStation Pro enhanced titles as of the November 10th launch, next week:
- Battlefield 1
- Battlezone
- Bound
- Call Of Duty: Black Ops 3
- Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered
- Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
- Driveclub VR
- EA Sports FIFA 17
- Firewatch
- Helldivers
- Hitman
- Hustle Kings
- inFAMOUS First Light
- inFAMOUS Second Son
- Knack
- Mafia III
- Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor
- NBA 2K17
- Paragon
- PlayStation VR Worlds
- Ratchet & Clank
- Rez Infinite
- RIGS Mechanized Combat League
- Rise Of The Tomb Raider
- Robinson: The Journey
- Smite
- Super Stardust Ultra
- The Elders Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited
- The Elders Scrolls: Skyrim Special Edition
- The Last Of Us Remastered
- The Last Of Us: Left Behind
- The Playroom VR
- Titanfall 2
- Tumble
- Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End
- Until Dawn: Rush of Blood
- Viking Squad
- Wheels of Aurelia
- World Of Tanks
- XCOM 2
For sure there are some several big name AAA games from 2016 that are receiving an upgrade on the PS4 Pro including EA’s Titanfall 2 & Battlefield 1, EPIC Games’ Paragon, Square Enix’s episodic Hitman, 2K’s Mafia III and Sony’s own first party efforts Until Dawn: Rush of Blood and Uncharted 4. A lot of these titles are third or first person action titles and will benefit from the bump up in resolution in frame-rate, texture quality and resolutions most certainly but doesn’t it leave a bit to be desired?
Some really big titles from this past year alone are absent from the list for unknown reasons – titles like The Witcher III and its 2016 expansions, Tom Clancy’s The Division, Dark Souls III, DOOM and Mirror’s Edge Catalyst all could have benefited from varying degrees due to the technical improvements offered by the PlayStation Pro. This is especially true considering that rumblings around the industry point to a small workload when implementing PS4 Pro support when compared to the overall work required to produce a finished title.
Concerning the PlayStation Pro’s graphical enhancements the platforms architect Mark Cerny told Eurogamer this about the overall development required to use specific PS4 Pro features:
“The point though is that these are techniques that can be implemented for a fraction of a percent for the overall budget for the title.”
Certainly there are other older titles in the system’s library that could either benefit from a bump up in frame-rate to make them more playable – most notably last year’s Fallout 4, whose frame rate can creep into the mid 20s at times when the action ramps up with a number of enemies on screen. Another title that could have seen a huge potential boost would have been Square Enix’s Final Fantasy XIV which has graphical options of Windows PC that haven’t been utilized in the PS4 port. One genre that has always struggled with the balance of frame-rate and texture quality is open world titles due to the amount of complex objects on screen and the need to stream the game-world to players to keep immersion and game-play flowing.
Sony says that support for up to 15 more titles will be ready to roll out by the end of 2015 with games like Killing Floor 2, Final Fantasy XV, The Last Guardian and Gravity Rush 2 receiving patches to support the new console. Oddly some big titles from this fall are missing despite the leaked claim that Sony told developers that titles released after October 2016 would need to support the PlayStation Pro – so if you were hoping for PS4 support for the latest Star Wars Battlefront DLC or Dishonored 2, you’re out of luck for now.
When the large – then code-named PS4 Neo- leaks occurred earlier last month Eurogamer did an excellent job providing readers with a rundown of what Sony expected of developers going forward. At that time it was believed that PlayStation 4 Pro support would be mandatory from October going forward but for a select few titles like Bethesda’s Dishonored 2 this does not appear to be the case.
Here is the original quote outlining Sony’s requirements for PS4 devs:
“Forward compatibility patches are for old games only: Sony really wants Neo support on all games from October onwards. While older titles can have Neo features patched in, the platform holder will not allow new titles to add Neo features at a later date.”
Is the PlayStation Pro worth your extra cash if you’ve got a standard PS4? Let us know your opinion in the comments section.