Prey Doesn't Appear to Support PS4 Pro Despite Claims to the Contrary
Players and experts alike are struggling to find evidence of PS4 Pro support for Prey.
This article first appeared on USgamer, a partner publication of VG247. Some content, such as this article, has been migrated to VG247 for posterity after USgamer's closure - but it has not been edited or further vetted by the VG247 team.
Prey has been out for a little under a week and while players have been exploring the game's sci-fi mysteries, hardware enthusiasts are perplexed by their own mystery: where is the PlayStation 4 Pro support Prey promised?
A quick Google search unearths several forum and Reddit threads of people wondering why Prey doesn't appear to have any PS4 Pro support despite adverts promising otherwise. One thread on PlayStation community forums simply states, "What the hell? Prey has no PS4 support."
The PlayStation forum thread in particular seems a little unclear about what exactly the original poster is referring to, whether they couldn't get PS4 Pro settings working on their copy of Prey, or if they are upset about the game not announcing PS4 Pro support (despite the retail version promising Pro support). However, one poster on the thread who goes by Toypop76 writes that the PS4 Pro did nothing for the Prey demo he downloaded.
"The demo looked really poor on my UHD TV. I find the PS4 Pro resolution enhancements to be essential as since getting a larger higher resolution TV, older games at 1080p look pretty awful[,]" writes Toypop76. "My wallet is staying firmly shut for the time being and will stay shut until someone like Digital Foundry post a video on it having done actual pixel counting," Toypop76 finishes.
In fact, Digital Foundry did indeed discuss whether or not Prey supports PS4 Pro settings over at Eurogamer, writing, "Despite the retail packaging suggesting that PS4 Pro support is included, we could find no improvements whatsoever. The resolution remains identical, frame-rate is still locked to 30fps and even the lacustre texture filtering is the same."
USgamer reached out to Bethesda to clarify whether or not PS4 Pro enhancements were shipped with the game, or whether or not it will be added at a later update. Until USgamer gets an official response however, Twitter users have also joined the chorus of gamers confused about how to get Prey to run PS4 Pro settings.
Oddly enough, Some YouTube streamers have been advertising their walkthroughs as PS4 Pro runs. We reached out to several YouTube streamers to clarify whether or not this means they're running the game in 4K or just on the console.
The PS4 Pro is Sony's 4K compatible device that also offers high-dynamic range (HDR) support. Although not exactly a new console, the PS4 Pro offers a bevy of graphical and technical improvements to games that support it. Some older games that released before the PS4 Pro's release have been patched to support the 4K system, while upcoming games that plan on supporting the PS4 Pro will be labeled as such, being referred to by Sony as being "forward compatible."
While all PlayStation games are expected to run on both the original PS4 as well as the PlayStation 4 Pro, gamers are expecting titles that claim to support 4K graphics on the PS4 Pro to deliver, which in the case of Prey, appears to either not be the case, one that isn't entirely clear how to implement, or part of a future update. Either way, more clarification is definitely required and USgamer will update the story accordingly once we receive a statement.