I made a thread sometime last year saying we may soon see the end of console "generations" as we know them and how the PS4 will still play games that the PS6 plays. Admittedly I didn't expect Sony to go all in and so early on my theory but they did. And there has been a lot of anger about this. But I feel that not only is this anger unfounded but that italso stems from a lack of understanding of what is happening and why it needs to happen. I wanna use this thread and try and explain a few things. after which I will link to an artcile where someone else have spoken about this too and shared most of my views. 

So I'll be basically stating the pros, if any here wants to dispute my analysis I welcome it. But pls, speak constructively. So we can all have a candid discussion about this and we hopefully all will leave with a better understanding of all of this. So here goes. 

1. Hardware innovation has slowed to a crawl. It took 8 YEARS for us to go from PS360 to the PS41, and even after all that time practically every game made for the new gen could be made to run on previous gen consoles. Even if they may look like crap, but they will run and be playable. If we want anything close to a true generational leap over the current PS41 to whatever is next, we will be waiting till 2022 before we can put something that can handle true 4k gaming at 30fps along with all the developments that would naturally find their way into modern game engines. And have all that fit into a $399 box. 
2. It's makes little sense hitting the reset button every 5-7yrs. Every couple of years a gen ends and a new one begins. But to do so platform holders usually kiss all their hard work over the past 4-8yrs good bye and start all over again. Start from customer 1. making a console that gets constantly upgraded over the life of the platform and not just the box changes all that. Right now the PS4 has around 40M users. The PS4k will also have 40M users on day one. And when it gets replaced with the PS4K2 around 3yrs and another 40M+ users later that console will have 80M users day one. 
3. This system makes it flexible for everyone. Gamers, developers, platform holders....everyone. A platform holder won't have to worry about being tied down to whatever mistakes they make at the start. They won't have to wait 6yrs to put in that new hardware feature that everyone is using right now. Devs womt have to worry about a consoles lifespan when going into developing their games. And the end user will always get the best most affordable gaming system whenever they choose to jump in or jump in "again". Best part yet, you are at least guaranteed support of your games for as long as PlayStation is still called PlayStation. 3yrs ago or even 20yrs from now. 

This will completely kill consoles.

Honestly I hope Nintendo does this.

There should be nothing after NX ... NX is NX, and it simply upgrades as time goes on. There's no "successor" to the NX.

did you even read anything? 

How will it kill consoles? 

As long as you can buy into a console gaming ecosystem for as little as $299.... it's not going anywhere. 

I predicted this 3 and a half years ago :)

But I've got to be honest and say I put PSNow at the heart of it. It wasn't PSNow then of course but I also predicted the business would move to steaming and then we got the news of Sony buying Gaikai.

I think they are all gonna do this. It's one of the greatest benefits of using an X86 architecture. 

If anyone really gives this thought, they too will see that there isn't a chance that everyone doesnt get in on this. 

How does anyone compete with this scenario?

PS4k is released and is better than PS4. 3yrs after that PS4k2 is released and better than PS4k. Every single new iteration comes in at $399. While the previous models if still in circulation gets knocked down in price. 3yrs later PS4k3 is released. so basically Sony has had the PS4 be viable and supported for a total of 12yrs at that point. With an install base of over 150M. An ACTIVE install base. meanwhile, the console someone else that waited for 6yrs releases is just as powerful as the PS4K2.....

The only way to fight that is to do the same thing. 

A fair mistake. I also made a thread some years back or so I think explaining why streaming could never be the dominant or primary game consumption medium. 

The future is going to be with iterative but frequent (3 years) hardware revisions. 

The upside with consoles is that I won't or need to buy a new one every 3-5 years so that I can play same game now or 5 years from now.... now? yeah fu**k you Sony. this is the last time...

I you still defend this kind of sh*t... you deservre the pain.

No, just no. Let's be honest. How many people who own a PS4 will buy the PS4 Neo? If Sony keeps the original and cheaper PS4 along side the PS4 Neo, there is no way parents and casual gamers will buy the most expensive version that plays the EXACT same games as the cheaper one. It's nuts.  I can't believe that some people go out of their way to defend such dumb move. 

PSX,PSPGO,Playstation TV,Playstation move all this make me think it will fail.