Why PS4 'Neo' is a natural evolution of the console cycle

[Normchacho]

Hiku said:

Normchacho said:

How is this making you a PC gamer?

If you're a PS4 owner who isn't interested in the updated model, ignore it go about your business. Based on the information we have so far, it won't have any effect on your ability to use the PS4 the same way you are now.

There are ways this could potentially have negative effects even on people who are only interested in the vanilla PS4. Games that normally would run well on PS4 (60fps etc) could instead be optimized to take more advantage of the later PS4s, and the performance of the regular PS4 version takes a hit as a result. And supposedly Sony won't allow this (we'll see when it's confirmed, and I hope not) but depending on whether or not Sony will allow it, some games may only run on later versions of PS4. We have some examples of that in the console business. (Majora's Mask, Perfect Dark and Donkey Kong 64 for example, and in recent times Xenoblade for New 3DS.) This can be games developed specifically for a stronger PS4, or a multiplat game where the developers can't be arsed to water down the game so that it'll run on an acceptable level on all PS4 versions, if Sony allow them to just release it on PS4 version 4 and up.
Then there's the question of what will happen to any potential price cuts. There are people who still haven't picked up a PS4 because they don't feel it hit the price that they are willing to pay for it. Now, instead of traditional permanent price cuts, we may instead see the old versions of PS4 being phased out and replaced by a new PS4.

Actually I was thinking about this yesterday.

I think Sony is going to have an issue where anytime any game doesn't run well on the PS4, it's going to get blamed on the NEO. Whether it was a factor or not.

But realistically this isn't going to be like making a game for an extra console. It should, in theory, be much more like having medium and high settings on a PC game. The two systems will share an arcitechture and API after all. Plus the userbase on the normal PS4 will be much larger, so if anything, I think the issue will be devs not taking full advantage of the more powerful system.

Also, as we've heard, the PS4 and Neo will exist side by side, so I would expect the price on the PS4 to have to fall lower to make room for the new console. Which I expect will be $399.