| binary solo said: I wonder how much effort devs are going to go to for Neo. Initially it will have a small user base, and there is really little incentive for devs to do more than the minimum, since they won;t really sell more games for extra effort and expense. The only 100% consistent benefit will be 1080p native res for all games, compared to PS4 og which only hits that sometimes, and often at a cost to other things. I am really struggling to see the gaming benfit in this. It's a way to promote 4K movies and buying 4K TVs. But I don;t see it being a direct good to gaming. |
Let me try and key you in.
the gaming benefit to Sony is that they will NEVER lose their established install base. For now devs domt have to do anything besides making the PS4n games run at 1080p, have higher framerate and have higher level assets in certain areas (better lighting, more particle effects, better AA, better LOD...etc). Those are things that can be adjusted in any respectable modern game engine by just moving sliders around.
in another 3yrs, chances are that the install base of PS4n owners will exceed that of the stock PS4 users. And around that time we are likely to see another console... call it the PS4x that is even all round more powerful. At that time the games that console runs at 1080p@30/60fps may just be impossible to run on the current PS4 at anything higher than 720p. But then, the current PS4 can probably be had for as little as $100.
What Sony is doing is adopting a strategy that will mean there will always be a $400 console on the market while slowly phasing out all previous models. Even thoough those models can still play the new games albeit at much lower settings. This brings an end to the age old problem "how do we make new hardware and not lose all our install base in the process thus starting all over again.
But here's what will really pop your head. Now, everyone will pretty much replace their consoles every 3-4yrs. Say I'm willing to spend $400 every 3yrs. and you are willing to spend $400 every 6yrs. You will be " upgrading" when you buy my console for $200 and I add to that to buy the new box for $400. you will be upgrading again 3yrs later when you buy my console again for $200 and I upgrade to the new box And in turn everytime you buy my console for $200, you sell yours to someone else for $100. and to Sony, the install base is just growing. The value of the previous consoles hold because they can still play the latest games.
Even Shu has hinted that there may not be a PS5.
