Mazzy said:
Not a chance in hell if it's more expensive. I think it would have been smarter to have NEO be a minor upgrade and price NEO the same as PS4 and just have it replace it, but that's not the case. Unless something changes along the line, a $100-200 more expensive system will remain an enthusiast product that will have minimal impact on total sales imo. |
I think that absolutely the PS4 'Neo' will be the default/only PS4 model within a year at most. It simply makes no sense and is actively counterproductive to continue to offer both variants unless they had a ludicrous amount of leftover parts. In a mark-to-market world of 'lean manufacturing', smart corporations avoid that kind of thing like the plague though, for obvious reasons.
It's not like a PC universe where say Acer can bulk buy $40 Pentium Dual-Cores for a low end box, $90 for i3s, $135 i5s, etc. Sony has to get their APUs from Global Foundries (and perhaps now Samsung as well if they have any new fab time to spare), and there simply isn't a lot of sense in the semiconductor industry in continuing to run old-gen fabs. So 28nm 1st-gen X1/PS4 APU production has been EOL'd, and probably for a while now.
If there was a replacement for the original spec APUs that were simply die-shrunk as in previous gens AND the new higher-performance APU, then I could see there being two models run for a while just to see how that would play out, but that die-shrunk basic APU got cancelled a while back :
http://www.extremetech.com/gaming/219859-samsung-globalfoundries-to-fab-next-gen-amd-gpus-apus
The flip side of that is that the X1 will need a new APU revision as well, as depending on EOL'd 28nm is a no-go. If it weren't for the ESRAM situation, they could get away with nearly the same design, but they will have to be more creative in their solution.
Anyway, there are many other intricacies of the industry that cement my perspective on this, but I would give the following predictions :
(1)- PS4 'Neo' will be the definitive/only PS4 sold within a year of debut, and probably less than that. I'm talking base hardware, obviously different bundles and HDD sizes could/will be offered. (99.5% certain on this)
(2)- Sony will release the PS4 Neo in a very understated manner in terms of marketing/announcements. I expect not to hear a whole lot of specifics about gaming in particular, but more on VR/Media/4K Video. I believe that this serves fairly closely to the 'slim' revision of gens 6 and 7 for them more than it does a new way of doing things. Practicalities and realities of production and fabrication made this decision for them rather than a grand design. (XX% certain because this is somewhat intangible)
(3)- PS4 'Neo' will launch at no more than $399, and quite possibly at $349, maybe 50/50. Depending on their timing in getting PS4 OG's cleared from the pipeline and inventory system, it may even drop directly in as a replacement over a matter of weeks at the exact same price of the OG PS4 that it is replacing, with the OG's getting a temporary $279 bundle or something. (99% sure $399 or less, 60% sure $349 on debut)
(4)- People will complain about this, that, and the other thing as per usual, and 'Neo' editions of older PS4 titles may take a while to appear, if at all. The ones that do will be heavily scrutinized by the likes of DF, and a new wave of console tech warring/arguments will emerge after basically fading out from the craziness of 2013-2014 times. Double this madness if Xbox 1.5 also sports a beefier APU and has patches/modes to improve 1080p/framerate/etc on some titles. (10,000% certain of continued internet hijinks and trololo moments, lol)
Potatoes!
