All reports are looking towards the talked about PS4 Neo as being released soon, but how soon should it be released, especially after Microsoft's Scorpio announcement and the supposed difference in specs. Also the name Neo, what does it mean and no doubt it will be called something else, but what should it be called?
I've thought about this for a while now and especially after Microsofts annoucement last week; Sony NEEDS to release the Neo as soon as possible. All reports look to the fact that the specs are pretty much set in stone, dev kits have been with developers since the start of the year and Sony themselves have solid, set in stone guidelines for developers that state that any game being released from 1st October onwards needs to have Neo specific features on top of the standard PS4 game.
What does this mean? Well some of the years big hitters are released from October onwards. These include:
Battlefield 1, Titanfall 2, Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare and Dishonored 2
Also, this is the first year that Battlefield & COD are not released on last gen consoles, so regular players of these games will have to upgrade to XBox One, PS4 or PC to continue playing these games.
This is a huge window of opportunity for the release of the Neo. They can sell these games as the ultimate home console version. No other version will come close. Also by releasing this calendar year, they give themselves a whole 12 months before Scorpio is released on the market. Certainly enough time to rack up decent sales.
So 2016 or 2017? It needs to be this year and I suggest it will be November 2016.
What will is be called? Well your guess is as good as mines, but personally, why not somethin like PS4 Special Edition or something similar to PS4+. I don't see any good reason to include a 4K BR drive in the device as I personally dont see 4K mass adoption for at least 3 years and by then we could be looking at the next version of console. I would include a 4K compatible HDMI output and the ability to stream 4K content via Netflix etc. By not including the 4K BR drive will drive down the cost significantly. And if Sony go with a PS4 friendly naming convention, then Playstation users will see the new model as a souped up version.
So what should Sony do? Well, I would release the PS4SE (2TB HDD) in November at $349, at the same time, reduce the cost of the basic PS4 (500GB HDD) to $249 and phase out all other models. By doing this they will make the "Neo" the must have PS4 for new owners while stragglers can jump onto the Playstation platform for just $249. Sell the Playstation as the place to be for game exclusives.
In addition to this, we have PSVR. I believe that both the PS4 and PS4SE will be sold in bundles with PSVR shaving a little off the normal RRP as well to get them on the market, so we could see a $699 PS4SE/PSVR bundle and a $599 PS4/PSVR bundle, just in time for Xmas.
Prediction (June 12th 2017)
Permanent pricedrop for both PS4 Slim and PS4 Pro in October.
PS4 Slim $249 (October 2017)
PS4 Pro $349 (October 2017)
