PlayStation 4's lifecycle won't be cut short as a result of the new high-end PlayStation Neo, Sony's head of worldwide studios Shuhei Yoshida has said.

"PS4 is PS4," Yoshida said, when asked by German website Gameswelt.TV whether the new console would shorten the traditional 5-6 year cycle. "[The] new high-end PS4 is still PS4, so the lifecycle is not going to be shorter."

PS4 launched alongside Xbox One in late 2013, with rumours pointing to a release later this year for the new high-end PlayStation Neo. Yoshida refused to provide any new details on the console, however, instead saying that the platform holder will talk about it "when we have enough information on preparation".

Sony confirmed that it was working on a new "high-end" PS4, codenamed PlayStation 4 Neo, ahead of its E3 press conference earlier this month. The console was not shown at E3, however, despite rumours suggesting that it is due to launch relatively soon.

Microsoft, meanwhile, announced the first official details on its next Xbox console Project Scorpio, confirming that it will feature a 6 teraflop GPU and will launch in late 2017. The announcement took Yoshida by surprise, however.

"I was surprised [Microsoft announced Scorpio]," Yoshida said earlier in the interview. "I was not expecting them to talk about [it]. It's very very super interesting what they are doing."

Yoshida's comments echo those of Sony Interactive president Andrew House, who said last week that he was "surprised by the step of announcing something over a year ahead of time".

"The dynamics of the tech industry are such that there's a much heavier emphasis on immediate gratification than there was," he said. "A lot of that is to do with how Apple has very cleverly and elegantly managed the 'available now' approach. So yes, that was a slight surprise to me."

http://www.videogamer.com/news/playstation_neo_wont_shorten_ps4_lifecycle_says_sony.html

So he already knew about Scorpio?

The question is, how much will it lengthen the 8th generation.
What's the life cycle for Neo.

I would be surprised if he didn't.  Generally when you are in the same industry as others you hear whispers of their ideas well before the rumors reach the public.

It's really odd how people react to the Neo. Everyone and their mother demands backwards compatibility and what we have here is the solution. Nothing changes except the fact that every game from now on is forwards and backwards compatible. That means you don't lose the use of your games as you upgrade and if you can't afford the more expensive consoles (iterations or full cycle) you can opt for the cheapest and still play all the games. The Neo is exactly what people were asking for but they didn't realise it.

It's actually expanding it.

Shorten? These iterative consoles are primed to do the exact opposite. They will make it longer. In another 3-4yrs there will be another PS4. Or PS5 or whatever.... rather than generational leaps, we are moving to preset leaps.

This statement is a chess move. The Scorpio is more powerful and as such could be seen as a new generation. By saying this now it puts the ball in Miscrosoft's court and forces them to consider how they approach the marketing carefully. They had more leeway before this statement and gave Sony the headache. This redresses the balance a little. As it stood, MS could change the messaging based on how things stood nearer to the launch. They could adjust it from 'iterative' to 'new cycle' and no one would have thought twice about it. By promising the Neo won't shorten the lifecycle, Sony have subliminally planted the idea that a shorter life cycle is a bad thing. Now it's more likely that MS will go with 'iterative' to avoid a possible backlash. Sony will be hoping that this will be discussed in the media to help cement the negatives of a shorter lifecycle.

I love this shit. I'm already starting to see Sony adjusting their messaging from power to games. They had both before but they know they won't have both come the release of the Scorpio.

Well of course. How could it shorten it?

Exactly, and sony hasn't even started yet. The biggest issue with the scorpio is actually its biggest strenght too. Its just too differemt from the OGXB1.

Now typically being more powerful can always be a good thing, but things really start to go bad the second you can plug in a rift or vive into the scorpio and play a gamewhich means the 20M+ people tjat supported the XB1 (probably 30M+ by the time the scorpio is released) are going to be left behind.

Then sony will just say, every PS4 is the same. Eveeything you can do on one you can do on the other. Only difference is that one supports 4k output and the other doesnt. So its simple, neo is PS4 but better.