The Playstation NEO is real... for some reason

Featuring a faster processor, faster RAM and an upgraded GPU, the Playstation NEO (as it’s being called), is rumored to be on the way later this year.  The best available details on the upgraded console were recently obtained by Austin Walker of GiantBomb through some apparently developer-oriented documents from Sony.  You should check out the GiamtBomb story for the full details.  It’s worth noting that Sony is yet to even publicly confirm the existence of the console, let alone explain its reasoning for creating one.  That said, it’s going to be an extremely tough sell for people like me, even though I do like enjoy having the “new shiny.”

While Sony looks to be upgrading the hardware of the Playstation, it appears they are taking massive steps to avoid fragmenting the user base.  They’re doing this by limiting how developers can utilize the new power and requiring not only support for both the Neo and original version of the console, but requiring almost complete feature parity for games.  This is probably the most consumer-friendly way this new hardware could be introduced, but it still strikes me as a self-defeating move.

There are unlikely to be improvements beyond graphical improvements and possibly better load times.  While these are worthwhile things to look for, my belief is that the people who prioritize those things over the traditional benefits of a console are already playing their games on PC.  The ones who don’t prioritize them aren’t going to want to spend three or four hundred dollars on a new console that plays the same games as the machine they have.

Looking at this without the benefit of explanation from Sony, this machine looks like it’s aiming to serve two masters but serving neither of them well.  It gives up the uniformity that is often the appeal of console games for consumers and developers because of the simplicity it brings.  In exchange for that sacrifice, it does not appear to add the customizability or raw power that PC gaming offers.  There has been speculation about what advantages this the NEO could provide.  Possibilities include an improved Playstation VR experience or even that the new hardware, along with the NEO mode all games will be required to have, could help facilitate backward compatibility with Playstation 4 games on the inevitable Playstation 5.  That remains all guesswork since Sony has not said a thing on the subject.

I’m curious to see how Sony explains this new Playstation to the gaming masses.  They have their work cut out of them because so far it just looks like a solution in search of a problem and I do not appear to be alone in that thinking.  One thing is certain:  Sony is playing with fire by allowing this information to be leaked and to let the speculation go on for so long without stepping in to calibrate expectations.