PS4 Neo - (Alleged) announcement September 7th in NY

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univbee: Jun 3, 2004

(Not a pic of the actual 4K console, which is yet to be revealed)

Sources are indicating that Sony has a major event planned in New York for September 7th, and that the PS4 NEO or whatever it will ultimately be called will be announced at that time. Pretty much everything related to the console-to-be is speculative, although several dev sources have leaked documentation a few months ago that supposedly confirm various details (subject to change). Here is a rough breakdown of the speculations:

- Will be capable of 4K output
- Will probably be usable as a UHD Blu-ray Player (not confirmed, although the Xbox One S is currently capable so there isn't much reason for Sony not to bother)
- All games will be cross-compatible with the original PS4. Same games, same game discs (so still 50 gigs max), and nothing will be "paywalled" by being exclusive to the PS4 Neo (with the possible exception of allowing an increased number of split screen players, e.g. 2-player max on vanilla and 4-player max on Neo).
- All multiplayer servers will be the same, it will not be possible to make "PS4 Neo Only" multiplayer servers.
- Games published in the latter half of September, such as Final Fantasy XV, will require a Day One patch which enables "Neo mode" with the game to take advantage of the extra power available.
- Games published from October onwards will be required to have Neo Mode in the on-disc pre-patch code.
- Older titles (anything published before late September this year) can choose to implement a Neo Mode patch, but this is not required.
- There is a possible mandate that games must have a minimum rendering resolution of full 1080p.
- Games are not allowed to run "worse" in Neo mode than in vanilla mode (e.g. if vanilla mode is 1080p at 60fps, it won't be permissible to render at 4K at 40-50 fps, a compromise will have to be made to maintain 60fps in Neo mode or whatever the "minimum" set by the vanilla mode)
- The Neo will likely allow for better streaming options, such as 1080p60 for Twitch broadcasts and PS4 remote play (PC/Mac/Sony devices only; Vita has its own hardware limitations which won't let it upgrade)
- All controllers and accessories for the PS4 will be compatible.
- No redesign of the controller is planned for the PS4 Neo since the DS4 is completely perfect in every way and if you have problems with it you're holding it wrong.
- This will not "replace" the existing PS4, and both units are expected to be available long-term, suggesting that the Neo may have more premium pricing and power.

Rumors point to a release between late September 2016 and early 2017, with "2017 sometime" being more likely since they're already launching the very expensive PSVR and our wallets can only take so much right? :retrogames:

There are two rumored SKU's, with Sony having to decide between the two, and likely keeping an eye on their competition (such as Xbox One S sales and public response to Microsoft's Scorpio announcement) to decide which to go for.

Possibility #1 is effectively an overclocked PS4 that would be able to hit something like 4.19 Teraflops, and cost $399US.
Possibility #2 would use newer, more powerful (and more expensive) chips which may reach 5.5 Teraflops, and cost $499US.

For reference, the vanilla PS4 runs at 1.84 Teraflops, and the "Xbox One Scorpio" for late 2017 is claiming 6 Teraflops of power.