I was immediately against the PS4 Neo.
I felt Sony was abandoning the 40 million PS4 owners that gave them so many months of sales domination. I felt it was a cash grab designed to ape the ridiculous mobile phone sales philosophy. Imitating the crooks at Apple and Android that release new models with negligible improvements while simultaneously making the software run worse on older devices. I also felt it was completely unnecessary. Every single console gaming generation has shown incredible improvements from the launch titles to the final titles of each life cycle. This has always been done without hardware improvements that could potentially split the user base and leave early adopters left holding a ratty old bag.
What I feel doesn’t change what will happen. Sony and Microsoft have drawn 4K lines in the sand and it’s only a matter of time before NEO and Scorpio hit the market. So there’s nothing left to do but speculate and hope for the best.
Best Case Scenario
The PC market is doing well. Games are selling on a wide variety of computer systems, varying in power and technology. Gamers tweak settings and can have the same play experience with different graphical experiences. Designing games to work with a hodge podge of tech brings about irritating hardware conflicts, errors, crashes, for the gamer and developer. On the console however this should be limited. It’ll be a pain in the ass for devs to design another SKU or two but there will be far fewer potential hardware configurations to worry about. Best case scenario has every game working smoothly on every console iteration with a simple “NEO” and “Standard” option affecting the graphics or perhaps boosting 30 fps to 60.
Best case scenario also has this half-step increasing the life span of this generation. My initial fear of abandonment (I swear I had a good childhood, but I did own a Sega CD and 32X) could actually see my initial investment in a PS4 Classic lasting a few more years than initially planned. Sure I might be playing in 1080 while Neo users get 4k, but I also don’t plan on buying a 4K television anytime soon.
The best case scenario is if Sony doesn’t split their base. Simply fulfill the promise of every game working (WELL) on either platform with a few bells and whistles for the luxury option and everyone will be happy. It would be a real shame to poop all over a fanbase that made them so much money. Microsoft destroyed with the 360 but they saw that loyalty quickly evaporate with their disastorously un-gamer-friendly Xbox One launch strategy. Best case scenario shows Sony and Microsoft learning from previous mistakes and simply providing a prettier way to play for those who buy the next big thing.
What do you think?
