With the announcement of the new, faster and more powerful PS4 “Neo”, fans have been speculating on what it means for the current generation of PS4, and whether this marks the beginning of shorter console life-spans and a faster progression in technology. Will it be the case that consumers will have to buy a new console every couple of years?
According to Shuhei Yoshida, PlayStation Worldwide Studios boss, this is not what will be intended with the release of the newer console. Instead, it seems like less of an end of a console generation, and more of a beginning of a symbiotic relationship between newer and older hardware. It would appear that PS4 “Neo” and the current PS4 will complement each other, although it is difficult to see how this might happen. The “Neo” will be for the hard-core gamers, hosting high-end quality games for more money, and the current PS4 will remain just as capable and will still be able to run beautiful games.
In an Interview with Yoshida, he was asked whether the life-cycles of consoles are becoming shorter with the faster release of higher end models. To which Yoshida replies “Well no, PS4 is PS4, you know the new high end PS4 is still PS4, so you know the lifecycle is not going to be shorter”. I believe what he means by this is that this newer console is not classified as a new generation, just a higher-end current generation. Players should be expecting purely an enhanced experience, while the current PS4 will remain a cheaper and still perfectly capable model. It will be a matter of choice for the consumer of whether or not they feel it necessary to upgrade, or buy the more expensive model if they personally will feel it worth the money.
This is a new concept, as the previous generation of consoles did not experience anything like this, which is probably why there are so many questions flying about as to what this upgrade actually entails. The PS4 “Neo” currently has no release date, but it would seem fair to suggest that it will be released next year, in order to stay in check with its rival Xbox Scorpio, set for release in holiday 2017.
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