Earlier this year, Sony announced that the company's first virtual reality headset, Playstation VR, would be available for purchase by October this year. Since the announcement, reports about a new console have made their way online.
According to rumors, the tech manufacturing giant is currently in the midst of developing a new version of their gaming console, the PlayStation 4.5. Dubbed as the PlayStation 4.5 or PS4K, the upcoming release is expected to be announced before the release of PlayStation VR. Sony has yet to definitively comment about the speculations; however, more details about PlayStation 4.5 have recently surfaced. These information are interesting to say the least.
According to sources from Sony, as reported by Giant Bomb, the PlayStation 4.5 or PS4K is internally known as NEO. The Neo console will be equipped with a better GPU and higher bandwidth on the memory than the PlayStation 4. Moreover, the NEO would be running on an 8 Jaguar Cores at 2.1 GHz, as opposed to the 8 Jaguar Cores at 1.6 GHz that the PlayStation 4 is running.
The Giant Bomb claims that by October every PlayStation 4 game would be required by Sony to include Base mode, which would run on the PS4, and NEO mode, which would run on the new console. Basically, the concept behind Base and NEO modes is akin to the choice between low and high graphics settings in PC gaming.
Mashable's Adam Rosenberg has since addressed the concerns of PS4 gamers who just purchased their PlayStations less than three years ago. According to Rosenberg, the NEO is not meant to replace the PlayStation 4 completely. It is intended to be an addition to the PlayStation 4 and not a replacement.
The PS4 and NEO would be using the same PSN store, the same online community and offer basically the same gaming experience. As such, reports claim that Sony is not allowing publishers and developers to create NEO only games. Moreover, no exclusive gaming options or special features would be offered exclusively to NEO gamers. Sony reportedly is adamant on avoiding splitting its target gaming audience with the introduction of the NEO.