The PlayStation 4 Neo represents a mid cycle upgrade of the kind that the PC, mobile, tablet, or handheld market may be very familiar with, but which is more or less unprecedented for the console market. And yet, its existence does not mean that Sony are looking towards moving to frequent iterative upgrades for their consoles every few years, Sony’s Andrew House said at the Investor Day meeting in Tokyo.
The console is being introduced this time because there is potential to deliver the latest and greatest technology to the customers in the middle of a cycle without causing a generational transition- but Sony still intend on maintaining a one console world, House said, and there is no plan to just have endless incremental upgrades.
Which sounds fine- even if the eventual future of console gaming is to have endless upgrades, the way things stand now, it would be akin to shock therapy to switch to that model. Gently breaking into it, the way Sony and Microsoft are attempting to do, is probably the best way to go about things.
