While the PS4K, also commonly known as the PS4.5 and the PS4 Neo, has not yet been officially confirmed, its existence is taken as all but for granted, given the sheer number of corroborating leaks we have on hand confirming the thing’s existence.

However, even though the oft rumored and much vaunted mid life upgrade for the PS4 may be real, it appears that it may not be announced at E3, contrary to what a lot of people are expecting. Instead, if insider shinobi is to be believed, it sounds like Sony won’t be announcing it until far later in the year- which seems to match up with some of the other rumors that we have on hand.

“I’ve heard that Sony will announce the PS4 Neo at Paris Games Week. This made sense to me because the supposed upgrades are coming in what, October? I would have said this publicly if I was 100% sure, but it’s just what I was told,” shinobi said.

Which means that, if this report is correct, then the PS4K and the Nintendo NX will both be skipping out on E3 this year- leaving Microsoft with an open field, should they choose to announce their new Xbox hardware at the trade show next month.

At this point, the PS4K is probably the worst kept secret in the history of the industry. That said, more evidence is always welcome. So when the French video game and multimedia distributor Innelec released its financial results yesterday, and specifically and explicitly mentioned the PS4 Neo within them, noting that an October release of the upgraded console was expected, we had another piece of evidence to add to the pile that grows on an almost daily basis at this point.

And today, that piece of evidence grew even stronger- paradoxically, this happened because Innelec retracted their statement of the PS4 Neo, denying any knowledge on the platform’s release or even existence- almost as though they belatedly realized that they aren’t supposed to be discussing the unannounced platform in public yet.

“Innelec denies any official information about the launch of a PS4K Neo,” their statement reads. “It’s possible that during the fiscal year 2016/2017, some evolutions could happen on the current PS4, but we don’t have any information about their nature for the time being”

So… I guess we should expect that official PS4K announcement to happen pretty soon, now.

Contrary to popular expectation, it seems like Nintendo will not be announcing the NX at E3 this year, opting instead to take the wraps off of their newest home console later this year. Simultaneously, it also sounds like Sony will hold off on announcing the PS4K, the mid life revision for the PS4 that bumps up the specs a little, for a while, too- a report by VRWorld claims that both machines are being prepped up for a Tokyo Game Show reveal.

According to the report, Nintendo is planning on hitting the March 2017 release date, while Sony will get the PS4K out by Holiday this year globally, to accompany their launch of the PlayStation VR as well. The PS4K will indeed have the kinds of higher specs that have been rumored- which will presumably ease the ability with which the console can handle VR titles.

Unfortunately, the report does not go into any specifics about the enigmatic NX, beyond that it will be revealed at TGS. This would not be unusual- Nintendo unveiled the Wii for the first time at TGS 2005, after all, so it makes sense that they want to repeat the stunt that gave them their most successful console yet.

Hopefully, though, we learn more about both machines before then- TGS is a few months away for now, after all.

The PS4K and the Xbox 1.5 currently have the entire industry in an uproar, as consumers and developers alike struggle to come to terms with the rumored new paradigm; but one entity that seems to be unruffled by the shift to these iterative, upgraded consoles is Electronic Arts.

Speaking during Electronic Arts’ quarterly financial call, Chief Financial Officer Blake Jorgensen outlined multiple reasons which, in conjunction, allay any fears the company may otherwise have had with the impending new machines:

• Both Sony and Microsoft realize the necessity for compatibility across devices (exemplified best by Microsoft’s BC offerings);
• EA are moving all in house development towards one singular engine, the Frostbite engine
• The Frostbite engine was designed around the current x86 standard, and so it should be able to handle any upgraded versions of that standard with ease

Put simply, EA foresees no disruptions in its development pipeline and process, even if these new machines do exist- they are counting on hardware and software continuity to cushion the blow.

[Thanks DualShockers]

The PS4K is more and more a reality with each passing day, even though it still has not been officially confirmed yet. We have spent a lot of time on this site discussing what the implications of a move like a mid cycle iterative upgrade to an existing console could be, at least on the market, and for consumers- but the developer side of the equation is often forgotten about.

So when we got the chance to sit down with Rocket League developers Psyonix, we decided to take the chance and ask them what they thought of something like the PS4K- given a hypothetical where the console upgrade does in fact exist.

“Well, hypothetically in the situation you have raised, it’s no better than having any other additional platform to develop for,” Psyonix’s VP Jeremy Dunham said. “It’s- what’s interesting about the question, the hypothetical, is, would the introduction of this item change things severely? And the answer is, it doesn’t really change much if that is the case. Because it’s really just a matter of whether or not you can support another platform, and that’s really what it boils down to- how the pros and cons of the hardware, or the extra QA time needed, or the amount of new assets you have to build, those are all considerations that all developers have to make, any time they develop for any additional platform, be it Sony or Microsoft or even the iPad.

“So really what it boils down to is, does the team, were they to work on something like that, be able to handle coming to another platform? And so the broad answer is, if the team is prepared and willing to do it, I don’t see that being an issue. And if they can’t or won’t do it, then it would be an issue, so it would differ on a team by team basis, on whether or not that would be problematic.”

It sounds like a reasonable assessment of the situation- in the end, a new SKU like this is nothing more than one more console to develop for. As for whether or not that is preferable to developers, in the end, that comes down to one thing, and one thing only- can those developers support another build to develop for?

It doesn’t matter what your own personal take on iterative consoles may be (for the record, I am on board with the idea), when it is all but evident at this point that we will be getting them going forward. And yet, resistance to something like this makes sense- after all, it is a change to the way things are done, an all new idea that changes the paradigm of console generations. Of course consumers aren’t necessarily a fan of something entirely new like this.

On the other hand, there are developers- how do they feel about something like this? What are their thoughts and opinions on the upgraded, improved hardware that these iterative consoles will allegedly have?

GamingBolt recently got in touch with Don Williamson, the former engine lead on the Fable games (and now the founder of Celtoys), and we decided to ask him his thoughts on the rumored PS4 Neo. Here’s what he had to say about it.

“I’m not really qualified to comment on the PS4 improvements as the last Sony platforms I worked on were the PSP and PS2,” Williamson said. “I don’t know enough to form an opinion on why Sony are taking this route. However, it does seem to me that both Sony and Microsoft may end up going down the route of “curated” PC hardware, instead of custom consoles, for the foreseeable future. The 4k goal sounds curious as it’s going to take a ton of horse power and memory to make 4k games; I would much rather the extra power was used for 60fps+ @ 1080p. If this ends up tightly integrating with Sony’s VR offering though, this could end up being quite a tantalizing platform.

And what were his thoughts on having more than one SKU per console, and how that may end up fragmenting development resources?

“If you target more than one platform you will always need to spend more money,” he stated. “How much more is too variable to generalize. However, even if you target the lowest common denominator you still need to spend time testing builds on the more capable platforms.”

On the whole, he, too, appears to be a fan of the prospect- which makes sense, as a tech focused guy, new technology is probably always an exciting proposition. Now the question is- can Sony and Microsoft sell the PS4K and Xbox 1.5 to consumers effectively?

With the PS4 Neo all but confirmed at this point, we need to stop speculating over whether it exists, and start focusing more on what to do now that it does- how exactly does a half step SKU for a console work? We have already seen it in action in the handheld market a bit- the Gameboy Color, the Nintendo DSi, and the New Nintendo 3DS. But there is almost three decades worth of precedence there- the concept of a half generation is new for the console market. How does Sony intend to keep their userbase happy, and avoid very real issues like those of fragmentation?

On the whole, it sounds like Sony is planning to err on the side of conservatism and caution with the PS4K. From the looks of things, Sony would rather have the new SKU never be properly utilized by third parties, than risk alienating the 40 million people who have already purchased a PS4. According to Eurogamer, Sony has a gamut of policies in place to ensure that PS4 owners don’t feel burned by the PS4K:

1. There will be no segregation on PSN between PS4 and PS4K- essentially, this means that developers cannot attempt to separate PS4 and PS4K player bases in multiplayer games. On a related note, developers are also forbidden from giving PS4K players any benefits or bonuses that could lead to tangible gameplay advantages- so higher framerates in multiplayer modes for PS4K players are out.

2. PSN does not differentiate between PS4 and PS4K- they are treated as one and the same. A side effect of this is that you can not have a PS4 and a PS4K each as your primary console- it can only be one or the other. PS4 and PS4K versions of the game both ship on the same disc, or same file. The game detects which console it is running on, and boots up in the ‘base’ or ‘Neo’ mode appropriately. PS4K players get the ‘Neo’ enhancements for absolutely free- in other words, you don’t get to pay more or less for a game simply because of which console you own

3. Neo enhancements can be made to existing games forPS4 Neo via free patches. Finally, Neo versions of the games can be enhanced- at the very least, Neo versions should match the base PS4 versions, but if developers do choose to enhance the Neo versions, they can opt to do so by expanding on content they are already providing in the base game- for example, higher resolutions, better graphics, or four player splitscreen multiplayer for Neo players versus just two player splitscreen for base PS4 owners

All of this makes the PS4 Neo sound like an even less of an incremental step up than the New Nintendo 3DS was. Which is sort of disappointing- I am a fan of iterative consoles, after all. I just am not sure I’m all that big on Sony’s overly safe implementation of the idea.

The PS4K is an exciting and bold new step forward towards the future of gaming consoles– however, it is a first, and that means that there will be those who will oppose it simply because it represents change. Apparently, that number includes a fair number of developers.

Industry insider Colin Moriarty, who has his pulse on the PlayStation development community, has revealed that ‘most developers’ are apparently unhappy with the PS4K- it sounds like they don’t appreciate being given another SKU to develop for, especially since consoles are supposed to be their respite from shifting base specs by giving them one frozen standard to work with.

On my part, I do appreciate the PS4K, and what it represents, though I also feel that Sony have been far too conservative with the update, and that the PS4K won’t represent any real performance benefits, thanks to Sony’s conservatism. But then again, baby steps- let’s hope the PS4K is just a trail blazer for other, bolder consoles to follow.

A trusted source tells me most developers are not happy with PS4.5, and having to develop around it. Extra cost, planning, other nonsense.

— Colin Moriarty (@longislandviper) April 19, 2016

At GamingBolt, we’re already big fans of the upgradeable, iterative consoles idea, believing it to be the future of the industry. With Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo now all officially exploring the concept in some form, it appears to be a direction the industry as a whole is heading in- and it also seems that at least some people within the industry agree with our assessment.

In a podcast with Game Informer, Oddworld series creator Lorne Lanning spoke on a number of things, but perhaps the most enthusiastic that he sounded about anything was the potential of iterative consoles, going forward.

“Consoles are typically six years (five to seven years),” Lanning said. “I asked [Sony Worldwide Studios head Shuhei] Yoshida a question at dinner a few nights before DICE 2015, I said “What does the PlayStation 5 look like?” and he said “You mean if”. It was a really interesting thing, he’s hinting at “we need to be more agile, none of us know what the future looks like, so how do we adopt to it faster?”. To me, that’s the sort of way he was thinking about it which I think is the right way to think about it. The idea that you’re going to release a piece of technology that lasts seven years into the future, I think it’s less and less viable even though the generations are lasting longer.

“It seems like that’s in conflict, but when you look at generations of smartphones…And I’ll give you an example. We’ve talked to some of the biggest smartphone companies and what do they want? They want us to be releasing our new PS4/XB1 games titles simultaneously on their latest, most powerful smartphones, with almost the same image fidelity.

“What’s going to happen is that smartphones will get progressively more powerful. We’ve talked to Japanese publishers like Square and they’re releasing on mobiles first and then come to consoles later. Not necessarily out of fidelity, but because that’s where their audience is.”

Certainly, it appears as though Lanning understands that the traditional console generation model is outdated, and no longer fit for a market where consumer electronics evolve in a matter of months- consoles need to keep up, or they risk being left behind.

The PS4K and the Xbox One Elite have not yet been officially announced- but we can probably expect an unveiling at E3 this year.

[Transcription by WCCFTech]

With the PS4K (codenamed NEO, according to yesterday’s leak) now all but confirmed, more and more questions about it are beginning to arise. On the whole, it seems Sony will err on the side of caution with this upgrade so as to avoid splintering their base or pissing off the 40 million people who’ve already bought a PS4- this means that they’re not necessarily going to allow for a great many game changing upgrades.

That said, one of the things that Sony are insisting on, according to the latest Giant Bombcast, is that all games run at 1080p on the PS4K- looks like the resolution is non negotiable on the upgraded PS4. It’s a fair requirement too, given that the PS4K does have a respectable spec boost going on there under the hood.

Of course, I’m still a bit bummed that Sony are prioritizing resolution over framerate (again) with the upgrade- but given that framerate gives an actual tangible boost to the gameplay, and Sony don’t want any gameplay boosts that might fragment the PS4 and PS4K bases, I suppose their reasoning at least makes some sense.

The PS4K is not yet officially announced- it is expected to be unveiled at E3 this year.