Sony has finally confirmed what we’ve all known for ages – a PlayStation 4.5 is indeed in the works, but we won’t be seeing at E3.
Referred to as the PS4.5, PS4K, PS4 Neo or PS Kevin (by me), we now know for sure that the working title for the hardware is Neo, and will feature enhanced graphics and support for 4K resolution.
Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Andrew House confirmed all this to the Financial Times, but it really shouldn’t come as a surprise at this point – the rumours have been floating around for months now.
House said that the Neo won’t replace the original PS4 though, which is comforting:
It is intended to sit alongside and complement the standard PS4. We will be selling both [versions] through the life cycle.
Beyond the news of 4K support and enhanced graphics, House didn’t give any proper specs for the Neo. However, Giant Bomb published a specs comparison from what it said was documentation for the new system back in April. You can see that below.
So we know it’s definitely in the works, which is something. Outside of that, we don’t know when Sony plans to start selling the Neo, or how much it’ll cost.
House did tell the FT that it’ll cost more than your standard PS4 (as you might expect) but it’s not clear if that means it’ll cost more than the PS4 did at launch (£350), or more than the current price of a PS4 (around £300).
Thankfully, House also assured everyone that we won’t be seeing any Neo exclusive titles:
All games will support the standard PS4 and we anticipate all or a very large majority of games will also support the high-end PS4. The consumer is attuned to a different cadence of innovation in technology thanks in great part for the upgrades cadence on mobile phones or PCs.
Personally, I suspect that Sony going ahead and confirming this so close to E3 was a way for the company to lower expectations of seeing the new console at the event.
Now we know for sure that the Neo won’t be at E3, so instead of waiting for news on the console, we can move on and look forward to some other lovely surprises.
Ewan Moore is a journalist at UNILAD Gaming who still quite hasn’t gotten out of his mid 00’s emo phase. After graduating from the University of Portsmouth in 2015 with a BA in Journalism & Media Studies (thanks for asking), he went on to do some freelance words for various places, including Kotaku, Den of Geek, and TheSixthAxis, before landing a full time gig at UNILAD in 2016.