PS4 Neo Review

It's finally arrived. Courtesy of Sony's PlayStation meeting event held in New York on September 7, we finally know the PlayStation 4 Pro (previously known as the PS4.5, or the PlayStation Neo) is coming, and that it'll be a 4K, HDR equipped version of the PS4.

The new console will offer a significant upgrade over the existing PS4, but will crucially do so while being fully compatible with its existing library of games, and will not carry any exclusive releases.

What this means is that instead of just slimming down the hardware and putting it in a redesigned box, the Neo is updating the PlayStation platform to support 4K output and enable smoother playback of virtual reality content.These upgrades will mean that the PS4.5 will be Sony's first 4K console, a true landmark for the company.

We're currently working to bring you all the latest details on how the PS4 Pro will sit alongside the existing PS4 (and the newly announced PS4 Slim), but until then read on for the thrilling story of how we got to this announcement.

The PlayStation 4 is the most powerful game console on the market today, but after two and a half years on the market, it's handily beaten by a capable gaming PC. As tech advances at an increasingly rapid rate, Sony is reportedly eager to offer an enhanced version of the PlayStation 4 that will offer a bit more processing power and speed to enable even grander and better-looking experiences.

One reason is to support 4K Ultra HD resolution for gaming. While the PS4 can run 4K video footage, it's not able to handle interactive games at that incredibly crisp resolution. Supposedly, the PlayStation Neo will be built to allow games to run at 4K – for people who have a 4K television, of course. That might be a small number now, but it's growing steadily; and an upgraded PS4 might help sell Sony's 4K sets like the Sony XBR-X930D/KD-XD9305, to boot.

Another reason Sony wants to put a little more power on the table is for the PlayStation VR headset, which will release on October 16, 2016. Both the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive headsets require a high-end PC to operate, but the PS4 does VR with comparably less power. However, in a VR world, silky-smooth performance is crucial to ensure full immersion. With the Neo, developers should be able to tap into the newer hardware to enhance their VR experiences.

These suspicions were further fueled when in an interview with EDGE magazine an industry insider said that PlayStation VR was going to be "terrible" on launch PS4s, creating the need for an enhanced console to offer a better VR experience.

The transfer speed on the 8GB GDDR5 RAM will also bump up to 218 GB/sec from 176 GB/sec. Don't know what that all means? Don't worry: more processing power and faster speeds mean the PlayStation Neo will be able to handle higher-resolution output, manage more textures and details onscreen, and generally provide a smoother play experience overall.

The report says that while the PlayStation 4.5 will allow for 4K gaming output, Sony won't require it to be natively supported. In other words, if a developer opts to stick with 1080p and put that processing power into other graphical or performance areas rather than resolution, that's fine: the image will be upscaled for anyone with a 4K set anyway.

Frame rate is apparently a larger concern for Sony, with a mandate that games on the PlayStation 4.5 must have an equal or higher frame rate than the standard PS4 version. That way, developers don't sacrifice visual fluidity in favor of a sharper resolution.

That's according to the Giant Bomb report, which claims that Sony has mandated that all games for the PlayStation 4 platform must work on both the new and old consoles. Games for the new hardware can feature enhanced graphics, of course, as well as some expanded functionality, but they cannot feature exclusive play modes or split the online servers between consoles. Furthermore, the system's interface should look and act exactly the same on the new box.

The report notes that Sony will require games to feature a "Base Mode" for the original PS4 console and a "Neo Mode" for the PS4.5, both of which you'll find in the same release. You'll get the same core play experience on either console, although with the Neo Mode on the new hardware, you'll see enhanced graphics and perhaps other perks as well.

Andrew House further elaborated on this functionality by saying that "all or a very large majority of games will also support the high-end PS4." This suggests that while all PS4 games will run on the Neo, a smaller number will support the additional 4K functionality.

When's it coming?

Supposedly, Sony will require that all games released from October 2016 forward offer support for both console versions out of the box, and that games shipping in late September must have a day-one patch to add in the functionality. That's according to Giant Bomb's report, but it doesn't mean that the PlayStation Neo will necessarily release at the start of October: Sony has reportedly given the OK for games to ship with Neo support before the console itself does.

Still, that estimate lines up pretty well with what we've heard previously: a Wall Street Journal report in March suggested that Sony would announce the PlayStation 4.5 in advance of the PlayStation VR's release in October, and this rumor has been further corroborated by a report which claims that Sony is planning on announcing the console at its September showcase event.

A pairing of the PlayStation VR and PS4.5 would make Sony's VR offering seem a lot more capable compared to the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive, as well, even if those are PC-based options. Maybe we'll even see a super-sized bundle with everything tossed into one pricey box.

Given E3's status as the annual hotspot for massive video game industry announcements in June, we initially thought we'd be most likely hear about the PlayStation 4.5 then and see a release pretty close to the PlayStation VR in October, but in the end E3 2016 passed without any reference being made to the Neo.

Kotaku's original report on the system suggested that a price point could fall around $400, although the site's sources didn't have any consensus on that. If true, we imagine the older model will drop further in price to better differentiate the two.

Releasing an upgraded PlayStation 4 so soon after the original might rub some fans the wrong way – we've even speculated as much – but at least the rumors suggest that Sony isn't abandoning the original buyers – just tempting them with something even better.