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PlayStation 4: ‘Neo’ Confirmed By Sony — E3 2016 Appearance Not Happening, As Xbox One ‘Scorpio’ Remains A Rumor

By David Cornell
Published on: 11:00 PST, Jun 10, 2016

The new PlayStation 4, or “Neo” as it’s code-named, has been confirmed by Sony President and CEO Andrew House. It is no longer a rumor, so it has a slight edge on the Xbox One “Scorpio” that Microsoft is rumored to be working on. Real hardware is better than rumored vaporware.

Neither will be showing their upcoming upgrades at E3 2016 though, but at least Sony has confirmed that Neo is real. This could be a major arguing point in the PS4 vs. Xbox One console wars as both are set to bring new hardware to the battleground soon. Microsoft will need to surprise us with a possible last-minute announcement at E3 if they hope to convince us that “Scorpio” isn’t just a marketing tactic.

The Xbox One Scorpio is rumored to be compatible with the Oculus Rift, a PC peripheral which, though pricey, only works on high-end gaming PCs. The rumor may have started when Xbox and Windows made an agreement called “Project Helix,” which further adds weight to the fact that the Oculus Rift comes with an Xbox One controller.

We’re still waiting for Microsoft to confirm Scorpio’s existence though. In the meantime, they are planning on releasing a slimmer, cheaper Xbox One with a 2TB standard hard drive to hopefully gain an advantage against the PlayStation 4.

The upcoming PlayStation Neo is said to support 4K visuals and work with the PlayStation VR headset, as well as give current games a boost in performance. This means that those games which push the console to its limits already won’t suffer as much from frame rate drops. Future titles might even push the PlayStation 4 past the 1080p benchmark, but it is suspected that said benchmark will only be used for the headset, since 1080p resolution is actually rather low sitting literally inches from your eyes.

One possible reason why Sony stated that the Neo won’t be showing up at E3 2016 is that they’re still working on the specs, possibly giving it upgrades they haven’t announced yet to prepare it for next year. If this is the case, they may have already confirmed the Xbox One Scorpio by transitive property.

Why prepare to compete with a console upgrade which doesn’t exist?

With the PlayStation 4 Neo expected to be released in October, we know surprisingly little about it. They might even surprise us with a backwards compatible Blu-Ray drive, but that doesn’t seem commercially worthwhile with the “remastered” and “definitive” PlayStation 3 titles being re-released, such as the upcoming Batman: Return to Arkham. They would even lose money on PS Now, which is a subscription service allowing gamers to rent digital copies of those titles.

Andrew House also stated that the Neo is going to complement the standard PS4, which brings back memories of Sega CD and 32X. With a heftier price tag, it seems they aren’t looking to replace the PlayStation 4 as much as make an add-on console. This could give Microsoft an edge with the yet-unconfirmed Scorpio and knock Sony down next year.

The PlayStation 4 Neo will allegedly not have exclusive titles, and is expected to work with all or most current PS4 titles.

Heftier price tags and higher performance could make this one of the most expensive console wars yet, assuming people are willing to eagerly leap into virtual reality.

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[Feature image via Akirbs / Shutterstock.com]

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