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Sony: PS4 and PS4 NEO will 'co-exist in the marketplace'

Eurogamer's Digital Foundry breaks down the myriad ways Sony will prevent fracturing PS4 and PS4 NEO audiences.

David Craddock

April 22, 2016 1:45 PM

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Unsurprisingly, much of the commentary surrounding this week's PS4 NEO leak came from PS4 owners worried that Sony's impending console upgrade would leave them in the dust. While the original leak came from Giant Bomb, Eurogamer's Digital Foundry editors had the same documents in their possession as well, and combed through them to shed light on how Sony will merge rather than fracture their audience after PS4 NEO launches.

First up: you won't need to buy new controllers. Sony's DualShock 4 will remain the controller of choice for all games. Other details are more technical in nature. "Sony is keen to push developers on to higher resolutions and super-sampling down to full HD is an option, but 1080p is the lowest pixel-count allowed," Eurogamer said in its report.

Furthermore, NEO players will not be given preferential treatment relative to online features. All games with online features must be deployed with both base PS4 and NEO in mind. Likewise, PS4's operating system will not change, so you'll be able to swap save-game files and other data between both platforms.

Digital Foundry dug into game compatibility as well. As confirmed in this week's report, NEO-only games are not allowed, nor are PS4-only titles; all games must be able to run on both PS4 iterations as of October; older games can be patched to take advantage of NEO features, but that's left to the discretion of the publisher.

Similarly, all game features must be made available on both PS4 platforms: "If the game has a split-screen mode, it must be available on both systems. However, modes can be enhanced - so a two-player split-screen mode on PS4 could be expanded to allow a four-player variant on Neo."

Check out Digital Foundry's full breakdown for more details.

David Craddock

Long Reads Editor

David L. Craddock writes fiction, nonfiction, and grocery lists. He is the author of the Stay Awhile and Listen series, and the Gairden Chronicles series of fantasy novels for young adults. Outside of writing, he enjoys playing Mario, Zelda, and Dark Souls games, and will be happy to discuss at length the myriad reasons why Dark Souls 2 is the best in the series. Follow him online at davidlcraddock.com and @davidlcraddock.