E3 2016: Will We See the PS4.5 and New Xbox?

Xbox One v PS4
Amazon

With the biggest gaming expo, E3, only a few days away, it’s time to start predicting what will be shown and one thing that’s been rumoured for a few months is new consoles from both PlayStation and Microsoft. Through various sources, information has come out regarding the possibility of upgrades to the current console cycle.

Let’s first look at Sony, who are apparently going to bring the codenamed Neo console out later this year, which serves as a graphical improvement on their existing PlayStation 4. Way back in March, news of the PS4.5 was circulating; it had many hardware improvements over the original console, with the possibility of running games at a higher framerate and texture detail, optimised up to 4K.

This led to uproar from fans, dividing the owners of the PS4, of which there are 39 million of them, who have invested into a console that could soon become obsolete. Since then, there have been reports that Sony have told developers that it would not be doing Neo only games and would instead have a ‘Neo mode’ letting owners run standard games with better performance.

PS4 PlayStation 4

So why this improvement mid-console cycle? Well it could be all to do with PSVR, due to come out in October this year, around the time of the supposed Neo launch. I don’t think this is a coincidence and I’m not alone – many see the Neo as an aid to the expensive PSVR, which has a fairly beefy separate processor to help the PS4 run VR games. The thinking is that the Neo could run the VR headset without this external processor, therefore making a nice combined package, Neo and PSVR. The two could be at the same price as the PS4 and PS VR with an external processor, giving people who haven’t got a PS4 a good reason to get one and incentivise people to upgrade and make the most of the new VR tech.

Next to Microsoft and the underachieving Xbox One, the company is rumoured to be bringing not one, but two consoles out over the course of the next year: a slim version of the Xbox One and a heightened graphical version on par with the PS4.5. The diet Xbox One will be smaller and cheaper than the current version, but with a 2TB hard drive, giving people a cheap way to get into next gen (or current gen depending on your console).

This is expected to come out this year, giving people a budget console to compete against the PS4 and the more expensive PS Neo. The steroid injected Xbox One, codenamed Scorpio, will compete with the Neo in terms of hardware and capabilities, but not release date, it is reported to be coming out next year. This does allow Microsoft to see the impact of the Neo and PSVR giving them the possibility of developing and improving on the technology. This, alongside Microsoft pursing a partnership with Oculus, could be their step into a home console capable of running VR.

Xbox One

These two new devices are part of a new Microsoft strategy, ‘Project Helix’ as it’s codenamed is the idea of converging Xbox and Windows. With the implementation of Xbox live on Windows 10, It seemed inevitable that the two platforms would be even more intertwined. More games are also scheduled to be released on both Xbox and Windows, such as Halo Wars 2 (the first was Xbox only) and Sea of Thieves, showing Microsoft is fully committed to the merger of the two.

Will we see all 3 announced at E3? Maybe, I do think we will find out details about at least the consoles coming this year, the Scorpio could be detailed at a later date. We are just a few days away so we’ll find out soon enough.

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