cmdrdredd
Lifer
- Dec 12, 2001
- 27,052
- 357
- 126
Exactly. Remind me never to come near the console subforum again, I haven't seen this much doom and gloom since.. ever I think.
If you bought a PS4 that promised X performance, guess what? You will continue to get X performance.
Sony is now giving consumers an option to pay more for Y performance and it will deliver, Y performance.
People hate change and always call for its failure but I promise you, this is the correct move for consoles. Developers have been targeting multiple levels of performance for years and this will add maybe 1% to switch on a few things and upscale the render output resolutions.
I highly doubt most people knew about any difference in PS4 vs XBONE GPU. I would argue most simply saw that it was $100 cheaper and that it didn't suffer from that HORRIBLE PR fiasco from E3 2013 where Microsoft shot themselves in their own foot by saying on public record that you wouldn't be able to play used games, you'd be forced to use the Kinect, and that it had to be always online to use it for even single player.
Its laughable to think the market turnout was because of a perceived "GPU Disparity".
Consoles are adapting to modern trends and Sony is definitely making the right move here; update its SoC to maintain compatibility while offering an upgrade path for those with the means to and those that want to utilize their shiny new 4k TVs.
Except now the new games will run worse and look worse on the old box vs the new box and people will know it. So you aren't getting the premium experience on your console any longer. That is the perception issue that we are talking about. They wanted the PS4 to be "the best place to play". That's Sony's words from the last two E3 conferences. Now it will be treated as second best because they have the neo version or PS4.5...whatever.
You'll have developers showing games at E3 running on hardware that people think they have but don't because they don't have the new console. It'll be a big problem especially when someone plays a game at a friend's house or a demo kiosk and then the game doesn't look the same at home. I'm not talking about resolution because that's not the only changes that will be made I'm sure. Then...lazy devs who don't do any work for the new one on their game and the forums blow up with "the old console is holding us back"
You can't compare it to the PC platform because gamers on the PC understand their hardware for the most part and realize they won't always be able to run on ultra and may have to sacrifice resolution and such a bit to get a playable experience. Most console gamers are not used to this and would not likely understand the hardware tiers and why a game runs but doesn't run the same or look the same as another console playing the same game. It's not the same as the XB1 vs PS4 because people understand they are two different consoles. This will be one game, marketed for PS4 that runs differently depending on which PS4 model you have. That's just not going to sit well with many consumers and trying to explain it in a way that they can understand and won't anger them since they just spent $400 on a PS4 not long ago is going to be tough. I believe a great many people will just build a PC and give up on consoles if they have to keep buying new hardware every few years, why do that when you can just go right to the top and build a good PC and upgrade the GPU every couple years just the same?
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