It’s fairly obvious that unless something drastic takes place in the gaming landscape, PlayStation 4 will be the runaway winner as Nintendo for all intents and purposes is no longer able to compete on any meaningful scale and Xbox One is doing nearly half the numbers PS4 is posting.

Prior to E3, the rumor mill was abuzz with the potential announcement of PS4 4K. While the console didn’t make an appearance at the show, Sony did confirm its existence. Till now, we all assumed that the upgraded PS4 was to be created in part to push gaming forward with new capabilities and to combat future upgraded versions of Xbox like the Scorpio. However there is likely another angle to all of this.

PlayStation President, Andrew House:

 We’ve traditionally seen that some of the core audience tends to gravitate back to high-end PCs at some point because these are the people who want the finest graphical performance. So here’s a great opportunity to have them stay within our ecosystem. 

The fact that Sony is even thinking of what PC gamers are doing is a bit of news to me and perhaps signals a strategic shift internally. While a console like the Nintendo Wii was an initial success with gamers, the reality is that for most people over time, it sat and collected dust. However, the Wii was able to demonstrate to the gaming market that there is a desire for more casual consoles on the market.

With the PS4, Sony chose to go in direct contrast to the Wii by creating an extremely powerful console and targeting the hardcore users. That strategy has clearly paid off but it’s worth noting that by doing so, Sony has decreased the demographic that it’s looking to cater to which gives further credence to what House is talking about. With an already small pie, Sony can’t have its core audience wander off to PC gaming and almost has to create something new and exciting (read PS4 Neo) that doesn’t rock the boat for current PS4 gamers but gives something to those who want more.

There is then of course the advent of 4K.

 If you are a person who’s just purchased a 4K television, maybe there’s not that much content around right now, so there’s something interesting about games being able to fill that gap and offer that experience. Those are the fundamentals of Neo. 

Discuss:

Who do you think is the core audience for PS4 Neo?

[Via TheGuardian]