A number of weeks ago, rumors of an upgraded PS4 began cropping up all over the place offering significant performance boosts to the initial PS4 design along with 4K compatibility. Now, anonymous insiders are reporting that Microsoft is working on their own big console upgrade, dubbed "Scorpio" and "Xbox One-Two".

This supposed upgrade's target performance is nearly 4x that of the current Xbox One, with sources saying 6 TFLOPS compared to the current console's ~1.5 TFLOPS. The inside source also claims the upgraded Xbox, like the rumored PS4 Neo, will be backwards compatibility with current Xbox One games. The reports claim this upgrade isn't likely to show up until 2017, with a Slim model of the current console possibly being announced this E3.

Source

How will these mid-generation console upgrades effect console gaming in general? Will these mid-generation upgrades prove a poor idea, effectively dividing owners of current consoles? Will developers bother supporting the older consoles when a newer, more powerful option is out there? Who's to say. Personally, I'm not necessarily against these upgrades as long as the respective companies offer big trade in bonuses for the old hardware, and as long as game developers continue supporting the old consoles as well.

 

[Foxi4]

4K AAA games in the vein of the next Battlefield are hard to render even on current high-end PC's, so thinking that the very next upgrade will do them justice on consoles is a bit naive, sure. 2K or better 1080p, maybe, but not 4K. I can see how *some* less complex 4K titles would run on them, I'm just not excited over the resolution race all that much.

As for the incremental upgrades, I think that the point of contention here is selling two consoles at the same time - I agree that it might brew some confusion, so it'd have to be handled carefully not to split the fanbase. Perhaps there needs to be more of a gap - give the old systems room to breathe for at least 5-6 years, discontinue them and then roll out the "PS5" or the "Xbox Two", keeping full hardware BC in mind. I guess that'd make them standard successors, but at least it'd keep everyone moderately happy and the end result would be the same - more games and higher fidelity.

 

[codezer0]

This just screams of both Sony and Microsoft getting caught with their proverbial pants down.

Yes, the 360/PS3 generation lasted far longer than either side thought viable, so much so that some publishers actually thought that people were done with Console gaming altogether, and started this episodic shit, while still giving sub-par PC releases for everything.

Riding on their success from the prior generation, X1 and PS4 just both scream of doing the most cynical, cheapo upgrade path possible to turn a profit just like how Nintendo did the cynical snobbery from the Gamecube all the way up to the WiiU. The difference is... 4K is a thing, the tech for that is becoming cheaper, and literally no current generation console is able to even support any kind of output to 4K pixels. Hell, none of them can even do 1080p60fps gaming as it is. The 360/PS3 looked more forward thinking because they were built with a mind of HD just as HD was becoming a thing that more than the 1%ers could actually afford. Now with 4K, the demands needed from the hardware to drive that much pixelage is about as demanding as the shift from SD to HD was. And neither the PS4 nor the X1 can even hope to handle 4K, nor VR. I'm still not crazy for VR, but 4K is a tech I can easily appreciate and could understand wanting to build for.

Nintendo tended to successfully get away with mid-generational console upgrades a lot, especially on the handheld side, but that's because they made a point of trying to keep it as inexpensive as possible, and/or create a killer app/game that took advantage of the new possibilities right away. They had the Disk System in Japan, the Satellaview for the Super Nintendo, DK64 for the n64 RAM expansion (and later, Perfect Dark), and all the mid-refresh versions of the Game Boy. The difference compared to them versus their competitors, is that their original hardware designs typically left it open for stuff like this. What Sony and Microsoft want people to do, is effectively throw away our standard X1/PS4 systems and buy another. And the sad thing is, I fully expect them to simply ban online access unless you do buy one of their newer systems. At least Sony is petty enough to do that from my experience in dealing with their staff and so-called "support".

Sad thing is, even now, with this current generation (WiiU, X1, PS4), the only system of the three that I would buy first if I had to choose is the WiiU, which I might have to do anyway when Nintendo will call for a purge of old stock to make room for the NX. Still, neither system has enough unique games to warrant spending full price on a new system. And the WiiU I'd want more for homebrew than anything. I'll tell you right now, it would barely even be ran unless I could hack it.

 

[Yil]

This just screams of both Sony and Microsoft getting caught with their proverbial pants down.

Yes, the 360/PS3 generation lasted far longer than either side thought viable, so much so that some publishers actually thought that people were done with Console gaming altogether, and started this episodic shit, while still giving sub-par PC releases for everything.

Riding on their success from the prior generation, X1 and PS4 just both scream of doing the most cynical, cheapo upgrade path possible to turn a profit just like how Nintendo did the cynical snobbery from the Gamecube all the way up to the WiiU. The difference is... 4K is a thing, the tech for that is becoming cheaper, and literally no current generation console is able to even support any kind of output to 4K pixels. Hell, none of them can even do 1080p60fps gaming as it is. The 360/PS3 looked more forward thinking because they were built with a mind of HD just as HD was becoming a thing that more than the 1%ers could actually afford. Now with 4K, the demands needed from the hardware to drive that much pixelage is about as demanding as the shift from SD to HD was. And neither the PS4 nor the X1 can even hope to handle 4K, nor VR. I'm still not crazy for VR, but 4K is a tech I can easily appreciate and could understand wanting to build for.

Nintendo tended to successfully get away with mid-generational console upgrades a lot, especially on the handheld side, but that's because they made a point of trying to keep it as inexpensive as possible, and/or create a killer app/game that took advantage of the new possibilities right away. They had the Disk System in Japan, the Satellaview for the Super Nintendo, DK64 for the n64 RAM expansion (and later, Perfect Dark), and all the mid-refresh versions of the Game Boy. The difference compared to them versus their competitors, is that their original hardware designs typically left it open for stuff like this. What Sony and Microsoft want people to do, is effectively throw away our standard X1/PS4 systems and buy another. And the sad thing is, I fully expect them to simply ban online access unless you do buy one of their newer systems. At least Sony is petty enough to do that from my experience in dealing with their staff and so-called "support".

Sad thing is, even now, with this current generation (WiiU, X1, PS4), the only system of the three that I would buy first if I had to choose is the WiiU, which I might have to do anyway when Nintendo will call for a purge of old stock to make room for the NX. Still, neither system has enough unique games to warrant spending full price on a new system. And the WiiU I'd want more for homebrew than anything. I'll tell you right now, it would barely even be ran unless I could hack it.

One of the earlier models of ps4 let you hack and install linux (I do not know which one specifically but yes you get a linux system with improper driver support)

 

[Yil]

@KSP Some sony executive just talked about awful experience for psvr on ps4 and say ps4k is a must.

4K AAA games in the vein of the next Battlefield are hard to render even on current high-end PC's, so thinking that the very next upgrade will do them justice on consoles is a bit naive, sure. 2K or better 1080p, maybe, but not 4K. I can see how *some* less complex 4K titles would run on them, I'm just not excited over the resolution race all that much.

As for the incremental upgrades, I think that the point of contention here is selling two consoles at the same time - I agree that it might brew some confusion, so it'd have to be handled carefully not to split the fanbase. Perhaps there needs to be more of a gap - give the old systems room to breathe for at least 5-6 years, discontinue them and then roll out the "PS5" or the "Xbox Two", keeping full hardware BC in mind. I guess that'd make them standard successors, but at least it'd keep everyone moderately happy and the end result would be the same - more games and higher fidelity.

Nvidia have a tech (which is just trimming) that let you render at 4k and output at 1080p for better visual. Though 1080p max setting might be a better option unless you have the monster 1080 at 11 teraflop with air cooling. Further to it is implied by both nvidia and amd that vr takes as much horsepower as 4k.

 

[dekuleon]

Is this thing for real?
Do you guys think consoles will be like, upgraded every two years and the past consoles will play games made for the new revision too, but with lower graphics?
It looks like this will happen...

 

[RemixDeluxe]

Am I the only one here that thought of the fighting metaphor with this name?

Give them the old one-two.

 

[Gavin McDaniel]

No this is a crappy idea. Xbox one is good enough. Xbox portable or Xbox vr would be epic!!!

 

[Haloman800]

1. I dont own nor will ever afford a 4k tv.

The price drops hundreds of dollars every year (thanks to rich people buying them), in a few more years, certain models will be as affordable as HDTV's.

 

[NORBIN]

Yeah let's just release another model when their physical exclusive game library isn't even 40+ yet. I honestly think devs would find this more of a nuisance than something to look forward to.

 

[Daniel41550]

Having more variants of console is just gonna confuse consumers on which to buy. The lines of PC and Console have been blurring lately, as Sony and Microsoft want to make more variants, and now that Consoles have gotten mods as well, their starting to be very similar, which could be a good or bad thing.