PS4 Neo could usher in new 1080p-minimum era

Further rumours about Sony’s upcoming PS4 upgrade point to a possible forced alteration to how some developers make their games.

Yesterday a Giant Bomb story shed new light on the mystery hardware, which apparently carries the internal name ‘PS4 Neo’. Now Videogamer reports that the Giant Bomb podcast has released a bit more information about the device.

It claims that Neo games will, as per Sony rules, be required to run at a minimum resolution of 1080p. Although far more cross-platform titles already hit that benchmark on PS4 compared to Xbox One, it is not unknown for some PS4 titles (such as Star Wars Battlefront) to output at 900p, with the console upscaling the image to 1080p.

While this may remain the case for the vanilla PS4 versions of ‘Neo-Ready’ titles, which will be required to work on both old and new versions of the console, it certainly would put additional onus on developers to hit the 1080p standard on PS4 releases.

It would also potentially further increase the disparity between cross-platform PS4 and Xbox One releases.

Also touted is an improved version of remote play. Currently the PS4 can output up to 720p/30fps, in line with its maximum DVR spec. PS4 Neo, however, will apparently up both of these features to 1080p/60fps. Also confirmed is that existing hardware, such as controllers, will work perfectly well with the new machine.