Some industry pundits and PS4 owners were surprised when gaming website eurogamer.net revealed that Japanese electronics giant Sony had a PlayStation 4K in the works. This new PS4 would be a more powerful version of the current PS4, which would have the ability of outputting graphics at 4K resolutions. This meant that the new PS4 would feature ultra-high definition 2160p graphics vs the 1080p high definition graphics the current PS4 can output.
And even if some people in the video game industry like retired Bioware founder Greg Zeschuk have said that putting an updated PS4 in the market soon (the PS4 4K is rumoured to be announced in October) is a “gigantic pain in the ass”, it is clear that releasing a more powerful PS4 does make quite a bit of sense for Sony now.
For starters, there is no doubt that the fabled 4K resolution will become standard in the near future, with video game players eventually getting ultra-high definition TVs and expecting their console to be able to take advantage of them.
Sony’s executives in Tokyo know for sure if a PlayStation 4K is coming or not…
Also, Sony needs to keep up with the likes of Oculus and HTC in the virtual reality arena from a technological viewpoint, as the high-end PCs that the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive headsets need to operate are considerably more powerful than the current vanilla PS4.
The Japanese company also needs to worry about Nintendo’s upcoming NX console, which is rumoured to be able to handle 4K graphics, making it an enticing upgrade for many gamers. If the NX console can give the current PS4 a run for its money from a technological viewpoint, it makes sense that Sony wants to have a more powerful PS4 in the market soon, to stop gamers from jumping to Nintendo’s ship in droves in the near future.
So it is clear that a PlayStation 4K, or PlayStation 4.5, is a necessity for Sony right now, to keep up with technology trends and the moves of rivals like Microsoft, who may also have a more powerful Xbox One in the pipeline. And even if many developers are likely not happy about a boosted PS4 hitting the market, as they would require more manpower and resources to make sure their games are compatible with both machines, sadly that is the price of progress and Sony knows this too, so the PlayStation 4K is increasingly looking like an inevitable thing at this point.