Sony Tells Why PlayStation Neo Wasn’t At E3

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PlayStation Neo, Sony’s upcoming upgrade to the PlayStation 4, was recently confirmed prior to the now-concluded E3 2016 conference. While Sony did confirm the console, many were left baffled as to why the company chose not to address it at what is considered the most important videogame-related conference of the year. Sony’s Jim Ryan, the head of PlayStation Europe, recently explained some of the most pressing concerns regarding the company’s upcoming releases.

Sony has officially confirmed the existence of a more powerful PlayStation 4 console codenamed the “Neo,” which is targeted to gamers with newer 4K televisions. However, the console’s confirmation did not mark any sort of announcement at E3.

Focusing on PlayStation games

“Two reasons, first of all, like I said, we need to keep these things to a manageable time,” said Jim Ryan. “We had all these games and we really wanted to focus on the games coming in 2016 and 2017 and beyond on PS4 and PlayStation VR. We didn’t want to dilute it or distract it by hardware related announcements.”

From these comments, it seems that the company wanted so focus solely on upcoming games rather than the console. While the console is certainly an important asset for the company, it is refreshing to hear that the company is primarily focused on delivering quality content for the current PlayStation 4 as well as the upcoming PlayStation VR.

“But more importantly,” Ryan continued, “we feel it’s important that when you make this sort of announcement that you don’t just trod off a list of specifications and this and that, but you actually demonstrate what a device like Neo is capable of. And when we have the gaming applications to do that, then we’ll be ready and then we’ll show it.”

One can read into this as they will, but this last comment certainly seems to be directed at Microsoft. Project Scorpio, Microsoft’s upcoming upgrade to the Xbox One, also to be marketed towards gamers with 4K television sets, was officially launched during E3 2016, though with incomplete specifications, leaving many people with questions regarding the new gaming device.

Microsoft adopting a different strategy

Though Project Scorpio is certainly an exciting announcement in the gaming world, many feel that Microsoft made a mistake in announcing it when it did. The company chose to announce, not one, but two new consoles: an updated version of the Xbox One with a simple “S” suffix, and a more powerful upgrade – codenamed Project Scorpio – due out next year.

“Creators, given time, will come up with amazing transformative ideas that I’m not smart enough to come up with,” says Phil Spencer, the man in charge of Xbox’s business strategy. “So sharing the vision with our creative partners and our internal teams, putting the tools and the capability out there, will lead to breakthrough experiences.”

As for the PlayStation VR, Jim Ryan said that despite positive views on the hardware, meeting the demands of over 40 million PS4 owners will still depend upon the initial reaction to the launch.

“What I can say is that production is going very well, it’s entirely on track,” Ryan simply stated.

In addition, Ryan confirmed that there will be about 15 virtual reality games that will be rolled out gradually starting from the PlayStation VR launch until Christmas. Some of the larger titles that are already expected for the device include Resident Evil 7 and Batman Arkham VR.

While there is not yet an official release date for the PlayStation Neo, the PlayStation VR is scheduled to release on October 13.

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