Sony To Debut Two New PlayStation 4 Consoles Next Month, Says WSJ (cnet.com)

An anonymous reader writes: Sony could be about to announce two new PlayStation 4 consoles, according to the Wall Street Journal. Both units are set to be introduced next month, people familiar with the matter told the newspaper. The upgraded console outlined by the company earlier this year, capable of outputting 4K-resolution graphics, could be joined by a slimmed-down, cheaper version of the console. That would give gamers options to suit their varying budgets and demands. Sony is set to hold a press conference at the PlayStation Theater in New York on September 7 where the company is expected to outline the consoles in further detail.

Comments

The console advantage.

[jellomizer]

I don't get this changes with Microsoft than Sony.
They key advantage of Consoles isn't their power and performance but the fact that they are a common setup for the entire platform. Having different models with different features, will degrade this advantage and will end up with the same problem that we get with PCs. Games not optimized for the platforms, where they will not support the features that want to use, or will perform at a level that will cause a disadvantage to the other lesser box.

Re:The console advantage.

[DarkOx]

On the developer side not its not probably that much harder to make the games able to support a range, all be it a limited one, of hardware.

On the consumer side though, I am not thrilled. I know many will disagree with me but I liked the least common denominator aspect of consoles. It meant that you could go to the store bring the game home and just play it. It worked and played the way it did in the store or on the TV commercial. Granny just had to understand little Timmy has a PlayStation and this is a PlayStation title to buy him a birthday gift.

Now its going to be back to the world of PC games. Where you have to buy the thing to find out it runs all choppy on your hardware or many of the cool visual effects are disabled etc. Now its back to having to go read a bunch of forums to see if Grand Theft Auto 19 is actually worth playing on my PlayStation 9 model 1B+ or if I really have to go invest in a PlayStation 9 model 2X or maybe a PlayStation 9 model 2X+ to enjoy it.

I don't see this as being terribly good for consumers.