Sony's upcoming 4K PlayStation 4 is codenamed NEO, and will boast better processor speed, memory bandwidth, and graphics capabilities than the standard PS4 available now, Giant Bomb reports. From October, publishers will be required to ship PS4 games with both a "base" mode for play on the regular PS4 console, and a "Neo" mode that can take advantage of hardware upgrades to increase graphical quality and boost frame rates. The upgraded console is said to be capable of outputting in 4K resolutions, but Giant Bombcites documents that apparently say that games don't have to be 4K native.
The existence of the upgraded console — often colloquially called the "PS4.5" — was rumored last month. Sony has yet to confirm that the project is in the works, but the reports indicated that it would see release before the company released its PS VR headset in October, the increased power from the "PS4.5" making it easier to run hardware-intensive VR games on the console. The codenames would certainly fit, with the Neo to PS VR's "Morpheus," but that upgraded hardware won't mean that PS4 Neo owners get exclusive VR modes, though — Giant Bomb says games must have peripheral parity, so if a title doesn't offer VR support in its "base" iteration, it won't do in its Neo version either.
