The new Playstation is set to announce on September 7th has yet to be shown. There will be two new versions of the PS released. One version has already been leaked but the specs have yet to be released. Project Neo is still somewhat of a mystery.

The new Playstation that has already been leaked will undoubtedly be very similar to the PS4 that currently exists. The only difference would probably be hard drive space. What would be a great strategy is if the PS 4.5 Slim jumps from shipping with 1TB of HD space to 2TB of HD space. By shipping the PS 4.5 slim with 2TB, PS will have an advantage over Xbox for at least a few seasons especially with the integration of VR gaming. If the PS 4.5 does not ship with 2TB of space then the PS needs to be compatible with external hard drives.

One thing that we have noticed among all VR headsets is that the wiring is a mess. Imagine dragging around wires and trying to make your playing experience seamless but still having to be conscious of tripping over a wire? Dragging a wire around is troublesome enough now you have to worry about dragging your console and TV with you? There will undoubtedly be accidents similar to when the Wii arrived and consumers were “launching” their Wii Remote at the television set. But ruining your console and TV by yanking the cords out should not be something you have to deal with but until VR becomes something you could access wirelessly, accidents are bound to happen.

What Playstation has the opportunity to do with Project Neo, and might do, is enclose all of the VR components within the housing itself instead of having the external processing unit outside of the housing as it has been currently viewed.

Ultimately, there should only be one cable to and from the VR headset.

With PS4 leading the charge with a console that is fully capable of playing VR games, only the diehard Xbox fans are going to stick around and hope that Microsoft’s Project Scorpio meets or exceeds their expectations.

The decision for Xbox to wait until next season could continue to hurt them. Yes, Xbox may also have the advantage and see what Playstation debuts with their project Neo giving Microsoft a solid year to raise the specs of the Scorpio but it may be already too late for Microsoft by that time. Consumers would have already made the investment to buy a Playstation because of the PSVR capability, exclusive games, Call of Duty early DLC release (which YES does influence some buying decisions), and improving free PS Plus services.

But… what if the Playstation Neo is modular based? What if you could build a PS and upgrade the hardware of the PS at will? This would be similar to what Razor Zone is doing with Project Christine (below image).

New consoles (Playstations) need to be modular. Playstation should team up with retailers like GameStop or Best Buy to service your PS4 and upgrade the modules. Or! you should be able to do it yourself. Upgrading your PS4 should be as easy as upgrading your hard drive or as easy as inserting a USB thumb drive.

The expectations of consoles and PCs are getting narrower and narrower. If PS4 expects to compete with PC gamers than PS needs to make their consoles upgradable whether by the gamer or the retailer.

Tick and Tock development is also coming to a close with manufactures like Intel announcing the end of Tick and Tock manufacturing.

That means that the upgradability of hardware will not exist year-over-year for PCs. New hardware will not be available to a device for a few years.

For example, a device that is built in 2018 may have some similar components as a device that was built in 2016. The way that a 2018 device can be sold to you at the same price of a 2016 device is through the increase of enclosed un-upgradable hard drive space or the upgrade of other technology in the device.

Apple has already realized this when is comes their PC hardware. Much of the hardware that comes with the Mac Pro is already 3 years old and there are only rumors that there may finally be an upgrade for the Mac Pro.

Playstation is taking on a larger market and has made it evident with some of the marketing moves that PS has made within just the last year.

Playstation is opening up to PC gamers.

Playstation has now become an app as it is now available on MAC and PCs. Now PS players can play games on their laptop or PC.

PS has also made its debut on Microsoft’s own operating system through that very same PS4 Remote Play app.

Laptops and PCs that average people are using are becoming almost as powerful as the PC that the average PC gamer is using. Although, PC gamers are always going to upgrade their hardware a lot sooner than casual gamers, the developers are only going to create a game that is available on a platform that is available to a large market.

Playstation is gaining ground on Microsoft and it is almost as if Microsoft is letting them. Maybe Microsoft was not even planning on actually releasing the Xbox One when they did and Project Scorpio is what they intended to release and Microsoft just got caught off guard when Sony initially announced the PS4.

Microsoft has announced plans to release a mid-cycle console but not for another year, giving PS more time to gain a larger lead on the industry.

It seems that Microsoft is only investing in two things right now, Minecraft and Halo.

Xbox has been losing exclusives to Playstation even when Xbox decided to start making games backwards compatible. Xbox’s strategy tends to be nostalgia, trying to remind customers what they use to love about Xbox. Xbox has not been forward thinking and has instead been trying to get away with putting forward the bare minimum and see if consumers will buy it.

What makes the Scorpio different from other leaks that we normally hear about, is that Microsoft wants you to know about it. Microsoft themselves told you about the Scorpio and “leaked” the upcoming console while at the same time releasing the Xbox One Slim.

Maybe gaming just isn’t at the forefront of Microsoft’s agenda. Maybe Microsoft sees gaming
as something of the past and instead of working on a console, Microsoft wants to bet all
its money on the upcoming HaloLens and maybe that’s what Microsoft sees as the future.
But nothing will be as immersive as VR not even HoloLens, which will just place an overlay
on top or your current existing environment. One thing is clear, Sony is taking gaming
very serious. So much so, that Sony has shifted much of its annual budget towards Playstation
with Playstation responsible for 78% of Sony’s annual profits. So stay tuned. The console wars
are just getting started.

RELATED LINKS
+sony.com
+playstation.com
+microsoft.com
+razerzone.com
+apple.com

The new Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 is out. But is it any different from previous games? Does it offer anything new that the other shooter games have not already done? Now that there are 3 different game developers responsible for creating the franchise on a rotating basis, Treyarch, Sledgehammer, and Infinity Ward, the game should feel different every year. This time around, the mechanics for Black Ops have changed from Sledgehammer’s successful Advanced Warfare of last year. This time, Treyarch has added separate characters that you could customize the appearance of along with allowing you to change the unique ability that each character posseses. Each character has two different abilities that are achieved by getting kills in the game or by completing the objective. Unlike kill streaks, even when you die in the game and re-spawn your progress on gaining the ability is not lost. Another game function that was not previously available is wall running which is exactly what it sounds like. This allows you to run along all flat vertical surfaces including buildings, walls, and mountainsides. One mechanic that is missing from the previous game is being able to dash and boost to maneuver around enemies. Instead, characters have the ability to jump higher by repeatedly pressing the jump button. Movement of your soldier is definitely more limited which would be something that players may either hate or like if they are comparing the game to Advanced Warfare. Black Ops is a lot more grounded in using technology for the soldier. Weapons are as customizable as before. This is most likely the last Black Ops that we will see from Treyach. Treyarch will undoubtedly begin another series of Call of Duty games with a different subheading and storyline to go along with it.

RELATED LINKS
+callofduty.com
+treyarch.com
+twitch.com