Hopefully not 4K-focused
If the pearl of Microsoft’s E3 event was actually showing lengthy sections of gameplay, the clam shell around it was two new hardware reveals: first, the Xbox One S, followed by Project Scorpio.
Sony did not announce the PlayStation 4 “Neo” at E3 even though Sony’s Andrew House first confirmed Neo just days before the show.
But Eurogamer’s Richard Leadbetter, in an article considering the worthiness of 4K gaming on consoles, noted, “Several sources have indicated to me that PlayStation Neo launches this year, despite its E3 no-show. If that is the case, it’ll be interesting to see how developers utilise its resources, and whether 4K really is the focus. And we can be equally as sure that Microsoft will be watching just as intently as it gears up for its own next-gen roll-out.”
Microsoft’s Phil Spencer has already said that Project Scorpio does not mandate developers to hit 4K; they can use that 4.5x more power in whatever ways they like. And if the PS Neo is coming a year earlier, I don’t know why 4K would be the focus there, either, over, say, more power for PlayStation VR.
I sure as hell don’t own a 4K TV and don’t plan on owning one. Less than 10% of Americans do. Eventually it’ll be a thing, the same way you’d be surprised in 2016 to walk into a living room with a CRT. Some estimates say 50% of households by 2020 or 35% by 2019. Then again, Americans are poorer than ever, the luxury-item-purchasing middle class is gone, and, hey, this doesn’t look too good.
4K!
