Multiple sources have provided video game website, Giant Bomb with a wealth of new information regarding the long rumoured PS4 upgrade.

First off, the sources confirmed that Sony is developing an upgraded PlayStation 4, a console referred to by many as the PS4.5 or PS4K. The source stated that the project is internally referred to as the NEO. While the project’s name was revealed the sources didn’t provide a price, but Giant Bomb did state “Previous reports indicate that the NEO would sell at $399.”

The sources also gave information regarding some of the technical specs of the NEO. According to Giant Bomb, “The NEO will feature a higher clock speed than the original PS4, an improved GPU, and higher bandwidth on the memory.” While the NEO will be an improvement over the PS4, Sony doesn’t want to split their console base and as such all PlayStation 4 games will be compatible with both the current PS4 and NEO. To make them both work every PS4 game from October is required to ship with both a “Base Mode” for the currently available PS4 and an “NEO Mode” for the new console.

According to Giant Bomb, “Games running in NEO mode will be able to use the hardware upgrades (and an additional 512 MiB in the memory budget) to offer increased and more stable frame rate and higher visual fidelity, at least when those games run at 1080p on HDTVs. The NEO will also support 4K image output, but games themselves are not required to be 4K native.”

Chart source

For those concerned about developers making NEO-only games, Giant Bomb has stated that there will be no NEO-only games, and in fact, Sony will not let developers separate NEO users from original PS4 players.

For a more in-depth look at leak regarding the PS4 upgrade I recommend reading the original Giant Bomb article.

Regarding my own opinion on the PS4 upgrade/NEO, I am cautiously interested. If the upgraded console can provide a stable and visually pleasing experience I am all for it, however when the upgraded PS4 does come out I don’t see myself running out to buy it, but that is mainly because I don’t have a 4K TV, which means I won’t be able to fully embrace the consoles supposed power.