For a couple of months now we've been hearing tales of a mysterious PS4.5 (or PS4K) and the volume of reports leads us to believe that there's something to the rumours.
We are still waiting for an official announcement (could it really be as far away as E3?), but if new information revealed last night is to be believed the PS4.5 is an upcoming version of the popular console with support for 4K resolution that uses the codename NEO.
To be able to run applications in 4K resolution the console is unsurprisingly said to have better hardware, both in the CPU, GPU and memory bandwidth departments. To ensure regular PlayStation 4 consoles will still work with new games this increased power will only be unlocked in "Neo mode", meaning that games will have to feature a normal version and an improved version for those who have made the upgrade.
Even though the console is said to support 4K resolution it's not a requirement for games to run natively in 4K (which would require immensely upgraded hardware if today's framerates and visual fidelity is to be preserved) but 4K support will obviously come in handy for streaming and movies.
Furthermore, the reports indicate that the PS4 NEO will not be released until PlayStation VR is out in October. Additionally there will not be any NEO-only PS4 games, and there won't be any VR games that only work with PS4 NEO.
Lastly it's being claimed that the consoles will exist in the same framework, with the same network functionality, the same online store and with the development of NEO-only features being banned by Sony.
Apparently they do not wish to split the PS4 community, but simply offer what we essentially can call "better graphics" for players willing to upgrade. There will also be an opportunity for developers of existing PS4 games to add NEO modes to their games through patching.
Stay tuned to Gamereactor for more info on the PS4.5 / NEO PS4 / PS4K in the (hopefully) near future.
Thanks, Giant Bomb.