After all of the rumors, speculation, and leaked specifications, it’s real. Sony’s Ultra HD PlayStation 4 upgrade is coming. It just isn’t coming to E3 next week.

The news was confirmed by Sony Interactive Entertainment president and global CEO Andrew House in an interview with the Financial Times. House didn’t announce the name of the new system, but did say that it is intended to co-exist with the current PlayStation 4.

“It is intended to sit alongside and complement the standard PS4,” he told the Financial Times. “We will be selling both [versions] through the life cycle.”

House also says that all games will support the existing PlayStation 4. However, there may be titles that don’t support the new system. He also admits that there will be more work for developers in supporting both models, but that it should be a “small but manageable” increase in effort.

As for why Sony feels comfortable with mid-generation iteration? The answer comes back to mobile devices.

“The consumer is attuned to a different cadence of innovation in technology thanks in great part for the upgrades cadence on mobile phones or PCs,” House said. No pricing or timing was revealed in the interview.

We’ve reached out to Sony for additional details. We’ll update should we receive a response.

[Source: Financial Times]

Our Take

I’ll admit disappointment in this announcement. Splitting the install base, creating more work for developers, and introducing more room for bugs and glitches with every update due to the addition of another spec is hard for me to wrap my head around. Unfortunately, since this came out during an interview and not a detailed announcement, Sony is leaving many questions hanging in the air.

As for not showing it at E3, the logic seems clear. Putting new hardware out there in a big way puts the deep freeze on existing models. This hints that the new system might not be out in time for this holiday.