I honestly have no clue what Sony and their fans are doing anymore. I mean, they honestly don't get it. Sony doesn't get their customers. We know this by now and it's not even debatable. It's not just the company though as the PS4 users are largely to blame as well. And yes, I don't own a PS4 but I play PS4 games and like a lot of them. So no, this isn't an Xbox fanboy rant.

This past week we learned through Giantbomb that Sony and the rumored PS4K, code named NEO, is real. Later on the same day Eurogamer reported that dev kits had already gone out to developers. Of course, upgrading your console alone isn't a bad thing. The manner in which Sony is conducting this upgrade, however, is a total sham and to be honest, complete bullshit. 

November 15th, 2013. That is the date that Sony launched the PS4 and it still is not two and a half years old. By all accounts so far, the PS4 is beating out the Xbox One in sales. No one is debating this. After all, the PS4 has in fact sold nearly double the amount of consoles compared to Xbox One at about 40 million to 20. That's one part of the puzzle though. Final sales aren't the only comparison. The PS3 outsold the Xbox 360 in overall sales, but the Xbox 360 was a much better system, and also outsold the PS3 for 42 straight months leading up to the release of the PS4 / Xbox One. The Xbox 360 launched a year earlier as well. Sony has always had an advantage in marketing compared to other companies (a fact I'll expand on in a bit), which is why they are doing what they are doing. 

Let's just call a spade a spade, shall we? We're all mostly adults here. We can admit that this new PS4K, PS NEO or whatever the final name ends up being is a complete and utter cash grab by Sony. It is and it's bullshit. It pisses me off that Sony obviously doesn't care about their customers. It pisses me off more that PS4 users don't care they are being taken advantage of. I've said this a thousand times. I don't care what console you play. We all play games and that's all that counts. Don't you care that a company is literally trying to take money they don't need out of your pocket by taking advantage of you? You should. Let's look at the details, shall we?

This PS NEO will include an upgraded GPU, CPU and memory storage allowing for 4K graphical output. Of course, you need a 4K TV in order to achieve 4K graphical output. Now, most people don't own 4K TV's at this point. In fact, rough estimates have only about 10% of current homes equipped with a 4K TV according to Business Insider. So, obviously it's a horribly misguided attempt on Sony's part to sell their own 4K TVs. You know it. You know that once this new console is released, that within one month there will be sales at Best Buy for a Sony 4K TV bundled with the new PS4K. I'm all for companies making money. This is America and we're a capitalistic society. That's perfectly fine. I've said this before. I admire intelligence. If you're smarter than me that's fine. On the other hand, if you are dumber than me, don't try and outsmart me by thinking that I'm too stupid to figure out what you are doing. You can't piss in a jar and call it Granny's Peach Tea like in Batman Vs. Superman. This is exactly what Sony is doing and it should piss off every single person that currently owns a PS4. 

This new system is also not allowed to offer anything exclusive when compared to the standard PS4. They will be required to use the same PlayStation store, all your PS4 purchases would carry over and there will be absolutely ZERO games exclusive to the new PS NEO. You will not be able to play on a server with only PS NEO players. You will not have any exclusive features, pre-order bonuses or unlockables on the PS NEO. For those of you excited about PlayStation VR, this also doesn't apply because Sony is requiring parity on all peripheral items such as PS Move and PSVR. In other words, PS NEO won't have any exclusive VR modes that the current PS4 does not. 

Yes, the specs are upgraded compared to the current PS4. They are very slight though. Looking at them side by side, it's obvious that any benefit won't be visible with the naked eye. But hey, it's Sony so it's all marketing. The PS4 was marketed as "superior" prior to launch because it can run 1080P more than the Xbox One which would hit 900P more often than not. This was clearly overblown because it is literally physically impossible to tell the difference between 900P and 1080P with the naked eye. Even 720P with 4X MSAA is damn near impossible to see compared to 1080P. Yet not only two and a half years later we're back to square one with 4K resolution. So, the $64,000 question is this. If this new PS NEO can't have exclusive games, features, pre-order bonuses, unlockables, peripheral features, uses the same online network, costs $100 more than the current system and utilizes increased specs that do not allow you to visibly see the difference, what the fuck is the point of making this system? Who the hell is it for? If it took you longer than a single second to answer "Sony" then you are brainwashing yourself. Either that or you just don't care

It just makes no sense. The Sony PlayStation is literally the best selling piece of technology in the history of the world. This is a fact. They struck gold with it and no one is denying this. Yet, even still, Sony has had a tumultuous history of hemorraging money. Only a company that continues to make ridiculous decisions can be on the verge of bankruptcy when you have the best selling piece of technical equipment in the world. This may sound hard to believe, but it's out there. You can look it up. Decisions like these, like this new console, shows this cluelessness. After all, Sony had to in 2014 and (other than PlayStation) in 2015. These things are not the result of good business decisions. 

Money makes the world go round'. At this point, PlayStation is number one in terms of money and sales. So, they don't need to do a damn thing. Number one never needs to talk about number two. This is why you never see Coke talk about Pepsi in commercials, but Pepsi has commercials talking about Coke. It's why McDonald's is still number one in sales regardless of what Wendy's, Burger King or Chik-fil-a do. It's the old saying of "If it ain't broke, don't fix it". Sony, on the other hand, apparently prefers to break their own product. 

None of this makes sense. Not one bit actually. You're trying to maintain a sense of balance between current PS4 owners and those who may be this console, right? Let's go with that. This is why it will not have any exclusive features whatsoever as mentioned above. So, why even sell it if it doesn't have any exclusive features? It's simple cost/benefit analysis you learn in day one of freshman year finance class. With no features, not many people are going to buy it. As a result, are the minimal amount of increased sales you would receive in your 4K TVs worth alienating the 40 million or so people that have been steadfast in their devotion to your console for the last two and a half years? I can't believe I actually have to ask this question. Seriously. 

I'm sure the PS5 will release in a few years. There is not going to be a TV higher than 4K at that point. Even if there is, the console isn't going to support it. 4K TVs were available when the PS4 and Xbox One launched but they were too new for console support. This will be the same for the PS5 if it is even available. As a result, why try and alienate your console base now? Why not just wait and have Andrew House come out at E3 and drop the mic with a mega-announcement about the shiny, new features of the PS5? All Microsoft has to do now is sit back, drink in hand, and watch the chips fall. Not only is this going to piss of PS4 users, alienate its base and charge them around $400 for literally zero exclusive features, but it also allows Microsoft to make a bigger jump to their next console than Sony will be able to do with PS5. As we saw with the launch of these consoles and how marketing has given the PS4 and insurmountable lead over Xbox One, this new console will basically hand the next generation of console sales to Microsoft. All Microsoft has to do is say "Hey look, we improved our console more than Sony. See! Here's the proof" and boom, better sales. 

There is just no target demographic for this move and all of the details contained in it contradict each other. It still boggles my mind how a company that has such a great console can make decisions like this along with the . Will this make the PS4 lose its lead over the Xbox One? Of course not. Now, some may say then "who cares?" I'd answer that by saying you should care. You should care that a company you have supported by buying their console, playing their games and banging the table about how your console is so much better than the competition is trying to take advantage of you. Whether or not you buy the console doesn't matter. The fact that Sony is so blatantly giving a big "fuck you" to its PS4 customer base by even thinking about this should anger its fans. Look, if you don't care you're being taken advantage of then fine. Continue living in your dream world with unicorns and rainbows. That's your decision and you can do it if you want. What you can't do is ignore the fact that Sony is in fact doing this and its wrong.