PlayStation 4 Neo made because PSVR 'was going to be terrible' on launch PS4s

An industry insider, choosing to remain anonymous for reasons that'll quickly become clear, has stated that Sony's PlayStation 4 Neo - the widely known but somehow still not officially announced upgraded PS4 - only exists because Sony's PSVR headset was "going to be terrible" on launch model PS4s.

Told you he had a good reason for being anonymous. He's not just anyone, either. The comments were made to Edge magazine in its latest issue, 294, by a Chief Technical Officer working in the games industry. According to the source, 'PSVR was going to be terrible on a [launch] PS4. It was going to be truly awful. Something a bit more powerful starts to bring VR into range. If you want to deal with crazy requirements for performance in VR, you absolutely have to do this.'

When the source talks about launch PS4s, it isn't clear whether it is referring to original generation PlayStation 4 consoles or just those from the console's 2013 launch. He/she could also be referring to the state of the PSVR on consoles before they added a bloody great big external processing unit that will come with the headset when it launches in October.

So far, we've not seen or heard any problems with the statement, so we can only report on what we've been told. I've used the PSVR a few times at shows and haven't noticed any problems. We'll find out more about the PlayStation 4 Neo at E3, I'm sure.