What worries people about NEO is future PS4 optimization

Indie developer here (I don't have access to PS4 Neo), the biggest problem for developers about the PS4 Neo (I don't know why they don't just call it the PS4K) is that the PS4 Neo has a separate SDK compared to the original PS4. This is the only problem that exists for developers that I can think of and honestly it comes down to laziness and unnecessary extra effort because it's no different than just porting it to other platforms.

What does this mean?

It means that making a game on PS4 Neo is like making a PS4 game and then porting it over the Xbox One. However the only difference is that, you don't have to change the UI assets and controls such as square still being square and not Y or A.

This causes the idea for developers that "omg if we're gonna make a game for PS4 Neo then we might as well make a port for Xbox One too".

I'd like you guys to imagine the idea of every time you make a small update to your game during development process, you have to go through PS4 SDK and PS4 Neo SDK just to export and test the changes made.

I'd also like to point out that, what if PS4 Neo SDK is broken and starts to take frame drops at certain areas but on the original PS4 SDK it's completely normal, then you're coding/optimising for a specific SDK platform.

Long story short

If the PS4 Neo SDK was combined into the original PS4 SDK then the developers wouldn't have a problem and the process of gaming developing for both platforms wouldn't increase development time as much. All it would've been was that you work on the original PS4 SDK and then just have secondary texture files for higher resolution and perhaps even increase the frame cap for the PS4 Neo if the game engine allows so.

What do I think about it? I personally think that we don't even need the PS4 Neo and it's just such an unnecessary development time causes to developers. I also think that it just breaks the whole point of owning a console, you might as well just buy a PC if they're going to keep making upgraded machines. The PS4 Neo is just so unnecessary that it boggles my mind on its existence. I'm sure many developers aren't even going to bother with the PS4 Neo versions of their games unless Sony pays them. If/when I get the PS4 Neo SDK, I'll probably just play around with it just to see the power and perhaps maybe new fancy tools and then never bother to use it.

/r/PS4 Thread Parent