An anonymous industry insider has stated that the PlayStation 4 Neo – Sony's widely-known but not-yet officially announced PS4 hardware revision – exists because the company's PlayStation VR (PSVR) headset "was going to be terrible" on launch PS4s.
The comments were made by chief technical officer (CTO) working in the industry, talking to Edge Magazine in their latest issue. In issue 294, the source states: "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."
From the same article:
It's not clear whether the source's use of "was" is referring to the older console now that PlayStation Neo is a reality, or refers to problems Sony has had getting PSVR to work on the consoles they first launched in 2013. The source may also be referring to the state of PSVR on consoles before the introduction of the external processing unit that will come packaged with the headset when it launches in October.
To date, those that have used a PSVR headset have reported good performances on what appeared to be launch PS4s.
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/ps4-neo-ex...-awful-launch-consoles-says-developer-1562122
UPDATE:
PSVR is fine on the regular PS4. Obviously things look better on Neo, but considering the performance requirements, the actual experience is largely the same.