Duderino

I agree that the Kinect added to their costs and that the Xbox one was underpowered. I do believe with a more focused approach from the get go they could have delivered a more competitive Xbox One at $399 or a much more compelling system at $499.

I agree with Phil Spencer’s take: The gamble on Kinect hampered their ability to deliver a competitive console in terms of power and price. Going by the X and the numbers being tossed around, my guess is power will continue to be Microsoft’s priority with the Series X. Like with 4K and the X, I can’t see MS comprising on their vision with the Series X to match whatever the PS5 will cost.

Neither come close to the risk Microsoft took with packing the Kinect in with the Xbox One. $500 for a powerful new console in 2020 is not all that far fetched. (Assuming 500)

The closest you’ll find is an NPD rep’s comments back in 2018: In other words Microsoft saw a big turnaround with the introduction of the X.

Agreed that this is a different situation. An expensive high-end mid-gen refresh is a tougher sell than an expensive premium next-gen console. If the X could sell well at $500, the Series X certainly can too, especially to early adopters so long as the added value is there. (where the PS3 and Xbox One launches failed) Lockheart will in all likelihood be their broader market solution.

Depends on who you ask.

The CPU and SSD are a big enough bump to limit what games moving forward can be back ported. I agree though about that first year, we’ll see many cross gen tittles.

I’ll simply put it this way; with the 1X, I very much doubt Xbox execs were kicking themselves in the foot for launching another $500 console.

I very much doubt MS considers the $500 price point of the One X a failure.

The estimated height and width of the Series X alone is larger than than the width and depth of the One X retail box.

Xbox Series X will be in the $499-$599 range, depending on how much of a loss MS is willing to take. A few reasons for the high estimate: 1. The Xbox One X release really wasn’t all that long ago. Moore’s Law is dead, yet their target is a 2x leap. 2. Lockheart, if it exists, means MS will be less concerned with a mass market price point for the Series X. 3. Bigger box = increased shipping costs and/or less units per shipping container. 4. A desire to continue marketing Xbox as the power leader in the console space. 5. Tariffs, or the threat there of. Most of all, I don’t think their pricing strategy will be in line with the next PlayStation. Neither the Xbox One or X were. There's little presidence for it by this point.

Funny how, even after the Series X reveal, an off screen capture from a cell phone can still be one of the more Next Gen things we've seen.

It'll certainly smooth out the experience and reduce a bottleneck. Neither of which necessarily come across in a trailer like Godfall's (or Hellblade 2 for that matter). Think it's going to take the right developer, right project, and probably something in the form of live demo.

A faster SSD isn’t going to make better visuals in itself.

Likely asset quality. Can’t have as detailed or varied of environments and characters if streaming can’t keep up.

Some little tidbits from the Godfall developer: https://www.playstationlifestyle.net/2019/12/12/godfall-ps5-tech-controller-world-gameplay-keith-lee-interview/

For those that think a 2080 or better raytracing performance is plausible for Scarlett and/or PS5, what do you think AMD's new line of competing PC cards will cost next year? Will price point be in the high-end enthusiast range or low enough for the more mid range consumer?

Only if you are expecting full blown raytraced GI, AO, shadows, and refections in the first place. I don't think it's a coincidence that this rumor is talking in terms of 4k60fps as opposed to raytracing.

Both PS5 and Scarlett will have some raytracing capabilities from the new architecture, but between console cost cutting measures + downclocking to improve life expectancy, power usage, and thermal output, I still find this to be a very unrealistic expectation for a console in 2020. Love to be wrong of course.

Jason Schreier on the kotaku podcast. First time hearing about the RAM too.

Soo much would have to change in a year. For example, Nvidia's own low end RTX cards ($325-$400) are not suitable for the 4k60 gaming MS is suggesting as a general target for Scarlet games in this rumor. AMD would have to leap frog Nvidia's current efforts in both cost and performance, raytracing or otherwise. Not saying it's impossible, just unlikely. Despite being skeptical of RTX level of raytracing on consoles, I do think we will eventually see more approximated solutions running on Scarlett, PS5, and in time, a higher percentage of gaming PCs. If Lockheart can’t keep up, that could certainly impact the generation as time goes on. Raytracing might not even be the bottleneck, btw. This generation for example would have been very different had Sony or MS launched a SKU with a Switch level GPU. Not saying Lockheart will be this generations equivalent to that, but I wouldn’t rule it out.

@AbsolutSurgen, what makes you so confident that AMD will be able to provide next gen consoles with cost effective GPUs that are competitive with Nvidia's high end RTX line? Today’s lower end PCs fall into the same category as cross-gen releases. Eventually devs will stop supporting them in an effort to raise the visual bar and move past old limitations. In the case of Lockheart however, devs will be locked into supporting its lower than Scarlet specs for the next 6-8 years. (If these rumors are true).

If a developer can only reliably leverage the expanded raycasting capabilities on the Scarlet and PS5 next gen boxes (for whatever purpose that may be), Locheart could potentially hinder ambitions and/or require custom paired back solutions that will eat up dev resources and time. This is a hypothetical senario of course, but it does illustate one of the potential issues with introducing a partial step console at the begining of a console generation. You don't have to take my word on it though. If you trust Jason Schreiers reporting on Lockheart, you should also accept that, yes some developers have concerns:

Now those are some high expectations.

I have to agree with @Reputator. I do think a few tittles will have some form of ray tracing, but not to the degree we are seeing with Control + RTX. At least not without some new technical advancement that can compensate for even lower ray counts on console hardware. I expect more tittles will target 60fps as opposed to pushing rayracing next gen. But for devs with plans to utilize raytracing, this half step console probably isn’t the best news.