So with the rumours today hinting at a probable Xbox2 in 2017 it would mean that both Sony and MS will be releasing new hardware that will be give a performance upgrade. Putting the backlash and rage aside of new consoles within 3yrs of launch, what are your predictions on performance and cost?

The PS4 Neo sounds like a minor upgrade compared to Xbox2, which sounds like a full blown console. If true, how will people feel about a full blown successor 3 and a bit years into this generation? 

If it is a full blown upgrade, I can imagine the cost being around $499-549 considering Neo most people are assuming to come out around $399-449. 

More importantly, whether a full blown or whether Neo or Xbox2 are just minor upgrades, it might put Nintendo in a really bad position. They will have released another console that might be dated at launch and depending on cost, it could spell huge problems for Nintendo. 

Nintendo has a lot of time to adjust to the Neo at least in price. They defeniatley should aim to have the weakest/cheapest console from here on out, they wont have enough money to constaley devolope new hardware like Sony and MS plan to do.

Their not "new" consoles they are upgraded versions of the current gen consoles.

"what are your predictions on performance and cost?"

Rumors say:

PS4neo  = 4.2 Teraflops  = 399$

Xbox One ii (one-two) = 5.28 teraflops (4x power of xb1)

My guess (not a rumor) would be the Xbox One ii, would be more expensive than the PS4 neo.

^ this is my worry.

Nintendo if they are barely faster than the normal xbox one, will again be behinde the curve when it comes to hardware.

The latest rumor says the xbslim would be $150-175 and the ps4 neo would be $400-450. If this is true the xboxslim hands down will probably do better than ps4 slim and close the gap in EU but if the prices are much closer then the ps4 neo will sell better. As for NX I'm not sure but if its $300 and has third party plus a steady release of 1st party it should do well also.

So we're possibly looking at

PS4 Neo - 4.2 TFLOP
XBox Scoprio - 6 TFLOP
NX - 1 TFLOP

Nintendo's pretty much done as a primary console maker barring a controller/gimmick miracle.

This is going to be between Sony Vs. Microsoft, the console business now basically belongs to them, well it has for a while anyway so no real change in the status quo going forward.

Nintendo will be fine financially though, they're going to make a fortune off smartphone games in the next 5 years which will become a central pillar of their business, if they can hold at 40-50 million portables, then consoles are just gravy, NX console from the sounds of it could be more something just to play handheld games on the TV on for those who want that.

Sony Vs. MS ... while the Scorpio spec is nice, still think Sony has got too much brand momentum to be easily stopped at this point, but if MS commits to always having better hardware from Scorpio onwards, they can start to shift the tide in the US at least.

They should move Scorpio up though if possible. 6 TFLOPS + HBM2 RAM would be a real kick in the balls to Sony.

What about or how does the XB1.5 sound like a "full blown upgrade"?

Lets not get ahead of ourselves here......

I think the direction MS is trying to go is obvious. First off lets not forget that as far as consoles go, like it or not, they are in competition with PlayStation and Nintendo. They will NOT release a $500 box if the alternative from Sony costs $350/$299. No matter how powerful it is, that box will be DOA. And they don't even have to, which brings me back to my original point.

MS now more than ever realize that they had and have been dropping the ball as far as PC gaming goes. Probably over 90% of all PC gamers are using a windows OS. Thats a ridiculously large market that MS already owns but never took the initiative to tap. Until now. For MS, their focus right now is probably more about getting people off steam and onto the windows store.

And back to that XB1 upgrade thing.....How much power MS can put on a chip is limited by the original architecture they chose to go with. No matter what they do, they have to make room for the SDRAM on the chip. If they make a console without it, it would literally mean they are asking devs to develop for two Xbox platforms. That stands to do way more harm to them than any possible good. As long as MS puts in the SDRam on die, then their APU will always be less powerful cause both theirs and sonys usually have about the same footprint.

My guess is they're looking at switching to HBM2 RAM entirely. 

XBox Scoprio or whatever will probably be $399.99, I don't see them going over that, but by fall 2017 that will be possible in a $399.99 kit. 

Its just not that simple. Take the PS4 for instance. It's got around 190GB+(?) of memory bandwidth. All unified memory. When devs build for it, their engines are designed to run on ome pool of memory with a set bandwidth. 

On the XB1, there are two pools of memory. The on chip SDram (32MB@100GB+(?)) and the unified pool of slower ram.

Sony actually can upgrade to HBM with the PS4 with less hassle than it would be for MS. 

If MS made a console without the sdram, then developers would be required to make two extremely different versions of their game for the XB1 platform. Trust me, coding with that SDram in mind completely changes how a game engine is designed to run on a platform. 

Ms could completely abandon the sdram approach tho, and basically make the XB1.5 as close to PC as possible so devs that build for the PC are technically also just building for the XB1.5 but that's another story. 

And the building of two game engines would only apply to games going FORWARD. On top of that, if MS ditches the eDRAM, then it would (most likely) instantly break compatability with all current Xbox One games. Imagine dropping $400+ on the Xbox One+ only to find out the 100s of current games don't play on it lol. Now, MS has shown they are willing to spend lots of time & engineers on software emulation, like bringing Xbox 360 games to Xbox One. Not surprising since I still consider Microsoft a software company at heart. So maybe they think they have figured out a great software emulation layer for current Xbox One games to run on hypotheotical XBOne+ with HBM2 memory. Even still, you are just asking for problems and glitches to happen with that approach. Wanna know the main reason the console market exists alongside the PC world? Because you buy a console, you buy a game for that console, and it just works. No settings, no compatibility problems. Start messing with that basic philosphy too much, and you can kiss your customers goodbye...

Exactly!!! (i love it when someone else gets it).

If MS makes an XB1+ without the SDram, then they better make sure whatever they make is fully BC with the ogXB1. The only way they ensure natural BC is to have the ESram be on the chip, and doimg that limits how much "more" powerful they can reallh make that chip be. Then again, they could try and emulate as you said, but that will require they make a ridiculously powerful box. Such a box will prpbably cost upwards of $700/$800......

yup, thats not going to happen.