Sony didn't show the Neo because PS4 sales are strong and steady globally. Most people don't know about it, so bringing extra publicity that it will become arguably 'dated' is a risky business move.

MS showing Scorpio way over a year ahead of time is a big hint that they are basically ceding the sales race with X1 and moving it to back-burner status. Focus now is perfecting the Scorpio and UWP, to build on something for the future.

Remember, Xbox 360 was announced in May of 2005, with the full release happening in November of that year, scarcely half a year later. Xbox One and PS4 were also both unveiled and released in the same year in 2013.

The closest thing to the Scorpio early reveal was the PS3 in 2005. Coincidence? It was definitely too early to show, because like with Scorpio, there wasn't playable hardware available or final revisions. Microsoft moving forward fast with the 360 reveal forced their hand and they reacted by announcing about a year ahead of what made sense. Flash forward to Scorpio release, and you can tell that PS4 crushing them 2 to 1 or more globally (and handily in their own home markets even) had Microsoft decide to go ahead and lay out their grand plans well in advance.

I think it's a good thing to be honest. The strictly smart business move may have been to keep Scorpio under wraps until next E3 (and how Sony is not touting 'Neo' yet), as that way they could maximize XB1 OG and XB1-S sales, but imagine all the people who might have bought XB1 models this fall only to find out a few months later than an entirely new and MASSIVELY improved Xbox was following the very next year.

As for Neo, who knows. Tbh, I think Sony should have just done a 'slim' revision of the PS4 with 4K Bluray and OG specs at $199ish and let Microsoft have the higher-end market entirely to themselves. This is exactly what happened in Gen6 anyway : Dreamcast launched first (think WiiU this gen), followed by Sony (PS2, PS4 this gen), then Microsoft came a little late with a dramatically more powerful unit, which still happens to be my favorite MS Console by a long shot. DC failed in the marketplace, PS2 sold absolutely ludicrous amounts, and OG Xbox was a solid first entry. I'm leaving out the Gamecube, but you could slot the XB1 into that role of middle ground player imho.

They were never scared of merging Xbox with PC. Gamers' obsession with list wars were their main obstacle.

I dunno about that, remember Halo was announced for Mac and Windows in 1999, but Microsoft bought it and shitcanned those versions, keeping it solely for their Xbox console. From that point on, they shrunk/eliminated their PC Gaming studios and refrained from releasing much on PC. Halo and Halo 2 came, but they both came incredibly late compared to the console releases, and in H2's case, was hobbled by a horrendous scheme with GFWL and even attempts to get PC gamers to pay for online, which failed utterly. Then of course Halo 3, 4, etc they didn't release on PC at all, despite there being more than enough players on PC to justify a port. 

So many of those decisions came well before Xbox had a huge following (or in Halo CE's case, ANY following at all). You may be right that some wrong-headed gamers also joined in with a list-wars mentality and didn't want their 'exclusives' to be available on anything but Xbox consoles, but Microsoft's business plans certainly seemed to attempt to ignore the PC in terms of their flagship IPs as much as possible.

It's a remarkable turnaround, and I can safely say that while the Ballmer/Mattrick Microsoft was easy for me to hate, I deeply respect what Nadella and Spencer have done in the past ~24 months or so.

Nice. Still not on board with Neo/ Scorpio though.

Completely agree! It has been frustrating to see MS abandon PC the way they did to only focus on home console. I look forward to gaming with people on different platforms :).

so that means xbox one only need on market 4 years before new console is out?

Neither am I to be honest.
I already own multiple gaming PC's and an Xbox One.

But on the other hand I am also looking forward to it... As it's going to be a larger and more severe difference in quality between the vanilla Xbox One and Scorpio compared to the Playstation 4 and Neo, the differences will simply be more pronounced.

It will also be nice to have a console that is close to a mainstream/mid-range PC in terms of performance, which hopefully translates into better looking multiplats.

Microsoft abandoning the PC though probably did some good though in retrospect.
It paved the way for the PC to consolidate allowing for Steam/Valve to burst onto the scene the way they did, it's a bigger and more vibrant platform in terms of gaming than it has ever been before.
I just wish Microsoft would work with PC gamers and Steam rather than against them with their Universal Windows Platform though.

It won't do much. It's very close to being the 32Xbox

I guess the forward compatibility helps but supporting two standrards is still going to be a pain in the ass for devs.

Ms is back it seems and its great

Not really.

Developers typically make one build of a game and scale it downwards for consoles anyway, so they can keep that practice going for the vanilla Xbox One.