NX - 60m
Neo- 60m
XBS- 60m

Given Sony's dominant position in the market, I don't see how it's that big a threat - sure, it's gonna outdo the PS4P, but the Scorpio is just an extension of the XBO in the end. A true PS5 to counter that doesn't make sense.

The Scorpio may as well be the XBox Two considering the huge jump in specs it makes over the XBO. It's 5 times more powerful than the regular XBO, so it's pretty much a generational leap. 

If it maintains compatibility with the XBO and Slim though, it's just a much nicer XBO in the end, with 4k goodness and whatever. A proper new platform can't have that, no matter the leap.

A proper new platform can't maintain compatibility with prior consoles? What the heck are you on about?

A proper new platform generally means backwards compatibility but not forwards compatibility (i.e. XB1 can't play Scorpio games).  That's fine, if that happens then Scorpio will be a new platform (new generation) essentially rather than an enhanced XB1.

I understand that. But at the same time, every generation, you see people complain that all the games are cross-generation. Many games blurring the lines between gens at first. Now, we reached a point where new consoles could be like getting better PC hardware. You get the same games, but new hardware let you enjoy better performance and visuals. With the oldest generations getting less and less supported as technology evolve. Basically, the transition would stop being a dry cut and be more like what you see on the phone market.

I think this is what we can expect from future console generations.

No they should carry on their own path, MS is going for a non-generation approach or seem to be heading for it which could mean they release hardware every few years with their platforms possibly being the OS and not the hardware. Releasing a PS5 as a reaction to this at this point would be playing into their hands.

Yeah, that other guy said what I meant, no forward compatibility with the new platform. And there is no guarantee that it'll work like PCs anyway - and even those don't have perfect cross-gen compatibility due to differing OSes.

Yeah, agree we could be moving to the iPhone model.

They both have their advantages.  With the iPhone model you keep the software userbase and ecosystem when launching new hardware.  Total software business generally increases over time, rather than resetting to 0 each generation.

The downsides with iPhone model: there is slower progress in features; software has to support a range of hardware, and tends to target the largest user segment rather than taking advantage of the full capabilities of the flagship device.  The software inventory grows huge, which makes it hard to make money on new AAA software (a billion apps, 999,999,000 make small amount of money).

Consoles make most money on software, so it will be interesting to see how they decide to balance the software ecosystems.

Worth noting that, keeping the ecosystem going is most advantageous for the current market leader (i.e. not Microsoft).