Im certain $499 is a baseline for Scorpio (unless MS decides to downgrade the system to be competitive). I wouldn't be surprised if it goes on sale at $550 or $600.

MS will probably respond to the price of the PS4 Pro. If MS was on top in market share then I can see the Scorpio coming in around 499+ but with the Pro, MS probably will come in at 449. The reason is because MS is not the leader and they are looking to gain as much market share as possible. They probably will take a hit, still market the Scorpio as premium, reduce the price of the X1s to 249 and go from there. Personally I am wondering what partners MS will use for their VR solution since they continue to say the console was made for that market.

The one they already have? oculus rift? thats not even a question, but a almost certainty.

I don't think they can that easily try to match price without taking a bit. You have to remember MS have very likely signed a contract with AMD to buy a certain processor and GPU that they can't back out from unless they are willing to pay a penalty.

They have already stated clearly what the bandwidth will be which they can't go back on either meaning there is no cost saving to be made there. 

The only way MS can compete on price will be through incurring heavy losses which isn't something they will be willing to do. 

They have been very clear when stating the Scorpio will be a premium system with a premium price tag. 

Oculus most likely. Microsoft has always been cozy with Facebook. Microsoft is waiting to see how well PSVR does before jumping in. They are way too late to the VR game and hope it doesnt succeed.

Finally, some common sense on the internet. Scorpio is probably MS's last comeback strategy to win back market share. If they failed, they aren't going to focus on the console market anymore. You can always see it in the cards... with the investment they make in gaming developments, they have already streamlined their investment a lot. There has always been rumors that Microsoft wants to drop the console. And Microsoft even openly says Scorpio is the last console generation. 

So they are put in an extremely awkward position with the PS4Pro, at this price point, and this early release date. 

Satya is not going to greenlight Scorpio incurring big losses per console when they are already in such a weak marketshare position. 

I would be surprise if it only just Oculus, especially since MS has a VR API now.  This could open up different players to the market with cheaper competitive solutions.

Actually there have been rumors that investors wanted MS to drop or spin off the console.  I cannot remember any rumors on MS themselves going down this line.  Do not forget that Satya is looking to make MS a tools and service company.  The Xbox brand is still one of their best devices to deliver the service part.  With that, investment on strengthening the Xbox brand is in their best interest.

 Microsoft's Xbox Live has become the envy of all other online-gaming services. Yet, speculation abounds that Nadella will try to trim the fat at Microsoft and sell off the Xbox division to another company. Xbox doesn't fit into Nadella's vision for Microsoft, reports say, and he's willing to drop the division for the right price. But Nadella should consider such a move carefully. While gaming might not fit into Microsoft's core enterprise software and services business, the Xbox division is too big and too important for Microsoft to sell off even as it tries to move deeper into the mobile hardware market.

How old is this story.  I remember reading this a long time ago but as stated here its speculation, meaning nothing actuallying coming from Nadella.  From my understanding this is a statement made by some analyst but it had absolutly nothing to do with actual direction or statements from the CEO.   If we take his actual statements then it paints a different picture

“The single biggest digital life category, measured in both time and money spent, in a mobile-first world is gaming,” writes Nadella in the letter, adding that Microsoft is “fortunate” to have the Xbox brand, and that the company “will continue to vigorously innovate and delight gamers with Xbox.”

This link where I got that quote also talks about that statement which really does not prove anything then someone believing they know the direction MS is going instead of actually knowing.

http://time.com/2972888/microsoft-ceo-satya-nadella-suggests-the-future-of-xbox-could-be-mobile/