I was expecting a 4k blu ray player with PS4 Pro.  That's why I thought it would have been $500.  I'd still gladly pay $500 if it were included.

I really did not care about the article oinion more than I wanted to find direct quote from MS CEO on his position on the Xbox division.

Also taking this part from what you stated, exactly how did you think it would be interpreded

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.  

Reading that last line, it appeared to me you were suggesting that MS is looking to drop the console and thus move out of the business.  When reading the last part where you say that MS stated that Scorpio is the last console generation, even that part can be construed that you mean this is MS saying there will be no more Xbox hardware after Scorpio, instead MS has stated that there will be no more completely different hardware where you start from the beginning again like transitioning from PS2 to PS3 to PS4.

So exactly how will MS execute an Xbox infrastructure without actual branded console.  Not having an actual piece of hardware underneath that TV makes that strategy very hard.  No matter how the future unfolds after the Scorpio, I believe there will always be a piece of hardware branded Xbox.  It could be a streaming box, it could be licensed Xbox from many different vendors, Hell, it could be Xbox branded TVs that steam you game but it will still be a piece of hardware that deliver you games and branded with the name.

Moores Law isn't dead. It's just being extended.
Moore's law has constantly been claimed "dead" over the last 50 odd years and it's never come true.

First PMOS replaced Bipolar Transistors, which were in turn replaced by NMOS and then that too got kicked to the curb in favor of CMOS, Geometrical Scaling > Equivalent Scaling and now we are in the era of 3D scaling.

Moore's law is also more than just how small you can make a transister.
At every node, there is constant refinement to the patterning process, constant refinement to chip layouts to improve density and reduce leakage and more, it's why AMD and nVidia were able to push 28nm as far as they did.

In some cases UHD costs $0 extra over a regular Blu-Ray drive, there are drives on the PC that get that functionality with a firmware update.

There is more to a chips cost than just the size. If the fab you are using has a process that tends to be very leaky... Then a smaller higher clocking chip that used more volts would likely result in a costlier design than a larger chip, with more conservative clocks and voltages.
Fabricating chips isn't as black and white as people assume it is.

We need to keep in mind that we have no idea where Scorpio is going to be fabbed, whether it's at TSMC's 16nm or at Global Foundries 14nm.

There is also other costs to consider as the other components aren't free.

More to performance that just flops.

If you truly believe that, then you should probably spend more time researching how chips are made.

Why will it require a new CPU?

Which would mean (If that rumor is valid) that it's using a 384bit memory bus or 192bit, which would be new-ground for AMD as far as bus widths go.

The interposer would likely drive costs up to high for a console. HBM is premium. Like seriously premium.
GDDR5X is good enough for a console at the moment.

AMD's cat cores aren't good at clocking. 2.4Ghz would be pushing it.

Depends on how wide the bus is.
12Gb of memory tells me that there will be a 192bit or 384bit memory bus depending on how many memory chips are used.
Thus you are looking at 3.2 Gbps GDDR5 speed on a 384bit memory bus or 6.4 Gbps on a 192 bit bus to hit that 320 gb/s number.
It's not unusual for GDDR5 to hit those rates, Polaris (Radeon 480) for instance is using 7 and 8 Gbps chips.

Source? Please?

Sony is actually using TSMC's 16nm (Aka. Rebranded 20nm with Finfet.)

Agreed. Zen likely didn't tape out once Scorpio entered the design phase. Puma+ at most is likely, Jaguar is still a possibility.

You also need to remember that a PC's Graphics card is for the *entire* graphics card from Ram, to power delivery to PCB... For a chip in a console, it's a cost that is consolidated.

Jaguar already has a successor... It's been out for a long time actually. It's called Puma.

The issue is that the Xbox is integrating more and more of Microsoft's technology and platforms, becoming tangled in the Universal Windows Platform and pushing Microsoft services like Bing and Skype. It's not something Microsoft will give away lightly.

Microsoft are willing to pay millions/billions for services with a large number of users, because then they can tempt those users to other services and make more money.
Xbox Live falls into that category now.

Often I see Microsoft trying to sell an Xbox alongside a Surface Laptop and Windows Phone... And I have to admit, I have been tempted a few times. :P

It is also important to remember that MS is not paying retail price for components.  I'm just guessing here, but I'd bet that MS pays no more than 50% of the retail price for most console components, probably far less in some cases.  Further, in the process of designing these systems, MS (or Sony or Ninty) certainly works with the component manufacturers to figure out where the best value can be found.  Prices we see at retail have little to do with the prices console designers are seeing when selecting components.    

This seems theoretically possible.  But, it would be a significant change of direction for MS.  They've been moving into hardware more and more over the last decade, and they've had huge successes with the Surface and Xbox brands.  

Cut all of those prices in half, and you'll likely have something close to the actual component prices that they're paying.  Then, add in a bunch of R&D, marketing, and distribution expenses, then consider that they have to wholesale the product far, far below the retail price, and you'll start to get a picture of how console pricing works.

I think it'll be $399 or a version of it will as in the 500gb model but I don't know if it will be 6 flops.  I don't really think MS know fully what it'll be yet.  I'm sure that's their goal and they'll likely achieve it or get close. 

I think it'll be $399 because MS seem determined not to give up more than anything else. Meaning, they'll find a way to make it happen just as Sony found a way to hit that price point. 

Edit: I thought this thread sounded familiar. I thought it was a new thread and not a resurrected one. Oh well, I still think $399. 

The only thing that makes sense is find out how much does it cost to build a 6Tf PC in 2016.

Then we simply apply devaluation calculations compared to that a 6Tf PC costed back in 2015.

And then we can estimate a projection for 2017 and guess how much of that cost is going to be absorbed by Microsoft.

at 6 tflops, with more ram, UHD bluray, better CPU it will be no less than $449 and more likely $499. Pro will be $349 or $299 by that time.

Edit: I finally understood the second comment on this post. Hitting 6Tf is not the important part, you can do this with low budget graphic cards.

What really matters is the native 4k and VR support that Microsoft is almost obligated to implement at this point, and this requires either a lot of money or a lot of work. Is Microsoft as good as Sony when it comes to optimization? Because I sitll don't understand how the PS4 Pro can do both 4k and VR in a $400 budged.