Of course what defines a new generation isn't BC, but FC. If the old model console can't play the new release games that come out for the new console then we have a new generation. I really don;t see Sony or MS hamstringing themselves by requiring forwar compatibility, especially not with this mid-gen upgrade. It's one thing to require the exact same game (i.e. not different version of the same game, like you get with cross gen releases of some games when there's a generational transition) to be playable on PS4 and PS4P / Xb one and XOX. But it's an entirely different thing to require the exact same game to be able to run on PS5 and PS4 / Xb TWO and Xb one. It would eventually be like requiring AAA PC games released in 2017 to be playable on entry level gaming hardware from 2005. What we might find is generations with perhaps 2 in-cycle upgrades with full FC. But after that the first iteration of a generation will be dumped and possibly even the 2nd iteration, and there may only be FC between the 3rd iteration and the new gen machine.

MS in particular it talking crap if they say there are no more console generations. Unless they really mean this is Xbox's final generation and MS is getting out of the console business. Which is possible, and probably even rational for MS to do.

As long as their controllers retain the ability to take AA battery's... I am happy.

The reason why a company releases a new console is to either find new customers, gain marketshares or protect marketshares which is directly linked to their capacity of making profits from games and payed subscrptions.

So when I say they're reducing lifecycles I mean they're protecting themselves form losing business to other competitors (someone at Sony itself said the Ps4 Pro was meant to prevent customers to migrate to PC) or, in the case of One X, they're releasing it in order to stay relevant.

That's why I'm saying it's an alarming sign, because companies are releasing products at a faster rate to fight over a reducing portion of users. If the market was perfectly healty they wouldn't gain by doing so, since as you said, they're not making money out of the hardware.

They probably will becauase PS4 Pro is likely contributing nicely to their financials. We can see from Japanese weekly sales, PS4 Pro is about 20% of total PS4 sales, Sony states they make a higher profit margin on the Pro model. 

Assuming that ratio is in line with the rest of the world (it could be higher because the West may have higher 4KTV adoption) ... on an 18 million yearly shipment of PS4s, that works out to 3.6-4 million PS4 Pros/year. At $30-35 more profit per unit (estimate) that's about $100-$126 million per year in extra profit and as 4K adoption grows, that number will likely grow as well. 

By the end of this generation, PS4 Pro could earn Sony somewhere in the range of $300-$600 million extra in profit they wouldn't have otherwise. Not a bad chunk of change at all. 

So I don't see Sony changing. Especailly since MS is not going to likely change either, so they would badly be left in the dust in hardware capability. Imagine Scorpio without a PS4 Pro to answer it with ... MS likely would start to regain more foothold with far superior verisons of multiplats, a 6 TFLOP vs. 1.8 TFLOP system is a sizable gap. It would be very easy for MS to make Sony's offerings look tame and press the advantage through non-stop marketing. 

Anyways for XBox 4 ... I'd guess 15 TFLOPs, 16GB HBM, 7nm node, fall 2020 launch. 

Yeah, that's how all of them do it, they probably think of the next console before the previous one is even released. As for it not being a new generation, I'd assume that eventually they'd reach a point where games aren't required to run on all variants of the Xbox One.

Batteries....

"It's only natural to expect YoY sales to be higher at this point"

No not really, according to people like you consoles would've been long dead by this point 5 years ago. Btw, PS4 at $299 is selling at the same pace as the PS2 at $179, not to mention it destroys PS3 at whatever price it ended after all the price cuts. Anyone denying that selling better at higher price points is healthy is ignorant.

"That's beacuse customers had to overcome the technological barrier of HD, consoles were more expansive "

The PS3 was selling +10m a year right out of the gate, it just never reached the heights of the Wii or PS2. And 360 was very cheap, like it was sub $200 when PS3 was like 2 years old.

"both 360 and PS3 had a very shallow sales curve "

The PS4 will have a similar sales curve as the PS3 and PS2 before it, very healthy sales curve, only difference will be the values will be higher than last gen. It'll be a very healthy bell curve.


"The ps4 will most likely reach is peak more quickly and then burn out faster, the Xbox One is likely already burn out."

Lol, it's nearly already been 4 years since launch, sooner or later it's gonna peak. What does "more quickly reach its peak" at this point? The only way for PS4 to burn out is when PS5 is announced, and that ain't gonna happen until we're in the year PS5 is launching, which likely won't be until 2020.

Shoot me for making an error. - It's not like my statement became unreadable you know.

This is the problem with MS, they do things no one asked for, hence they usually fail to capture a huge majority of the market. It seems they have not learned.
I see no reason to dish out $400 every 3 years for a better CPU, no way in hell i get behind that unless there is a very friendly trade in program built in.
Sony said it best a few years ago "we believe in the current model that gamers have loved and embraced", 4 months after saying that they launched PS4 and the rest is history.
If people don't see by now that MS is moving away from the consoles they are in for a rude awaking.
MS is going to have console gamers spend $1000 over 5 years on hardware upgrades for their "generationless" model, that's about what a person spends on PC upgrades in the same amount of time.

No one is putting a gun to anyone's head saying they have to buy a new system every 3 years. It's a choice, just like you don't have to buy every new iPad model or every new smartphone model. 

And Sony started this model with the PS4 Pro.