Yes I thought it would do better than it appears to be doing, looking at amazon etc demand doesnt seem to be there, Now I'm doubting it will win NPD during launch month, something that I would of put money on a few months ago.

Well it's obviously a niche product, just like the ps4 pro. The only added value i see is if it supports VR, but MS pretty much dropped the ball on that one. So yeah, it will be $500 just to play some games in native 4k, which most won't even notice or care about. And this is coming from a person who owns a 4k TV and a ps4 pro.

VR is likely impossible on the One and One S.  The X is a niche product and wont sell many millions.
SO VR (which is still niche) just exclusive on the X will be a niche product for a niche product. It wont sell well and nobody will make games for it.

Sony was lucky they managed to get VR on the base PS4, so they started with  60 mio people that could buy the PSVR. Launching a VR device on a niche console wont work. Thats why the X is basically useless.

I was hoping MS would add support for the new range of MR headsets with access to the OR store. Yet perhaps that's still too much effort for a niche in a niche. Plus end of next year you could probably build your own VR capable pc for the price of a one X. No custom build headset, no exclusive VR games, hmm kinda feel like you're right about it being useless :/

For me, I need my PS4 for Sony exclusives, Switch for Nintendo exclusives, Steam for cheap indie games and Xbox One for online gaming (XBL is more dependable) and Halo. All of them offer something that the other doesn't. 

If Xbox one x will be a disaster, then how big of a failure is the PS Pro? The x has outsold the pro on Amazon already. If it sells 1 million in the first yr then MS will see it as a success. And that will be easy to accomplish. Most likely 3-4 million first year.

I feel like this prediction thread will end up being a disaster at the end.

M$ really screwed themselves with the botched launch of the X1 (the stupid DRM that was later retracted, forcing Kinect 2.0 with the console, focusing too much on multimedia apps and not enough on games, etc).  All they had to do was launch the console Kinect-less and DRM-free at $399 with additional GPU memory and instantly Sony loses its PR edge.

Now they're trying to one up Sony's PS4 Pro by releasing an even more expensive console that basically has no exclusives that justify its purchase, with no one really asking for an uber powerful console as once again, the least powerful console of the gen is selling like hot cakes.

It really sucks because I really enjoyed my 360 last gen (despite getting hit with the RROD less than a year after I got it), and M$ took all the momentum they had and blew it with a shotgun blast to the face in their E3 2013 press conference.

I dunno. The Xbox One X should boost sales for this Christmas season... But then next year the Xbox should have a decent lineup of exclusives with the usual Halo, Forza and possibly a Gears.
And then sprinkle Sea of Thieves, Age of Empires, Crackdown, Ori and the Will of the Wisps, State of Decay 2... And if they manage to ride the PUBG train long enough... Well.
Things might look good next year.
Plus there will be the Original Xbox backwards compatability happening too.

Interested to see what Numbers look like next year especially with how stagnant Xbox has been for the last 12 months with the only notable releases being Halo Wars 2 (meh) and the critically acclaimed Cuphead.

The real question is what happens in 2019? Will it be another repeat of 2017?

You don't need a Playstation 4, Switch or PC. - You want them.

It already is more successfull. Pretty sure Microsoft has sold more software and subscriptions on the Xbox One than the Original Xbox...
Anfd they are set to sell double the amount of consoles by generations end.

It's competing against all other console platforms, just like the Playstation 4 Pro, lets not kid ourselves here.
Some gamers will prefer the more expensive/premium platform, others just want a low entry price.

Your beliefs are ultimately irrellevent. Either something is true or it isn't.
You either recognize what is true via the evidence that is presented... Or you don't, which in such an instance that person can be regarded as ignorant.
Opinions/Beliefs can also be challenged and criticised if you air them, you don't get a free pass because you have stamped a word on your statement.

With that... You don't need a 4k display to gain the benefits of these games being rendered in 4k, not that the average consumer acknowledges that...
I think the Xbox One X will trend at the same ratio as the Playstation 4 Pro once the initial hype is done and dusted, it is the precedent we have.

Isn't the average gamer like in his 30's or something anyway?

The point of the Xbox One X is the same point that nVidia has the nVidia Titan.
Not every consumer is going to buy one or even afford one... The bulk of sales will be on the cheaper devices.

It is a Halo product meant to bring consumer attention to the entire platform as a whole, having the most powerful console means your console is more likely to be represented in trailers and advertising by 3rd party's as it's the platform that will show those games off the best.

It was never meant to sell upteen millions of units... And neither was the Playstation 4 Pro.

Microsoft isn't relevant in the PC gaming market.

They abandoned PC gaming and wen't and made Xbox... And took a ton of PC exclusives with them for the ride.

Then once Steam gained relevance... They tried to shoe-horn their way into PC Gaming with Games for Windows Live! Which was a colossal failure.

Then they have tried Games for Windows Live! Version 2.0 with the Windows 10 Store... And Microsoft has had to provide refunds because multiplayer populations are non-existent, consumers simply prefer Steam.

The fact that Microsoft makes the OS doesn't equate to them being relevant in PC Gaming, they don't get a cut from every PC game sold... And PC gaming will forever exist regardless of what Microsoft does... It is where the hardware innovation lays that drives the graphics technology for every other gaming platform.

The Pro did what I would assume was reasonably expected.
The base Playstation 4 already offered a compelling price/performance ratio when compared to other Platforms...
So anyone who assumed the Pro was going to set the sales records on fire whilst it was more expensive were kidding themselves.

Price is actually important to a ton of consumers, others probably don't give as much of a crap though.

Using stock audio samples probably wouldn't be as bad if the samples were altered in some way to give it some differentiation.

Physics based Audio is where the sounds actually interact with the games geometry and objects.
Say for instance you were in a padded cell, sounds will probably sound a little more muffled as the material on the padded cells walls would be absorbing some of the sound.

Basically... It's like having sound *in* the Scene rather than just played over the top of a scene.

This is from Valve... The main driver for this is actually thanks to VR, AMD is also taking a similar approach as well, but baking the functionality within their GPU's starting with Polaris.
https://valvesoftware.github.io/steam-audio/#learn-more
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/trueaudio-next-physics-based-audio,32505.html

Ah, that's exactly like what KZ SF started with it's MADDER sound sysem
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-the-making-of-killzone-shadow-fall
Steam audio makes a nice package out of it all

One step further would be to generate sounds based on materials interacting, for example a bouncing ball on different surfaces. More complex a car scraping against another car or wall. I don't know how feasible it will be to calculate vibrations in materials that cause sound. It's probably still an order of magnitude away from the level of detail we have now in virtual objects.