The decision to go with an 8-core 1.6ghz OoO Jaguar cores is still strange to me. Why would anyone go with 8 slow cores at such low clock speeds when a 65W Trinity APU is going to destroy this CPU in every performance metric? Power consumption or saving costs are likely the key drivers here. Even worse, Richland APUs are rumored to launch by March 19th.
http://www.obr-hardware.com/2013/02/world-exclusive-release-date-of-apus.html
From a 6-8 year useful life perspective, it is well worth it to delay the console for 2-3 months to switch out 8-core 1.6ghz Jaguar for a 4-core Richland APU. It would make such a big difference in the long-run in terms of CPU power. Heck, they could drop all the way down to A8-6500 and still have 4-core 4.1ghz Piledriver CPU! The desire to cut corners this generation is unbelievable considering games cost $60 and we are bombarded with $30-40 DLCs/Season Passes and micro-transactions. I mean really these companies couldn't fit a proper quad-core CPU that costs less than $100 in retail? Jeez.
Everything I am reading thus far about the 720 keeps pointing to MS focusing more on entertainment and media rather than gaming. The consoles seem to be moving farther and farther away from their key function and becoming more multi-media devices with a capability to play games. It almost feels like in their desire to attract casuals, they are throwing all these gimmicks like Kinect 2.0, which in the end sacrifices what the console could have been had it been made to target the hardcore gamers, as was the case in the past. I will miss those days.
