Xbox One vs PS4: ESRAM slower than GDDR5, It's Bottleneck"

[mutantsushi]

Delays for a redesign might be from:
A) Redesigning the APU to not include ESRAM/MoveEngines (adding more GPU cores, etc).
B) Needing to re-factor both the OS and allow games to be re-designed around different memory architecture.
C) MS would have already had high volume contracts for certain components,
and NOT have high volume contracts for other components they weren't using (e.g. GDDR).

The last is probably by far the largest problem, Sony and other OEMs would already have most GDDR volume sewn up, so it would be either very expensive to buy large volumes in the short term (assuming that's even possible), or else they would need to delay to achieve a viable over-all price. On top of the fact that MS would already be contracted for the DDR, so would lose money by either needing to sell that or (if they went with split pool DDR+GDDR) purchasing DDR earlier then they needed to. But crucially, ANY delay would have strongly detrimental effects re: marketshare vs. Sony. Perhaps a delay might be justifiable if they felt they could get a SUPERIOR console vs. Sony, but a delay just to have parity is very dubious. Sony's come from behind performance with PS3 and proven global advantage in demand/brand perception just makes any delay a no-go for MS, even if they might gain some marginal performance advantage.