Amazon U.S. January bestsellers and general Amazon-based discussion

[GribbleGrunger]

Nuvendil said:

Well the issue with that narrative is that people are going to want to see it heading to launch.  And the problem is Scorpio games are going to look eerily similar to PS4 Pro games, I guarantee it.  If the Xbox brand were half as healthy as it was in the mid to late 2000s, it might fly on brand power.  But let's just be brutally honest, even after 4 years of trying to piece itself back together after the Xbone reveal event, the brand is still a shadow of its former self in terms of raw strength.  And canceling exclusives, shutting down studios, and making all exclusives shared with Windows 10 isn't helping matters at all and undermines confidence that the Xbox brand will even still be hear much longer.

I anticipate it will have a big preorder rush, just like the PS4 Pro; it will hamper sales of standard SKUs just like the Pro; it will have a good launch just like the Pro; and then it will settle into a somewhat niche market catering to subset of console gamers, just like the Pro. And that's assuming it isn't too pricey. If it launches at $500 around the Holidays then I think it could completely skip that second to last step since I could easily see seasonal sales for the Switch at $250 and PS4 Pro for $350 or even $300 for Black Friday.  And given that, as I said, Scorpio games won't look much if at all better than Pro games...you get the idea.

I agree with many points you're making but there is a difference as I pointed out earlier and it's one of perception. When you go from the PS4 to the Pro you're going from 'the most powerful' to 'even more powerful'. When you go from the XB1 to the Scorpio you are going from 'the least powerful' to 'the most powerful'. I believe that is enough to encourage more current 'hardcore' XB1 owners to upgrade in order to at last have the upper hand in the hardware spec battle. The shape of what you are saying I agree with though, and it's going to be entertaining to see the realisation it wasn't the power but software library that heavily tipped the scales.