aLkaLiNE said:
I was curious about a lot of your comments and went ahead and checked my post history through 2015 here. The only thread I participated in that I think you're referring to was a thread created by you, purely on your own personal speculation about how you want Windows 10 and Xbox to merge. The discussion wasn't about iterative consoles, and the thread wasn't grounded on any data, it was a thread you wanted to make to express to everyone that Windows should be on Xbox. I do remember initially being against iterative upgrades, but that was for the Neo rumors. Being a concurrent OG PS4/PS4 Pro owner, my stance has changed on that. If you made a thread asking why it was okay that Sony was doing it, then the thread had to have been in 2016 after Scorpio was revealed because the console was never even rumored before that year (again, as far as my research has led me). In regards to your link in this quote, that discussion is focused on actual next gen consoles, not these mid gen upgrades. In that link, it talks about AMD designing next gen consoles for 2018. PS4 Pro came out in 2016, Scorpio 2017. As far as I am aware, AMD/Intel/NVidia generally can meet their road maps but it is rare to find them being ahead of schedule with delays usually being more prominent. With that said, the 2018 consoles are probably being pushed to 2019 for PlayStation and later (or not?) for what comes after Scorpio. I don't think that link is referring to the consoles we are discussing in this thread. Which would demonstrate that those were never rumors for mid gen upgrades, those are rumors for actual next gen consoles.
Fwiw I don't imply that pro or Scorpio copied each other in the sense that you describe. I personally think Sony was planning Pro for a long while, and Scorpio was supposed to be next gen but Microsoft had to reposition Scorpio when they found out what Sony was doing with the Pro. There's a tweet from Phil Spencer the same week that Ito from Sony was interviewed about iterative upgrades. Phil at that time said he believed there would be a next console generation. Phil now states Ms is doing away with console gens. So again, that shows that they've had to shift strategy at some point between late 2015 and the first half of 2016 before Scorpio was rumored. As for R&D and incubation time for consoles, now? The turn around time has to be much, much, much quicker than previous gens. Consider that up until now consoles have always had unique architecture. That is where a lot of the R&D costs/turn around time comes from I imagine. Current consoles are now, however PC APUs with the heavy lifting being done by AMD, based on their own roadmap for PC tech. This 'years and years of R&D" is probably a thing of the past with consoles. I'm willing to bet that Sony/Ms will spend more time designing the look of the box, or the controller, or OS features now that the tech inside is being handled almost entirely by AMD (remember, Ps4 was sold at a profit day one. At a $500 premium, even with ESRam and Kinect, I think X1 was sold at an even greater profit at launch. This is clearly a change in design philosophy for both companies, so it's a moot point to say that it takes years and years of R&D now. It might for AMD, but there's probably much less overhead for R&D in the console hardware itself). |
Well said, but despite all you've said which is mostly sound, Microsoft wouldn't have known to have the Xbox One be 6 TFLOPS, if they hadnt known about Sony's specs for the Pro before E3. IMHO Keeping up with Sony is what will keep Microsoft doing their best in the interest of business. I dont know if others get that though. Despite our criticism we want whats best for both Microsoft and Sony.
