Is this Phil Spencer's final test for Microsoft? Is his job on the line?

[Mr Puggsly]

thismeintiel said:

Mr Puggsly said:

If you have a gaming PC and Windows 10, you're already in MS's ecosystem. But not everybody is interested in a gaming on PC, its more expensive hardware, so X1 will continue to sell.

We'll get a better idea of how X1 is doing when the year is done. It always has a strong holiday, X1S will likely hit $249, and people are waiting for the Scorpio.

The average console gamer is not building PCs. When somebody suggests this it shows how out of touch they're with the average console gamer.

I'm not sure if Amazon is the best source... but okay. I won't question your anecdotal evidence. PS4 Pro isn't held back by the PS4, because its not a significant upgrade. It struggles to achieve 4K in most games and it rarely pushes a game to 60 fps even at 1080p. That's why its a missed opportunity, it doesn't improve PS4 games enough.

Scorpio made a big upgrade on GPU so it will likely acheive 4K with greater ease. In theory the custom CPU sounds like huge upgrade, but we'll have to see it in practice. The X1 isn't holding Scorpio back, it has the power to make X1 content significantly more polished. Scorpio will be able to boast about having the ports and that's worth something as well. For years we've heard the media has been playing multiplat games on PS4, now they may use Scorpio.

Well I'm certainly curious to see how powerful PS5 will be, hopefully they don't underwhelm like PS4 Pro did. However, Scorpio will atleast have the advantage of being cheaper than PS5. I also suspect Scorpio will share games with the next Xbox.

I have a Windows PC.  You know how much MS makes off of me?  Except for the money they were paid to put Windows on the laptop, nada.  I use Steam and, occassionaly, GOG, as do most PC gamers.  MS sees not one dime of that.  Why do you think they are trying to push Windows Store?  They want some of what Steam, Origin, and GOG has.

The average consumer is also not worried about 6Tflops of power, either.  They are going to be the ones picking up the $199 PS4, with a slight possibility of picking up a Pro, if it is $299, mostly based on price.  They aren't going to be interested in a $499 Scorpio with the other options being much cheaper.  Which is why I'm not talking about the average consumer, but those who are more informed.  And those who are interested in more power are more likely to be skilled enough to build a $499-$549 PC this holiday season with similar GPU performance of a Scorpio, but with a much better CPU.  And it will play every game the Scorpio will.

The Scorpio is also going to have problems hitting 60FPS on more demading games because they went with the same Jaguar cores, only slightly more overclocked than the Pro.  Granted, I don't really care about 60FPS as a standard, nor do most console gamers.  Steady is better.  Whether it be 30FPS or 60FPS.  Still, this isn't going to be some magical 4K60FPS machine.  Is also depends on how well devs bother to push the system.  Sony is in a position to ask devs to push the Pro, is MS? Hardly.  We may see the Scorpio just get Pro ports, some slightly upgraded, if it sells poorly.

Amazon is not the only source, but they have the most available data to the public, and it has been accurate in predicting who would win NPD over 95% of the time this gen.  It is also the largest online retailer, by far.  To have some 3rd party peripheral outselling your #1 console SKU is not good in the least.

As for the PS5, it's going to be a next gen system with all the hype that comes with it.  And Sony is sticking with AMD, most likely, which probably means the 12.5Tflops (probably 11-12Tflops after downclocking for heat) Vega 10, possibly the 15Tflops (~13-14Tflops after downclocking) Vega 20, is what's going in it.  It doesn't matter if the Scorpio is $299 at that point, the PS5 will still have much wider appeal, especially WW.  And actual exclusives to help push it.

I'm not entirely convinced the only money MS gets is from the Windows license. Either way, you're supporting MS like it or not.

I wouldn't expect a $199 PS4 anytime soon. I'm actually thinking when Pro and Scropio can achieve $249, they will stop making the OG hardware. Hence, midgen upgrades will phase out old specs.

I'm not entirely convinced Scorpio will be $499. We'll see at E3 I guess.

Console CPU aren't extremely powerful, but console games are often better optimized than PC games. I own a fairly capable gaming PC and the X1 does amazing things with little power. So Scorpio's power in the console realm is gonna be impressive.

Again, I'm curious to see what custom CPU in Scorpio is capable of. Its designed to be faster and more efficient. That should help when doing 60 fps. I'm curious to see that in practice.

Frankly, I'm not really even thinking about PS5 right now. All we can do is speculate given we don't know when its coming, the price/power it will aim for, etc. Your expectations might be a bit high if its coming in 2020 and aiming for $399. People argue Scropio has to be $499 right now with dated specs.