If XBX fails, what next?

[Mr Puggsly]

Shadow1980 said:

Mr Puggsly said:

Generational leaps arent as significant as they used to be. Console manufactuers arent taking big risks on hardware so the upgrades arent as significant. I mean this midgen upgrade thus far is more polished games at a high price. The 9th gen era stuff isnt gonna huge at $399, X1X is apparently sold at a loss at $499.

The leaps from the PS3 & 360 to the PS4 & XBO was bigger than the leap from the XBO to the X1X. A lot bigger than it would seem if you just focus on GPU power. 16 times more RAM (same difference proportionally between the 360/PS3 and PS2), and better & faster RAM to boot, plus better CPUs. The Pro & X1X have the same CPUs as the base models, just with improved clock speed, and as for memory, the Pro has the same amount and kind as the base PS4, just a bit faster, while the X1X has 50% more RAM (though it's now the same kind used in the PS4 family).

Relative to each other, the difference between the Pro and X1X is about the same as that between the base PS4 & XBO.

The handheld market is very different and primarily controlled by Nintendo. So I'm not gonna bother discussing that.

You just want to dodge the issue. Handhelds may be different in terms of power and form factor, but they are still "consoles" and the market follows the same basic "rules of sales" that home systems do. They respond to price cuts and improvements to form factor in the same way.

You're solely looking at trends which of consoles in the past.

You can learn a lot from history. Looking at past sales patterns can give us a good idea on how things can affect current generations of systems. To date, we've seen no real changes in the "rules of sales" I mentioned.

While the MS appears to be considering iPhones and PCs. Incremental upgrades versus starting fresh with each generation. The mid gen upgrades show things are different now and MS may lean into it.

The only thing different now is the advent of 4K TVs. That is the primary reason the Pro and X1X exist. Spec upgrades to existing platforms are nothing new. Even if technological advancement is slowing, the mid-gen upgrades for the PS4 & XBO are relatively minor overall, with the only really notable jump being GPU power, which is going entirely to resolution and/or framerate boosts. It's nowhere close to a generational leap. To claim otherwise is to vastly overstate the capabilities of the Pro and X1X.

The leaps in specs are slowing down in the console arena. The 8th gen consoles were a big upgrade but that was after about 8 years and no mid gen upgrade. Again, keep your expectations low for 9th gen specs if the X1X is sold at a loss at $499.

The handheld console market is just different and I will continue to ignore it. Its mostly been cheap junk spec wise, while Switch is somewhat cutting edge compared to 240p 3DS.

You can't necessarily look to history when things are changing and consoles are basically PCs now. Even the 7th gen was historically unusal given how long it was, sales were strong throughout the gen, and they're still active platforms. Many 7th gen games still have people playing online.

The X1X is a much more significant upgrade over the Pro. The GPU is getting the most attention, but here is also much more RAM for games, and a custom CPU that should be more efficient. That will go a long way if the plan is to keep X1X around in the 9th gen.