| EricHiggin said: Pro and XB1X both had two separate prototypes. PS could do the same with PS5. Heck, they could even have more, one for each upcoming holiday. As long as the tech in those designs wasn't so futuristic that it couldn't be used until those designated time frames, then PS can move up the production and launch date if necessary. If XB were to announce early to mid 2019 that 'XB2' was launching holiday 2019 and it was by far the best performance you could manufacture for $499 at that time, then PS could simply pick the 2020 PS5 version, and move it up to say, a March 2020 launch. This would give them the stronger hardware and would snuff out the new XB most powerful marketing they clearly are sticking with. The problem PS would have is price. It would have to be the same price as the 'XB2' ($499?), which may also require some hardware subsidy early on. Is PS willing to subsidize and are they willing to launch at $499? |
Exactly, this little fact is what makes it hard having tis conversation with a lot of people. Like they have absolutely no clue what goes into these things. There are multiple iterations of every hardware. Even multiple teams working on these iterations. All designs have a projected launch window and the designs are made with said launch window and intended price in mind. Even at times incorporating things virtually that may not exist in the market yet (like builing a board with VRMs for an APU that doesn't even exist yet).
Sony will have a design for 2019, 2020 and even 2021. And at least on paper and in their labs they will have all those designs as far along as possible. And things change, some components may mature earlier than expected and allow two different designs to be merged, or some may get delayed and result in a design being scrapped.
They even have multiple iterations of certain components in a particular design, like cooling systems or memory architecture.
| EricHiggin said: The fact that PS decided to wait as long as they did to announce Pro, makes me think they really wanted to see what XB had cooking, assuming Scorpio would be launching late 2016 as well. Since that's not what happened, PS had time to decide how to properly market Pro based on the info they had about Scorpio and announce when they felt ready. Pro was not going to be changed in terms of hardware, they could only have made a costly decision to drop Pro and launch the stronger version alongside XB1X. This would also explain why the Pro launch wasn't the smoothest ever. They probably made some minor changes to the plan to combat Scorpio, mostly in terms of software. |
Or it could be that they weren't sure they could build the Pro APU yet and as for XB1 waiting a year, it could have also been that the 16nm process was not yet mature enough.
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EricHiggin said: This also makes me think that no matter what PS does going forward with PS5, XB is going to wait if they need to, to make sure they have the strongest hardware. If this is the plan, then PS would be smarter to just simply get the hardware out sooner than later and make sure that XB is forced to rush if anything. |
MS doesn't have that luxury though.... as it stands things are bad enough as it is. And as sony's PS4 install base grows, with the ever growing popularity of PS+ and digital distribution, and the almost certain fact that next gen would be backwards compatible, sony is pretty much securing theior next gen dominance right now with the PS4. As long as they don't mess things up too much.
Another thing is that there is only so much either of them can do. Its kinda laready pretty much known what kinda core hardware can make it into a 7nm APU or a discrete CPU/GPU using a 7nm fab process. Both sony and MS already have a very good idea what they will have to work with by now. Only things up in teh air are APU/Discrete config, cooling systems, memory architecture and quantity....etc. Those are the only real areas where these consoles will differ from one another if at all.
And MS would literally be crazy to wait a year giving sony a 1yr head start in a new generation, especially when waiting that one year won't really make much of a difference in the grand scheme of things. Only people that can really afford to do that now is sony, and even that is highly doubtful.
