Sony Not Having Traditional E3?

[EricHiggin]

Intrinsic said: 

Well, the XB1X really is just about relevance. I doubt they ever expected it to turn things around for them this gen, but it gives them a good footing to launch into next gen. Its at least got people talking about XB1 as opposed to the platform fading into extinction. And MS couldn't jump start a new gen at an affordable price point ($399-$499) in 2018 and as of 2016/17 they wouldn't even know if it was possible to do it in 2019. Simply cause if they were building their APU with anything other than 7nm fabrication, there wouldn't be a big enough jump betwen the XB2 and the PS4/Pro to warrant it being called a next gen cconsole or they would have had to go with a discrete CPU/GPU..... which would have meant they did be targeting a 10TF system, in 2018/19 such a system will still have cost them over $800.

Read above..... if they had done that it would have been worse. a $500 box in 2018 is not enough to represent a generational leap over the PS4/Pro. All they would have had to show for themselves is the exact same thing they are doing now with the XB1X, hey!! look look look!!! We are running at a higher rez than the PS4!!!

And I am sure that even MS knows that they had sony to thank for the success of the XB360. Even if they came a year later, Just imagine sony had released a console that came out at $399 , was easier to develop for (or at the very least had a less exotic architecture), still had a BR drive, had unified memory (and a little more of it than the 360), was slightly more powerful....etc. It woyuld have been a very different gen from what we all remember.

Its like sony did everything possible to ensure MS ravaged their market share.

Considering the price of what XB1X actually costs to make is still up in the air, but is thought to be some amount greater than $499, I don't see how a Ryzen based APU in a 2018/19 console couldn't be done for a similar cost to XB1X, based on AMD's existing products. MS no doubt have insight into what AMD is cooking for the future because consoles take years to go from scratch to launch. 

An 8TF console in 2018, which isn't out of the question since XB1X is 6TF on 16nm in 2017, and it would be double the performance of Pro, GPU alone, and the CPU would absolutely stomp Pro. Many people said Pro wasn't enough of a jump to make it worth a purchase, yet it's selling pretty decent for a new product mid gen. MS in a way dropped XB "early" for 360 and that didn't hurt them at all in terms of sales, and Nin basically dropped Wii U "early" for Switch, which in terms of a performance increase is as minimal as it get's, and it's going great. Nin's situation is slightly different due to Switch's unique path, but MS seems to be going their own direction slowly, so why a "next gen" console wouldn't work in 2018/19 is odd since MS says their will no longer be gens and their systems will be FC and BC going forward. Since we know Ryzen will be the next step, there doesn't seem to be much justification why they couldn't do it soon.

PS no doubt helped 360 a lot, too much, but a lead is a lead. Launching a next gen console in 2018/19 may not have guaranteed 'XB2' a victory, but I have to believe it would have given MS much more of an advantage than waiting to launch alongside PS5. Especially knowing the likelihood that both consoles will be even closer in power than this gen, given a close launch date, and PS is unlikely to screw up at all, if only a small amount at worst.

Intrinsic said: 

Well that is true..... and at the very best only in NA... but that is possible. Only unknown here is just how important is the whole PS+ subscription thing?

NA would be the real battle. Europe more competition but nothing for PS to really worry that much about. Japan isn't worth mentioning. PS could do the same thing and match a free year early on with PS+. They obviously wouldn't want to, but that's competition, if they felt they needed the edge.

Intrinsic said: 

MS can't wait when it comes to next gen. There will be next gen games that will just not run on the current platforms. Even the XB1X.... and we have the CPUs in these consoles to thank for that. I mean i guess its possible to massage the games to run, but at what would probably be unjustifiable costs. But you never know right? Afterall all the major third party games has a way of being cross gen for at least the first year or so.

Well this is part of my 2018 new next gen XB hardware point. Since MS doesn't seem to be pushing much for more first party, they might as well have launched next gen early, and poured their money into third parties. Anything they could do and get their hands on. Have the games be built around 'XB2' and it's much more advanced hardware, and have those games get "shitty" ports to PS4 and Pro. It wouldn't be anything like going from 360 to PS3 ports, but it would make a much bigger difference than going from XB1X to Pro. This would give them the boost they desperately need, and the time to get their first party titles going in a better direction, and building up more studio's hopefully.

This approach obviously wouldn't be easy at all, since the PS4 overall user base would be quickly approaching 100mil, so pubs and devs wouldn't be easily swayed, but I can't believe it would be as bad or worse than the way things are going for XB1 now, and where it looks to be headed for the next couple years. Launching later than PS5 isn't a great idea other than for a major tech leap, and alongside is better but still more than a challenge, so launching at least a year if not two earlier than PS5 and getting the biggest lead possible seems like the best way to grab as many hardware sales as you can, if that's what your goal is.