Might Sony go with a two-SKU strategy next-gen (like Microsoft did with Series S)?

[scrapking]

Kyuu said:

Sony isn't gonna copy a cheap console that requires promotions/sales to sell 30% or less than their supply constrained (COVID) premium console. I stilll think Series S is a misfired product that benefited from the pandemic by sheer luck.

If it does happen, I hope it wouldn't be as big of a gap as Series S vs X, but we will inevitably get to a point where the lowest common denominator for the majority of relevant video games will be your mobile phone, so the appeal of a powerful hardware will decrease over time. It's just a matter of when.

I think you're premature in judging the strategy as a misfire.  From the beginning, Microsoft said their expectation was that the Series X would sell better at first, and that the Series S would sell better over time.  And that makes sense to me, as the early-adopters are going to tend to want the most powerful options, but as the generation wears on and the mix of buyers shifts from more hardcore games to more casual gamers the Series S may indeed grow in popularity.  Given Microsoft's stated intentions/expectations, we will only be able to judge their success/failure at the end of this generation, not the beginning or middle.