I was expecting it to happen this year at least as a black Friday offer. But it seems to be doing so well that we rarely see offers for it. At least we know it is the best selling Xbox SKU, unit wise, and that is very impressive. 

Do we? I didn't know that that is extremely impressive given the price.

I am very keen to pick one up but its still a little expensive for my tastes (in Australia) and I am hopeful for an end of year price cut.

343 Industries Dev: Halo: Infinite will not include real money lootboxeshttps://t.co/YruuTenBps

— NESbot (@NESbot_feed) September 19, 2018

Ditto. I don't mind microtransactions per se. However, Gacha is an special kind of evil that needs to be vanished to the grave... 

343 Industries Dev: Halo: Infinite will not include real money lootboxeshttps://t.co/YruuTenBps

— NESbot (@NESbot_feed) September 19, 2018

I see them doing it one of two ways.

1) Have Xbox One X be forwards compatible with all xbox two games, and make it the base console for the "scarlet" line at $299, while having the brand new tech launch at $499. 

The X would be the lowest common denominator, while scarlet is the premium variant. 

2) Launch a brand new console in the traditional way, $399. Give it a modest gpu upgrade, but a significant upgrade to CPU.

I'm 99% sure that next gen won't be a big upgrade, not unless MS and Sony are willing to sell at a loss early gen and make up for that loss with software, subscription, and accessory sales, like they used to do on earlier generations.

Assuming a 2020 release at $400-500, we should get around 10-12 tflop on GPU, compared to 6 tflop on XB1 X, so maybe not even double XB1 X on GPU department. T

However, the upgrades in CPU and storage will be much bigger than the GPU upgrade I suspect. Ryzen is a big upgrade over the Jaguars in PS4 Pro and XB1 X, we should see at least a 3x improvement in CPU power.

What that will mean for games is larger AI counts (think AC Unity), improved physics effects, improved destructibility on environments, and improved AI.

As for storage, I can't imagine that MS and Sony will stick with standard hard drives yet again, they might not gives us proper, large SSD's, but at the very least we should expect to see a decent amount of SSD cache, which will speed up load times considerably compared to this gen.

Now if MS and Sony are willing to sell at a loss on hardware, I could see GPU being pushed to maybe 14-16 tflop range. Still not enough to give us a true generational leap over PS4/XB1, at least if native 4k is the goal, but will at least push next gen games past current PC ultra settings by a good margin.

I'm 99% sure that next gen won't be a big upgrade, not unless MS and Sony are willing to sell at a loss early gen and make up for that loss with software, subscription, and accessory sales, like they used to do on earlier generations. Assuming a 2020 release at $400-500, we should get around 10-12 tflop on GPU, compared to 6 tflop on XB1 X, so maybe not even double XB1 X on GPU department. That will be enough power to hit native 4k consistently with a small graphics upgrade over this gen, or if devs stick with sub-4k, it will be enough for a moderate graphics upgrade over this gen. However, the upgrades in CPU and storage will be much bigger than the GPU upgrade I suspect. Ryzen is a big upgrade over the Jaguars in PS4 Pro and XB1 X, we should see at least a 3x improvement in CPU power. What that will mean for games is larger AI counts (think AC Unity), improved physics effects, improved destructibility on environments, and improved AI. As for storage, I can't imagine that MS and Sony will stick with standard hard drives yet again, they might not gives us proper, large SSD's, but at the very least we should expect to see a decent amount of SSD cache, which will speed up load times considerably compared to this gen.

Now if MS and Sony are willing to sell at a loss on hardware, I could see GPU being pushed to maybe 14-16 tflop range. Still not enough to give us a true generational leap over PS4/XB1, at least if native 4k is the goal, but will at least push next gen games past current PC ultra settings by a good margin. 

What I meant is a generational leap that is as big as earlier generations. The push for native 4K combined with diminishing returns means that the improvement from gen 8 to gen 9 will seem smaller than the leap from gen 7 to gen 8 was. Just like the leap from gen 7 to gen 8 seemed smaller than the leap from gen 6 to gen 7 was. 

I'm just hoping that they give both resolution and performance options like many games on the X. I'd take 1440p with better visual effects and hopefully 60fps over 4k 30.

I'm also holding off on buying an Xbox One X because I want to feel that wow even more next generation. It's only 2 years away... At a maximum. They both could launch 2019. Though... I hope they don't. 900p hdr on my tv is good enough for me atm. Assassin's Creed Origins looks amazing. Judging by your post before, pretty glad I skipped syndicate and waited a few years before jumping back into AC.