With yhe recent announcements of XBOX exclusives moving to WIN 10, my opinion is that MS main strategy is to re-establish the glory days of PC gaming, and in that context XBOX will likely become a casuality. MS strategy is logical though, since PC is near monopoly market for MS, and the financial risks for SW platform are much lower than for a HW console.

Anyways, again a personal view, MS has a long way to go on Win10. I base my opinion on my recent purchase of ASUS G501JW ROG laptop, which is fairly high spec rig for gaming too. The HW is great, win10 works ok in office environment, but for games it is the same old rumba of tracking latest drivers, crashes and reboots etc etc. Nothing has changed.

Or fitting... it's just one console for all gens... but everyone thinks it will be the next Xbox rather than the current one... unless they can find a way to use the Kinect port for that... 

I can't see Nintendo leaving hardware, plus they have the most famous line of franchises like Mario, Zelda, Pokemon, etc. 

Whereas Microsoft only has one or two really big ips with halo and gears and those could easily be moved to PC.

So it honestly wouldn't be that big a deal to lose Microsoft consoles. Plus Microsoft knows PC, that's their roots and I think they should embrace it more. Let Sony and Nintendo fight over the console space I say while they focus on the huge PC market. 

It means Xbox is worthless and PC is the way to go (in my opinion of course). If it imitates a PC, and most of the games are on PC, then it's better to just build a PC.

While that sounds wonderful for new adopters, Microsoft runs a risk of really pissing off it's core fans who've already bought into the Xbox One.  The current crop do not have upgradeable hardware, which means they paid more, for a machine that's capable of less.  It would also mean that developers would have to start making scaling engines just for Xbox hardware.  I do not see how this is a good idea, I mean, developers have stated lately (in their shift away from PC primary) is that being able to work direct to metal on consoles, allows them more freedom to tailor the entire game to the hardware, and that developing for the lowest common denominator on PC was always a pain in the ass.  Well, isn't this basically doing the same thing?

Additionally, we know the PS4 is more powerful, and we also know that devs have purposefully worked to make XB1/PS4 versions as close as possible, exactly what benefit are people expecting here?  If anything, we'll just see parity, and less 720 vs 1080.  For first party titles this might work out (though, dev costs would increase), for 3rd party, I wouldn't hold my breath.

Besides, the entire allure of console (or so people have kept saying for years) is not having to deal with upgrades, just plug and play.  This kind of blows that whole concept right out of the water.

Mario and Zelda can be successful elsewhere, maybe even more so as a multiplat. Some Sega IPs got bigger as multiplat until they got shitty.

Mario and Pokemon are good reasons for Nintendo to continue to making handheld systems, but I don't feel we need Nintendo for home consoles. Pokemon could be a very successful smart phone IP as well.

Based on how quickly Wii declined (big decline by 2010 while PS360 grew) and the abysmal performance of Wii U, the market isn't that interested in Nintendo home consoles. If NX fails then Nintendo is probably going multiplat. Wii U will be lucky to ever achieve 20 million, while X1 could sell 50 million with continued support.

It won't be a fight between NIntendo and Sony. Nintendo can't compete with Sony in the core market and that's a big reason Wii U is a failure. X1 isn't doing nearly as well as PS4 and still moves a ton of core software.

MS has an incentive to be in the console market. It helps them push many of their products on the console market. While Nintendo's focus is just selling software and plastic toys, they can do that as a multiplat.

I do believe that this is a strategy with failure written all over it. If PC is that good, why it has not become the premier playing machine for over 20 years although most PC's typically have more power than consoles.

The answer is piracy. PC games piracy is very high and easy to do.

One of the drivers for third party developers to use consoles is the ability to protect there game investment from piracy. The console maker will ensure that happens.

However, in PC, it is not the case, it is very wide open and security and piracy is a big issue and thats why developers doesnt care about PC and many of the games will not eventually release on PC.

I don't see why not. It looks like MS is treating Xbox as a entry level PC complete with apps and mouse and keyboard support. This isn't a bad thing. It gives Xbox more functionality and it increases W10 awareness. I thought they should have done this long ago Heck Nintendo did it themselves with the DSi, N3DS, and GBC.

I don't see that working out very well. Consider this:
You can't simply add something to the existing xbox one nor replace the gpu, a new box is the only way.
It won't be seen as a new console, thus can also not be priced like a new console, expect a modest gpu.
Providing a box you can upgrade will also limit what can be spend on the gpu.
Making sure it's fully hardware BC and new games support both limits the new shine factor even further.
I doubt all that leads to much better looking games to make the upgrade worth it. Sure they can run at 1080p with better frame rate, yet whether it will be 60fps where the ps4 runs at 30fps, I doubt it. Plus the PS4 will have dropped in price by then and still has those games that can't be played on PC.

The hardcore will buy it. They already buy a new console for a special edition with hardly any upgrades. Yet I doubt most people will bother. It adds more work for developers and potentially cause a split userbase in competitive online games. (Just throw a bunch of smoke grenades to lag those peasant OG X1 users out)

Do you think MS is going to take a big loss on selling the new hardware? Especially with much lower sales expectations. Spending big money to start making money two years in (after paying of R&D etc) isn't going to work anymore with this system. I think they'll be focusing on Windows 10 instead and perhaps let other companies make XBox One alikes. Although we've already seen where that leads with the Steam box.

If there is a XBox One upgrade from MS I expect it to be for multimedia improvements. HDMI 2.0, bigger hdd, no disc drive. A cheap setop box that can play all XBox One games and UWP apps. Maybe some small hw improvements yet don't expect much. Snappier interface, bit more stable framerate, yet otherwise completely identical. I don't think its profitable to put out a premium machine.

A viable option, but building a PC generally isn't as cheap for something comprable to X1.

During the holiday a X1 was $299. I recently bought a refurb X1 for another room, $240 (no taxes/free shipping) and it came with three games. Easy to find something comprable on eBay.