There is a difference between not selling at a loss or breaking even on console + 1  game sale, and starting to make a profit on a new generation. Unless you think designing the console, retooling the factories, developing SDKs, dev kits, upgrading your studios, marketing the console all cost nothing?

If you want the cell phone model, prepare to pay $600 for upgrades and get locked into a 2 year contract at $80 a month, at least that's what it is here in Canada. And no game is optimized for that high end phone or any model, nor guaranteed to work on all older models. (Nor are there any AAA games on phones, games can only cost a few bucks after spending that much on the hardware :p)

A slim version with some enhancements have always been enough to revitalize sales. And at this point sales are still way above expectations, why would Sony risk pissing off the 99% now?

Here's how scaleable console games are:
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2016-tears-for-gears-why-gears-of-war-ultimate-fails-to-deliver-on-pc
https://www.reddit.com/r/MonsterHunter/comments/40s49g/mhx_monster_hunter_x_on_old_3ds/
http://mynintendonews.com/2016/03/16/destructoid-hyrule-warriors-legends-runs-like-garbage-on-the-old-3ds/

Cross platform builds aren't magic, never will be. The game needs to be optimized or at least tuned for each platform. Multiple hardware specs makes the game run worse on each separate spec. Either the extra power gets ignored like all but 2 3DS games, or the old version suffers. And on PC you generally need a lot more power to get the same console settings. You can't actually get an exact match as console games are optimized/tuned on a per scene basis, while it's left up to the user on PC to tweak settings while playing.


I wonder if all this whishful thinking is a left over from last generation's bad choices. PS3 and 360 were an upgrade ahead of the curve hardware wise, and sold at a loss. This caused a longer generation (and big initial losses) while people complained about the high prices. So both listened with a more modest upgrade this gen that could be sold at a much more attractive launch price. Don't worry it won't be another 8 years (360 -> One) this time. This generation will pay for itself a lot faster, unless they'll make some stupid moves like bringing out upgraded hardware mid gen.

Yes every year will see updates to the console. That has been happening ever since Sony entered the market with PS1. PS4 day one is not the same console it is today. Right now the PS4 on the market is like a CUH3xxxx. Not every revision would be a new generation either. generations will still last 6 - 10 years. 

What happens is say next year when the fab process goes from 28nm to 14 or 16nm, the 2017 PS4 CUH5xxxx would get a GPU/CPU/RAM upgrade. This would still be a PlayStation 4, it would still run all PS4 games, software, and services, and it would still play online agaianst all previous PS4's. It would simpily be a 5 gen PS4, and it would become the new standard model going forward. This PS4 would eleminate the need of the external unit for VR required on PS4 CUH1xxx - 4xxx models. It would also have the benifit of perhaps a little extra RAM, and a better APU capable of 1080p/60fps or 4k/30fps.

This would absolutly not kill the console market. It woould actually make developers happy due to lifting the cap on development. It gives those that want a faster machine with better graphics the option, but it also lets people with day one PS4's continue to get all the same experiences at the same level they have been getting. It is a win for consumers, developers, publishers, and the manufacturer. 

If anything this could make the PS4 last much longer as a true PS5 would not be needed for longer, and that system could have a truly massive leap due to the time between the development of the techs.

Yes Windows PCs are going to be Windows PCs, and enterprise companies will continue to need that form of hardware, but it is absolutly not necessary at home, unless your are developing games, or running a home business. Everything else is completely capable on Xbox. Whether you are doing Photoshop, Video editing, Facebooking, watching movies, or playing games, the Xbox will be more than enough to handle that for 99.9% of homes. This is proved by the fact that right now, there are less PC's as powerful  or stronger than XBO in homes than their are XBO's. 

By having Xbox become the standard PC in homes, it will actually greatly increase the average performance of windows PC's in peoples homes. Right now the PS4 and XBO are the most powerful device in 99% of the homes they occupy. The PS4 and XBO revisions will take that a step further, and put them even further above the common PC.

People have a serious misconception of what is really going on, needed, reality in the PC market. I don't know if it is just a matter of people in the gaming community not actually getting out and meeting a lot of people, or perhapps the circles they are in are to similar to them. The fact of the matter though, is out in the real world, things are a lot different than the picture I see in here.

Well, I have some good news for you. $600 consoles is not going to happen. It won't happen with the mid cycle hardware revamp on PS4 and XBO, and it won't happen when the PS5 and XBT come out either. Also, both Sony and Microsoft are going to continue to sell these consoles, even in there revised form for a profit, and they will be less than the current retail price. 

Al three conole manufactures are on a much smarter business model now, and you are right, last gen has a lot to do with it. From now on we are not going to see consoles that are more powerful than SLI'ed computers day one. We are going to see updates at every new fab process that are mid high range for the time, and keep the price point in the very friendly ballpark of $199 - $399. 

This generation is going to sell more consoles than ever before. It is going to set a new standard on the way the business is ran. This upcoming PS4 could very likly not be the only upgraded PS4 we see this gen. It is very possible a PS4 Rev 3 will be released once the fab process drops again. I don't expect a leap in console tech until the mid 2020's, and that is when I expect the cut off to happen, and a real transition from the PS4 family of products to the PS5 family.

The world of consoles is changing and the old model does not work anyomre. It is time for people to move. If you are happy with your day one PS4 or XBO, then stay happy, but if you have an itch for a better unit with bteer HDMI, USB, Faster Wifi, More RAM, and a Faster APU, then that option will be on the table. You have the choice, and that is what being a consumer is all about, more choices are better. 

Oof. Not excited about the prospect of this.

This is really wrong, why in the hell people think that Developers need the Top-line Tecnology Day 1 it launchs ?, they need a Install base, if they have Games of 8 Bits selling 400 Millions units on 1 Console, they will not bother making Actual games to sell 2-3 Millions of Units, this move Break the Install base, and split it, pissing Fans, because they would be Punished because they Supported your brand since the beggining, the Developers, would be pissed, because would need to make Versions for all the consoles, it would Add Millions of US$ of Development Cost, and the worst, will need Much more people for Quality Control, so people that would be working on only 1 Game, or making another game for the same Studio, are now Locked to one game only because of Development to several devices, this also slow the Development of other games, and Erase games from the Existence before they even born.

Developers, as said by someone else on this thread, will not work on Previous versions, and will not use the power of the most powerful versions, pissing who paid more for the better, and who supported the brand since day 1.

There is a big difference between Releasing a more powerful version, and releasing something with SSDHD, and more Hard Disk Storage, this does not piss fans, the early ps4 adopters will not care if the new ones have better loading time, and have more storage for games, in the end all will look the Same, people purchase console because they know that  Bill Gate.JR's Xbox, will run the same way as the Newspaper Deliveryman's Xbox, so everyone can enjoy the game the same way the developers  want the people to enjoy.

if People want to be at the Edge aways, purchase a Top-line PC, and update it 1 time per year, for aways be at the Edge, the Console Gamers, don't want this.

From the look of things right now, the contrary seems much more likely.

If this is true, I'll never buy a console again. Unless of course the 4 and 4.5 both play the same games, just with the 4.5 doing it in 4k. Then it's fine.

You're basing this off the fact that you still use a console and handheld to do your everyday tasks aren't you?, you're basing this off of one eprson out of 7 billion, 7 billion that aren't all likely to be using the same exact method as you do to do any sort of task let alone how they game.

You don't actually know how many PC's there are out there that are weaker than the X1 though because there are also plenty of people out there who don't register with a survey just like those who simply don't want to vote for their next president, those people do in fact exist. I buy plenty of products and never register them at all, in doing so I'm not attached to a database you can pull from, only one you can pull from us sold but you can say that about anything except how said product is used.

There are also plenty of people who own decent rigs and still have a console, that doesn't make the console more powertful than their custom rig let alone pre-built one with higher specs, current gen systems are not god machines of immense power.

You may see things differently but it still doesn't change the fact that consoles aren't going to become everything, that's not even remotely what they serve to be, if anything PC's will still do what they always do, Linux and WIndows will still be around along with the many distros of Linux and Android. Call it "oh they'll still be around, just not the big picture" all you'd like but they aren't going to be changing to how you think they will.

Again. no. That's wrong. They don't break even on day 1. The price of the console covers just the individual console but not the more significant costs like marketing or development of games/hardware.

People don't become bored from the hardware. It's the lack of game support some consoles have in their later years that's the cause of boredom in a gen. Releasing new hardware or upgrading hardware won't fix that. More games being made for that part of the gen would fix it. Releasing more games also puts more money in their pockets because of software sales and at their point everything they're doing turns a profit. Releasing an upgraded console mid-gen is completely asinine for any of the big three because they would lose any profit because of development costs of upgraded HW.