Only gamers brag about userbase. What matters to companies is how many units and the profit they report in their quarterly reports and on the fiscal year.

If the company never released nothing of the genre, or nothing at all, they will see the userbase number and will focus on that plataform. The difference is, the userbase number would be up with people that re-purchased something multiple times and, if they use Windows numbers, with users that don't purchase very often.

The number won't matter if the current quartely sales are bad. That's what matters. If a no-gen console keeps selling well month after month, it doesn't really matter that you don't have an install base number to brag about. It's not like they are losing sales. I can see a lot of benefits for users: no more lack of retro-compatibility, you can buy more frequently if you are interested in graphics or simply wait for more time if you're in a budget. I have a PS3 and a PS4. If my PS3 breaks, I'll have to buy another one to play my games. In a no-gen world, that would never happen, so it's a good thing. Basically, like smartphones do.

It's like the iPhone. Some people want the best and latest, so they buy the new one every year. Other will go out and buy an iPhone 5S today because it's cheaper than the 6S. Some will buy the 6S and keep it for 4 years before replacing it because they don't care about tech that much. I think people are comparing it with PC, which isn't a correct comparison. It's more like what Apple does. People don't want to fuss with software or buy better hardware parts. The iPhone showed us that people will pay more to avoid headaches. They want a box that does stuff for them. When the "box" is outdated, they buy a better one. If it breaks, they buy another one.

Also, mind that even with console gens, the userbase does not show active users. We know Sony sold around 80m PS3, MS 80M XB and Nintendo sold around 100M Wiis. We don't have idea of how many of these units are still active.

So many questions, so few answers (from MS).

1. Games that are made for the Scorpio. There are two things to remember. Firstly, those games are much,much easier to program than games for the X1. Secondly, those games will NOT run (or run piss-poor) on an X1, contrary to what MS wants you to believe. The reason is very simple. Games for the X1 are designed around the on-die 32MB esram to achieve any meaningful results. The Scorpio will not have esram (it would be stupid to add 110GB/S expensive esram when you have over 320GB/s ram bandwidth. So Scorpio games run right out of the gddr ram, and if you simply run those games on a X1, you don't have any (or only the most rudimentary) esram benefits.

2. What you get out of a 6TF Scorpio you can roughly see by comparing it to a PC equipped with a GPU of the same power (also note these PCs typically run with higher power discrete Intel processors so the comparison is somewhat flawed right out of the gate). You'll note that the Scorpio likely ends in the 30fps ballpark (with reduced graphics settings).

3. I think it will be easy to transfer PC code to Scorpio code, as the hardware differences will be practically zero for the reasons stated above. The target people basically stay the same, people who do not want to hassle around PC architecture. Maybe even "low budget PC buyers" will start looking into a Scorpio (being identical to a good entry-level PC).

4. The cost basically depends on the type of cpu in the SoC. Neglecting for the moment that AMD cannot deliver a 6TF gpu at this time (an overclocked RX480 might do but these PC graphic cards draw 200W...). Everybody talks about Zen, of course. The problem is that Zen is the thing that is intended save AMD from bankrupcy (the only thing that kept AMD afloat in the past years are the console contracts). So this new cpu technology will not be offered for cheap, at least initially, because it absolutely has to "make hay" for AMD. Certainly a "Zen light" (no L3 cache, 6 cores only but higher clock than an 8 core unit) is imaginable, and so is a cpu construct with improved Jaguar design. I have no problem seeing a Scorpio at a $499 price point.

Slimebeast said:

Wow, will the Scorpion really use the Zen?

[...] How much power do you think the GPU can draw at maximum to be able to be used in a console, in the Scorpion? [...]

I just wanted to interject myself here because sales numbers got brought up, and as with most things sales-related I have a chart for this. Now, the XBO-360 gap might be narrowing globally (at least 400k going by VGC's numbers), but global numbers don't tell us much on their own because of significant regional differences in buying habits. The XBO has not been doing well in continental Europe and especially Japan. Europe and Japan are the sources of that narrowing gap over the past year. However, it has been doing fairly well in the U.S. and UK (and probably also other English-speaking markets).

In the U.S., the gap had generally been growing from November 2014 until this past December.

It narrowed a bit last August and September because the 360 got its first price cut as well as Halo 3, but overall the XBO sold more in 2015 than the 360 did in 2007. Now, it is worth pointing out that the entire reason that the XBO sold more in both 2014 and 2015 than the 360 did in 2006 & 2007, respectively, was due to sales during the holidays. The XBO has had very strong holiday sales in the U.S., and as the chart shows it's the only thing keeping the XBO in the lead.

Going into 2016, the gap has narrowed a bit. In the Jan.-July period the gap shrank from 1900k to 1733k. However, the 360 was still experiencing modest YoY sales growth in 2008 (9% overall for the Jan.-July period) due to the residual effects of the system's first price cut the previous August. Meanwhile, the XBO did not received a permanent price cut between November 2014, when it was reduced to $350, and late May of this year, when it was cut to $300 (and it was cut yet again in June). However, it's obvious that the recent price cuts for the XBO were just to clearance out existing SKUs to make way for the XBO S. And the S model is almost guaranteed to generation strong YoY growth, more than enough for the gap to spread yet again in the XBO's favor, perhaps by as many as one million units more than the current gap.

That being said, I do think the gap will eventually shrink in the 360's favor, and I do not think the XBO will come close to the 360's lifetime total. The XBO should maintain a strong lead throughout next year, but after June 2018 the gap will narrowly shrink, as the XBO will be at the same point in its life as the 360 was when the 360 S came out. The 360 S sent 360 sales through the roof, with substantial YoY growth for the next year and continued strong sales through to Q1 2012. By summer of 2018, the XBO will likely be past its own peak. I think that some time in 2019, the gap will have closed entirely and the 360 will take the lead in aligned LTD sales.

Wow, will the Scorpion really use the Zen?

But Neo is only using the same CPU as the PS4, only a bit higher overclock.

But on the other hand, CPU is not so important.

Btw, I thought the RX480 was 6TF, and he draws "only" 150W. Maybe they can get 6TFLOP out of an underclocked AMD Vega, using only 110W.

How much power do you think the GPU can draw at maximum to be able to be used in a console, in the Scorpion? What's reasonable before they think the console becomes too hot and loud? 100W? 120W?

Ultimately we don't know what the Scorpio will use.  Have there even been any credible leaks yet?