By the time its all said and done th XB1 (XB1s and Scorpio) should have sold anywhere between 50--60M consoles by the time the next gen comes along. With out without the scorpio, MS would always still have remained relevant in the one market that its remained necka nd neck withe the PS4.

So I wouldn't say its on life support. And the Xb1 is still and will still always get all the western AAA multiplatfom releases so its still got that going for it.

As fasr as next gen goes, there really is nothing that the scorpio will do for teh XBox brand to change the battle that MS already clearly has to fight. The problem with teh XBox isn't how it performs in NA, its how it performs everywhere else.

Power was a thing early on in this gen because the more powerful system was also cheaper, and then later equally priced. I think people got bored of fighting over power during the grass wars of GTA5, with it only cropping up occasionally when DF shows a multiplathas exclusive screen tearing or something on the XB1.

So long as Sony retains the pricepoint advantage and can eat up huge chunks of the media's focus with big exclusives, they have nothing to worry about.

Sony didnt make a mistake. Microsoft has been haunted by the fact that Sony beat them in specs since the PS4 launch. If they cannot beat them with exclusives or beat them worldwide, thats how they think they should cover it. It wont help them win but it might capture the attention of some gamers in North America who can afford the premium hardware.

They Just made microsoft the bigger fool by following suit.

A niche product isn't going to hurt Sony's momentum. As someone pointed out in another thread, people who wait to jump into a console gen are doing so because of price. A $199-$249 PS4 S is going to appeal to them much more than a $449-$499 Xbox will. If they are interested in a more powerful box, one that's a little weaker than the Scorpio, but is $100-$200 cheaper is going to appeal to them much more. As it is, the Pro and the Scorpio will be selling mostly to early adopters who want an upgrade. At least until the prices come down, which will be happening for the Pro later this year.

It also helps that Sony is known for its vast library filled with variety, including high quality 1st party games. Where the XBO is missing out on a lot of games this gen, especially from Japanese devs.

They succesfuly made a gen last longer in which everything on their platform and that platform itself sells great. Sony is in no means in a terrible position. The smart thing to do for MS was releasing the X2 earlier than the PS5 like they did with the 360 and cancel Scorpio. Buy since they didn't Sony can rude out this gen longer than anticipated since a 2019 console for €400 that is significantly more powerful than the Scorpio is unlikely. Besides as the pro shows the hardware demand for it isn't enormous from the projected 16-18million consoles Sony will sell this year maybe 2 or 3 million will be pro's. So in the end the regular cheaper hardware is where Sony wins from MS in power and they can't do anything about that. Perhaps Scorpio will see a bit bigger userbase than the pro but it will not really change this gen or MS perspective in sales. 

The wrong move would be to artificially delay the pro just to specmatch the scorpio.

As we sit, by the time the scorpio is out, the pro will be out for a year. The gen is hitting 4 years and the ps5 is ever so close.

That's where the real jump should happen. And the new console should be able to have its exclusives without being dragged down by the ps4.

No worries, Sony is a leader and always takes the first step where MS follows....Sony has been always one step ahead of MS all this generation.... in fact, Scorpio is a reaction to PS PRO where MS knew that such console exists.

Don't be surprised if Sony has a hidden ACE in upcoming E3... (None hardware though).

I was taking into account new form factors. I fully believe Sony and Nintendo will put out more options to build out their ecosystem, considering how important their hardware and ecosystems are. It would not shock me to see a Portable PS4 next year, and a Switch Mini. Then a PS4 and XBO revision in 2019, followed by a Switch revision in 2020, and so on and so forth.

It just seems like we have reach a point where they are no longer trying to compete head to head at the same launch, and they are all willing to take time and try to capture the spot light in their own window.

Not at all. They released the Pro just when new tech was available (16nm) and it's released ideally between PS4 and their next console PS5 (which will be ideally released when 7nm will be available, in 2019 or 2020).

Microsoft did make a mistake by not releasing their console last year as soon as 16nm was available. I still think they created Scorpio as a reaction to Sony's Pro.

What will Microsoft do when Sony release their PS5 monster at 7nm tech + HBM2 2 years only after the release of their Scorpio ?

AMD low power Zen CPU (7nm) will be released in 2019:
http://wccftech.com/amd-gray-hawk-zen-7nm-apu/

The production actually begins in 2018:
http://wccftech.com/amd-vega-gpu-navi-gpu-hbm2-2017-2018/