I think MS has made it clear that GamePass/xCloud is where they see their future.  With Scarlett, I think they are just seeing if it is financially beneficial to release more HW, not worrying about units sold, but profit.  This is why I doubt MS is going to be subsidizing the cost of Scarlett.  At most, I think they will try to break even, maybe take a small loss, covered by the sale of a single game.  It might be a case of figuring out what they can throw in there to match Sony, without having to sell it for more than $499. 

On the other hand, with the way Sony is talking, I wouldn't be surprised to see them subsidize the price by $100-$200.

That's... not good.

Looks like they haven't learned anything from the Sega Saturn.

The home for indies clearly Switch now. Even after the new consoles are revealed Switch will continue to be the main platform (after Steam).

Not sure if the world changed by now, but on gen 7 there were plenty of comparison of PS3 and X360 games even when the difference was minute.

Perhaps outside of forum it will be less discussed or compared.

But in here the better versions of X360 were largely discussed, mainly because PS3 was supposed to be the stronger console.

Still I do agree with you on your point, I do expect even less difference than this gen, they being less noticeable and less care being given by most pub and common gamer. Just here and similar places we will be warring over small details =]

I think it's funny people want to believe that Xbox is running behind schedule.. maybe because they dont or hope its not the other way.

MS announced its launch window first at this years E3, Its quite obvious MS want to deliver the most powerful console next gen and they won't care if they upset afew devs in the process. They have 15 internal studios to hold that ground until things get rolling.

The team behind the X is building Scarlet and in there behind the scenes stated that Xbox was always about being the most powerful, thats why they called it the X.

Its just to obvious what they are doing. Last gen Sony waited on the X1 and doubled there Ram from 4g to 8g once Sony found out the X1 was using 8g. MS dont want that happening again.

I can believe it. Them giving up and just one upping Sony when they reveal. I dont think is new either or that its behind. They just dint try. We have heard so much even from amd of the partnership with Sony and heard nothing about a MS partnership. Phil Spencer had to show up and say they are using amd on that conference.

Not sure about the rest of what you said, but I definitely agree with your final statement. Ive said this before. I believe Halo Infinite is going to be a major step up and will be quite big, possibly huge. 343 has been given 5y for development for HI—2y longer than any other Halo game (to my knowledge).

I think Sony is underestimating XB having HI as a launch game, and I think they’re making a massive mistake in not making TLoUp2 a ps5 launch game to counter XB’s HI. Unless Sony has another massive launch exclusive lined up that we’re unaware of (GoT won’t be enough, unless it surprises and ends up being as big as GoW, TLoU, or Spider-Man), then this will put Sony at a major disadvantage compared to MS at launch. 

Side note, speaking of TLoUp2 and ps5, what if Bluepoint’s big game was a ps5 remaster version of TLoUp2 to hit ps5’s launch date?

Upsetting devs before launch is definitely not the way to go for a company that was already behind in the game this gen.  And being able to brag about 10% more power won't help them win those devs back.

Also, great revisionist history.  MS was the one who got caught with their pants down last gen, too.  Not even thinking to put a sharing feature in there system until Sony announced it.  Also, Sony announced 8GB of RAM at the PS4's announcement event in Feb 2013, months before MS announced the XBO.  8GB had nothing to do with MS, and everything to do with the price of GDDR5 falling.

Halo isn't exactly the big deal it used to be.  It's been slipping ever since Halo 3.  Not to say it can't recover, but it isn't exactly going to be a major factor in if a gamer who isn't a diehard Xbox/Halo will buy a Scarlett over the PS5.  Sony isn't exactly going to have a bare launch window either.  They have plenty of studios that haven't released a game in two or three years, and a big remake coming from Bluepoint.  And considering many 3rd party devs actually have dev kits for the system, while they still await their first versions of the Scarlett, they may have more games come launch. 

You assume its only going to be 10% difference, we wont know until release. Upsetting devs is nothing new in the world of gaming. If devs want to make money and sell there product to the masses than they need to accept and adapt to the hardware makers. This happens every gen and also outside of gaming. 

Insiders claimed the OG PS4 was weaker than the OG XB1, Sony upped there specs the moment inside information was leaked. They changed there Ram from 4gig DDR3 to 8gig of GDDR5 the moment they found out the base X1 was 8gigs DDR3, Sony also pulled there PS Camera down the moment they heard the flack of Kinect 2.0.

Just because a company announces something earlier means little. These companies find out what there competitors are doing way before announcements are made. Figured you would know better than that.