While that would be good for team green, I have a feeling that if it's that bad over there... If one gets delayed, so will the other.

I'm optimistic that both will launch this year though.

Features and specs sound great.

Now, $599 would seem more likely but here's hoping MS eats the cost and makes it $499 to remain competitive.

Edit - thinking about it, the existence of the Series S makes $499 seem slightly less likely, but we'll see.

Still no mention of the Series S. Also the wording sounds like there wont be an event til E3.

So, they also have "audio raytracing" or whatever it's called. That's great, I thought they might have missed that one and I guess it can make a great difference if sound does also behave much more realistic bouncing from walls and stuff.

Ignoring that lockhart is not a thing until MS says so, there is no chance that something 10-20% less powerful costs $200 less.

The lite is only $50 cheaper than the correct retail price for the switch, and they have the exact same hardware. Weaker hardware could be considerably cheaper but this whole lockhart thing sounds weird.

How exactly do you see $599 as likely? Specs seem a little above the rumoured ps5 specs (likely retailing for $499), so there shouldn't be a big gap in costs either. Retail price difference between the two would be $50 assuming both companies are selling their system at a small loss/breaking even. But MS could be more than willing to take a bigger loss and match the retail price. Not that I think either of those prices is good, just observing what is more likely.

I mean, even the $499 PS5 should already be taking a $50 - $100 loss when you factor in assembling and retailer margins, if we extrapolate from the PS4 and the Xbox One.  Even a mildly bigger XSX APU, with how expensive the 7 nm process is, means at least a $50 added cost on top of it. And that's being generous, considering how costs baloon with increasing die sizes.

Besides, consider Lockhart. It has a smaller APU, but the costs of all other necessary components put together should come closer to the BoM of the PS4 itself, back when it launched. I don't think Series S is retailing for less than $349 - $399. There must be a reason Microsoft thinks this console has to exist, after all.

Edit - like I said, I don't think it's impossible. But both companies can always bring prices down later on, while they would be mutually harmed with a price war at launch. Sony has pulled such shenaningans in the past, but the console business was more of a showcase for CD/DVD technology to them than a profitable business on itself.

What would even be the point of such a second console? Say the first runs games at 1800 - 2160p, but what about the latter? It's more powerful than it would need to be for 1080p only, and it would still sell for a loss or at no more than $100 less with such a small difference in APU size, cooling etc. between the two. Not to mention it would leave the former dead in the water as a lead platform.

That would be like if Microsoft released the Xbox One X but it had hardware similar to the PS4, instead of a significant difference. The 4 - 12 TF gap, on the other hand, makes far more sense cost-wise, and the is closer by analogy to the three platforms - PS4, Xbox One, Switch - that have already offered tiers based on resolution.

That's a huge overestimation.

I believe this what they should be aiming for too; the Series S at 7/8 TFLOP is a really good deal too and coming up front with the 2 configuration (unlike the Xbox One and Xbox One X) is also something find great.

I think they are really betting a lot on the Xbox Game Pass subs and will probably want to focus more on that to make money.