S model didn't burn itself down.

All Xbox consoles were not designed to really stand vertical yet many people did, that was a fault of all models. Mine lays horizontal. had it for a decade. Not a single issue. S model had the lowest failure rate of the first two models and S model had a pretty small fail rate.Sadly MS did not fix the disc issue if the console got moved. The S model used a different MB and cooler CPU and GPU.  I don't trust the E model as it was made to cut costs everhwhere they could. I doubt they spent much time on QC.

Only if it ends up having a longer lifespan than normal.
I highly doubt it could do it within a regular 7 year period, the 360 had weaker competition (in the PS3) at first and only got replaced after 8 years.

Edit: Still stand by this, don't think the acquisition will change as much as people think.

I don't think so.

Is the new picture better?

Yes, and I feel more and more certain about it the more time passes. If a train wreck like the XB1 still managed to do 50M, even doubling that should be possible.

No. It will gain back some market share due to its strong start and clearer vision than the Xbox One.
But the PS5 is more in demand than the PS3 was. Gaming PCs are also more popular now than they were from 2005-2013.
The Xbox 360 beat the PS3 to the market by a year, had a lot of exclusives. and other qualities.
The Xbox Series S/X are more similar to PCs, albeit being a lot cheaper for their performance (and lacking a ton of functions a PC has).

Maybe.
As of now we know that it is going to sell well in the first 3 years as we have a clear idea of what games to expect. And those games will help Xbox to maintain its sales momentum. For the latter half of its sales cycle ( year 4, 5, 6 where usually they sell the most consoles) it is too early to say.
Another thing that will play a huge role in all this will be Gamepass. Gamepass will be basically the deciding factor in the years to come.
Third will be price to build a PC. If that price will hover around $2000 for a decent 4k/60, 1440p/120 then it will again benefit the sales of Xbox.
Mid gen refresh and special edition will contribute too.
My prediction is anywhere between 75 Million units to 90 million units as of now. (Difference between lower limit and upper limit is high because current data is not sufficient)

Going in it’s favor:

* The first party library will be the strongest of any Xbox generation
* PC hardware is completely unaffordable for all but the absolute wealthiest customers
* Multiple hardware options
* Gamepass
* Microsoft is not done with acquisitions and seems to be trying harder than any previous generation

Going against

* PlayStations inherited market share lead creates a large amount of negative inertia
* Sustained success in Europe remains elusive
* Limited to no buy-in from Japanese AA and A developers (this matters more for western customers who enjoy these types of games than Japanese customers from the perspective of Xbox)

Unknowns that could change the market up in one way or another:

* what happens if there is a crypto currency crash resulting in a price crash for PC parts
* do customers become burnt out/tired of PlayStation’s lack of genre diversity and/or do Sony exclusives start becoming formulaic and predictable
* where does VR fit into the games market for the next 8 years
* does streaming games take off

I think some extremely aggressive Series S sales would go a long way in North America. It’s the only 9th gen console that could realistically be sold at $199 in the US and still make financial sense, and at that price point you would get so many “sure why not” sales that I think getting back in the ballpark of the 360 wouldn’t be out of the question in NA. Not sure if hitting 25 million in Europe is possible though.

I’m guessing 80 million, so just short

I remember reading somewhere that in France in particular Japanese games and culture are extremely popular