Even with the PS4pro it was only like 20% of users that bought the pro model.
I suspect with the PS5 it might be like 15% of new users,... that are Pro users.

The market just isn't there for the expensive models.

Xbox's problem is a games problem, not a hardware problem. They can't get games for existing hardware, let alone afford development of next gen games..

In any case, that $1200 hardware will be $600 hardware a year later. So waiting to release the next system is always an option.

As the only offering? No thanks. They would be better off doing what they did this generation with 2 or more options, but sold at a profit or even. If that includes a premiums console then great, but it's not going to fix the issues you point out.

You do understand a device can still be a success without being the best selling. 30-40 million consoles sold isn't exactly nothing.

Which Capcom games this gen have skipped Xbox? I can't think of anything significant unless some old CvM collection is really such a deal breaker. You completely skim over the fact Xbox this gen has had better 3rd party support compared to previous gens, especially for eastern developers. The ones that do skip are mainlh small studio games which makes sense if they have to prioritize certain consoles due to their size. Or they have a deal like with Sony and SE, but even that has apparently ended.

You predicted Xbox wouldn't make another console. What happened? Now you want to suggest they do something to sell even less hardware than this gen lol. Seems like to me your suggestions are not what's best for Xbox, but what would help Sony and Nintendo more. 

There isn't a market for a thing such as "premium price console". Well inside the "core" bubble there may be a few people.

My prediction:

The transition away from the classic console business will be a XCBC (Xbox cloud based console) for a very "low" price. They will subsidize it like always and for a long time, in order to spread the gamepass in as many living rooms as possible. Cloud gaming only, the service will revolutionize the way we play - like they did it with Xbox Live years ago.

If any console maker can pull this off in a way that the masses fallow, it will be Microsoft. Nintendo will stick for cartridges for at least two more generations (after Switch 2) and Sony... don't have a clue. Sony has a loyal fanbase but if Microsoft plays it right they could be very disruptive...

Sony must do that, not MS.

Xbox High-End console
Xbox Mid-Range console (PS6 level)
Xbox entry level console
Xbox Handheld console

Multiple devices for sure.

Speaking as someone who played a little bit on the OG Xbox at other people's houses, and I am recently the owner of Xbox 360 and Xbox One X in the last year or so, Xbox hardware probably should've ended with Xbox One X.

Xbox Series X is a lot more powerful than a One X, and Series S has an SSD still and some newer games despite not being a clear leap on the whole over One X. But at the end of the day, what has been the point of Series X/S? Microsoft already started Game Pass on PC and putting titles on PC before Series launched in 2020. Even the OS is the same as Xbox One, and the controllers are compatible between One and Series. The only appeal Series has over an Xbox One, PS5, or PC is the Xbox ecosystem, some backwards compatibility, and Quick Resume. That's barely enough to justify a console. To be fair, most of us expected Series to sell as well if not better than Xbox One. The initial few years of Series seemed to make that clear. But as PS5 become easier to buy and it was clear that Microsoft was fleeing from consoles more than we already knew, the writing is on the wall.

I don't think Xbox will go out in disgrace like Sega hardware because of how much money Microsoft has. And Dreamcast's quality was fine to most, it just failed to kill off PS1 and got steamrolled by PS2. 

I can see them releasing a very high end console, but will it even be a "console"? If it is, then how many will buy it? Wouldn't that just straight up kill Xbox as a platform (15 million sales max)?

If it's just a highend PC with an Xbox logo on it, that would be a cool device with the best library of games in the business, but it would sell even less because there is a lot of competition in the PC hardware space. They would be sacrificing too many subscriptions and software sales (the 30% cut off every 3rd party dollar sale) for a small return.

I don't l know if Microsoft cares all that much about the Xbox brand anymore. They'll sell huge amounts of software and maybe they're happy with that. Everything else they're doing is experimental/optional, they'll keep throwing things at the wall and see if anything sticks. Microsoft gaming before and after the ABK acquisition are entirely different things.

Edit: one thing people aren't paying attention to, is how Microsoft going "3rd party" may enable them to make more acquisitions like ABK. Imagine what they can do if they got EA and Take-Two. Pretend to be an innocent 3rd party publisher, then return to partial or full exclusivity to promote your platform when you're done with acquisitions. I'm not saying this is what they're doing, but anything is possible and this would be a mega smart move.

The only reason I could see them releasing a premium console is because otherwise they're going to exit the console market altogether and want to try something new as a last resort, just to see if it works, because if it doesn't, they're in a situation where Xbox (as a console) is relevant to even fewer people than before.

The issue with a premium console is getting anyone to release exclusives for it, so the main draw would be its power. They'd end up in a situation where they might have a larger proportion of whales than other platforms, which might attract some 3rd party releases, but overall, I don't think that seems like a very strong strategy. It gets more attractive if it supports Steam as well, but Microsoft gets no cut for Steam games, and to support Steam, it would probably have to be an actual PC, not just something with 'PC hardware', which kind of complicates things. And what kind of a proper gaming PC could they expect to sell at a premium price that's still profitable but also powerful enough to be attractive. To me, this seems like a very hard thing to pull off with Steam and possibly unfeasible without Steam.

Since it seems like Microsoft is still going to release a new console, my guess would be that it's going to be kind of traditional but have some kind of a hook (or several). Having it be a premium console doesn't seem that likely to me though.

At this point, I'm not even confident they'll be a next Xbox.

I hope there is, because competition benefits the consumer, but MS seems to have given up on selling hardware and left the Series to die.

Given how dire their console business is now, it seems to me far from certain they'll even bother making another one. Everything they've done over the last 12 months suggests they're just not interested any more.