bear

Based on what they've said about each console I'd put it down to one of three things: 1. Whatever custom silicon they are using for the super speedy SSD is pushing prices up a lot. 2. The prices for superfast SSDs aren't falling as quickly as they anticipated or maybe the prices for Series X level SSDs is falling quicker than they predicted. 3. The GPU. The PS5 has a weaker GPU but they seem to be running it as fast as they possibly can, with a clock speed that's higher than anything AMD are selling right now. A quick look at the 5700xts on sale at Overclockers (not a site endorsement) suggests that they run at around 1750mhz normally and 2000mhz in boost mode. The PS5s GPU is supposed to be running 2230mhz as often as possible. We know the PS5 is going to be running on newer architecture than the 5700xts but that's still got to generate a lot of heat and I wouldn't be surprised if the chip yields for PS5 are lower than Series X which has a lower clocked GPU.

Nah, the $0.99 pricing was a big part of Apples hype when they announced the App Store.

I just mentioned EA because looking at the guys (very impressive) CV on his Twitter profile it seems like he'd spent the last 4 or 5 years there.

I hate that tweet Schreier has quoted there. The theory is fine but how true is it? EA for instance are already massive and could be taking more risks. Would them getting a bigger slice of app store revenue lead to a new wave of wild and creative games from EA or would it end up with Andrew Wilson going from a mere $21million this year to something more respectable, like $25million? Maybe I'm just overly sensitive to the whole "gamers are thick as mince" stuff.

I watched that 198Fortnite thing. I am a lesser being for having done so.

I'd imagine the statement is referring to stuff like that. Every studio they bought has increased their number of staff. I think either Phil Spencer or Matt Booty are on record saying they need/want an Asian presence as well.

After checking it seems that the PS4 & PC versions got some extra skins, weapon mods and a side mission, "Isolation" that weren't in the Xbox version.

How much of that could be put down to the Xboxone version getting less content than the PS4 version? I don't know how substantial the PS4 exclusive content ended up being but I do remember seeing a few higher profile Xbox-enthusiast accounts being sour about Remedy cutting a deal with Sony. Good, well argued, rational behaviour.

I think that we're going to see a lot more emphasis on the All-Access pricing once they finally start giving details about the Series S. $19.99 a month for a new console and access to Gamepass will tempt people. Losing Halo from the day one lineup is massive though. Not sure what they can do at this point to compensate for that.

They haven't announced the Series S yet so nothing is full confirmed but going by the rumours and innuendo it's basically: Series X- Native 4K, $500-600 expected price Series S- No optical drive, 1080p graphics, same CPU as the Series X, $300-400 expected price.

Initially they gave the impression it would have VR support but they've moved away from that based on the way Spencer has spoken about VR since then. I wouldn't expect them to support it anytime soon on console.

It seems like there's a bunch of the controllers out there.

I think the success of the S will depend on just how aggressive Microsoft are with the pricing of the All Access option. If there is a $20 a month subscription that gets you a Series S + GamePass then I expect that'll do very well for them. The Series S would need to be $299 or less for that to happen though.

The Series S is presumably going to bring all those day to day quality of life improvements they showed off earlier this year with the fast game/app switching, quicker loading times and hopefully an OS that's consistently responsive. I've said it before but I genuinely believe that the enhanced usability of the next-gen where consoles behave more like modern computing devices will be the biggest change people notice once they get their hands on them. Not something that'll get your pulse racing but nice in its own way.