Sony PS6, Microsoft neXt Series - 10th gen console speculation [2020]

[Color me Dan]

It will all depend on how MS wants to control the ecosystem.
A model that we can use as guidance will be Android.
They own the OS, Google has it's own Pixel phone, and people are allowed to buy 3rd party devices that use their won flavour/customized Android and purchase their titles from the Play Store.

In this case, to keep all the features of Xbox: Manufacturers come to MS with and form factor idea, they approve it and the SoCs are provided to the manufacturer at some cost, and the rest of the build cost is on them. Games are purchased through the Xbox Store.

The low level nature of XboxOS is not too low that there isn't wiggle room. As long as it's high enough level to work on other hardware other than the Lockhart and Scarlett chips, then there are additional options there for hardware.

Disregarding the commercial and developer dimension I'd argue that too much choice is a burden for the consumer. We weigh and choose endlessly, and much of the time I don't think we can let go of the niggling feeling that we could or should have made a better choice. I've come to detest buying most things for that very reason. Not to mention the time and energy it takes finding a quality item in your budget range. It's thankless, exhausting, work. So while I think it would be academically interesting to see what 3rd parties would produce, I'm philosophically against the concept of splitting hardware into tiers.

Of course, being able to instill enough FOMO in users for them to splurge on a higher margin product in the stack would be commercially beneficial (so long as devs play ball). Unless people just choose to sidestep the hassle and get a PC instead. Which, essentially, is the purchasing experience such a solution might be close to anyway.

 

[Dominik D]

If Microsoft wants to be in anyway competitive they need to release their next console with Nvidia.

Nvidia isn't exactly known for x64 CPUs.

ARM with Nvidia

Oh, so without back compat. I'm sure this will differentiate MS from Sony but I'm not sure in a good way.