All that's coming out of this is extremely interesting to me. It's all also starting to come together, at least in my mind, in terms of what Microsoft is planning to do with their next-gen console strategy/approach.
One point that particularly stands out to me is how Microsoft would let Sony have any advantage in 3rd party games, since the Xbox brand is basically built off of 3rd party completely.
I really think that we'll see;
1. The Durango will come in, at most, as the same price as Orbis. It will obviously include the Kinect 2.0, and there will be no SKU without the Kinect 2.0
- If Microsoft is indeed dialling down the internal specs, this has to be because it wants to get the overall price down (obviously) in order to make sure that Kinect 2.0 can fit into all of the packages. The console, as most have said, will be aimed at a more mainstream audience than the Orbis, and the specs are seemingly (from what the pundits are saying) screaming "good enough" and not top of the line/edge.
2. Third party games will be "money hatted" for timed exlusivity, exclusive in-game items, DLC, etc.
- obviously no surprise here as Microsoft has been doing this in the past. Microsoft will more than ever need to give consumers a reason to want the Xbox version of the third party games over the Sony version.
The interesting thing here is that Microsoft will need to create another situation like Xbox and PS2 (but the other way around this time). Where previously, in most circumstances, the Xbox versions of games were better than the PS2 version. However, the overall demand in general for the PS2 hardware was so much higher than the Xbox hardware that the third parties lived on the PS2. Microsoft will need to create similar demand in the Durango that existed for the PS2. Again, playing off the whole Kinect piece and XBL being the differentiator here, as the DVD aspect and the early release for the PS2 (as well as Japanese developers and others) were the main PS2 differentiators.
3. Microsoft needs to ramp up internal development
-the edge is going to be there on the third party side for Sony. They're going to need to sell people on why Kinect and XBL are the differentiators over Sony.
Also, third parties will not develop for Kinect 2.0 unless heavily subsidized for that development. It's like the Wii, it's like handhelds....Western third parties will ignore it.
The way the console is being developed it screams that the third party games will not be a differentiator for the system as they previously were the last 2 generations. They'll need to create that from an internal development perspective.