If is 499 and it risk @50% to not be the most powerful console and on the market there's another full HD console that play the same multiplat big hits games for 299 or 399 ..well then...there are lots of things that doesn't work in one sku console strategy
Price is honestly irrelevant at a console launch because the console will sell out regardless. Having a lower priced console will help to accelerate uptake of new gen consoles in year 2/3 when production is able to catch up to consumer demand, but then console prices can be cut in year 2 or 3 with aggresive cost reduction like with what Sony achieved on PS3.
A lower priced console doesn't come for free though, and the lower specs will cause more issues for games and game devs in general. In principle it kinda even defeats the whole purpose of a new-gen console which is to move the hardware performance baseline to a more modern performance level -- having a gimped low spec SKU works against that, it diminishes the percieved jump in game tech advancement from the previous gen. and even more so in a market with mid-gen refreshes and a significant slowdown in process tech progression that stymies what is economically possible at the top end for consoles with modest TDP and silicon budgets.
So there's no validity to the idea that the 2 SKUs may output at different resolutions to offset the discrepancy in GPU power?
You're citing a band-aid for an inherent flaw as a benefit?
There's this prevailing misconception that game graphics, mechanics and game systems technology are infinitely scaleable and that lowering resolution is a silver bullet that means you can run the most complex and technically advanced games on a target spec as low as a smartphone, as long as the CPU remains the same... it's a myth.
Before you even get as far as having a content complete game to test and lower resolution on, you have to design a game for a given minimum target hardware spec. When it comes to the core game design there will be systems, mechanics and even graphics technology choices that will be limited/restricted by having to target a hardware config that is significantly weaker than all other platforms you are targeting; even if the only element significantly weaker is the GPU (the limitations will be considerably worse if it has less RAM).
Choice of global illumination lighting systems, physics and other non-graphics computations using GPU compute, as well as other graphics feature choices that aren't tied to rendering resolutions will be significantly held back by having to also target a weaker box.
It's not about can it run after the fact, after you already have a fully working game. It's about what can you make.
Conceptual game design during pre-production is rife with decisions on ideas that have to be thown out because the target hardware spec. isn't powerful enough to realise those ideas. And in an age where games have been designed more and more around GPU capabilities after many gens of working with conparatively weak console CPUs, maximising GPU performance for a next-gen console has never been more important to opening more technological doors for devs to realise their creative visions.
A weak console hardware spec. works entirely against that.
It's not even just opening up more game technology avenues for developers. A higher performance target baseline can also aid development workflow, which can have an even more dramatic effect.
I'd even argue this the single most important black mark against the multi-SKU approach.
Higher base specs mean technology that allows devs to work smarter and be more efficient can be leveraged. Procedural methods for animation, asset creation etc, even raytracing can improve content iteration processes and are all great examples of tech. that can radically improve developer workflow, meaning less time to make games of a similar size and fidelity; leading either to higher fidelity games or even larger, richer and more detailed gameworlds.
To me the only arguments for a multi-SKU approach are commercial ones (and they are few and far outweighed by the disadvantages).
The advantages for a single fixed hardware spec that pushes hardware performance as far as is economincally practical, are legion and the reason why console have existed and been so successful in the first place.
A lot of posters in their enthusiasm for other non-console platforms seem to quickly forget this.
