Michael Pachter has begun to sound off on the big news from E3, and it appears that, much like the rest of us, he, too, was taken aback by Microsoft formally announcing the Xbox One Scorpio this far out from release- he judged the maneuver to be a ‘bold move.’
Speaking in an episode of the GamerTag Radio podcast, he praised the decision, noting that it would help Microsoft get a leg up over Sony. “The hardware reveals were great. The Xbox One S really does look great and obviously the big reveal of Scorpio at the end was a big deal. I think Microsoft confirming the leaks was a big move, a bold move.
“I think the Xbox One S will be welcome at that right price, $299. The conspiracy theorist in me says, since Andrew House acknowledged the PlayStation 4 Neo to the Financial Times a few days before, Microsoft just said: ‘Screw it, we’re not going to let Sony be ahead of us, we’re just going to let people know we have something big coming too.'”
He also discussed the other big console launches of 2017- Nintendo’s NX, and Sony’s PlayStation 4 NEO, both of which, he says, will be out by mid 2017, though he does note that there is a chance that they are delayed a bit- at least the NX.
“You don’t have a company in the gaming space that’s better equipped to launch hardware than Sony,” Pachter said, speaking of the Neo. “They’ve been making consumer electronics for 70 years. I think the fact that we didn’t see Neo here means that it probably isn’t coming out this Holiday. If it was, that meant it was already in fabrication and we’d actually know about it; I think they’re just going to launch PlayStation VR in October and then the Neo sometime in April-June, probably ahead of the Holiday. It’s easier to launch a product in mid year because you don’t have gift givers buying it, so you don’t have quite as big of a demand and you can actually satisfy demand from the fanboys.
“For Nintendo, again, it’s back to manufacturing. I think if they were ready to launch the NX in March, they could have shown it here. I don’t think they’re going to be ready. If we don’t get an announcement on NX and we don’t see specs by August or September, I don’t think there’s a chance it comes out by March.
“I think that’s a Summer launch. So I actually think we might see PS4 Neo and the Nintendo NX right about the same time, mid-year 2017.”
I do think that the NX will be out by March, if recent reports are anything to go by- but who knows, Pachter was right about the NX being delayed into March before, when I believed it would launch by this year’s end, so he may be right this time. I’m just going to give him the benefit of the doubt on this one.
