They'll already have a hardware advantage based on what they've announced, a stronger GPU and a pic that makes it look like they'll have 12GB of memory. I think the biggest problem with the X1 was the unnecessary and frankly stupid decision to include Kinect which drove the launch price up and it probably also caused them to make cuts in other areas of the hardware because of it. They had awful messaging and an outdated idea of trying to take over the living room, they bungled just about every way possible and they've paid the price when it comes to market share because of it, well that and Sony making a lot of the right choices.
This new hardware is already going to be pretty expensive to make, the extra memory which is also faster than what's in the xbox one or either of Sony's consoles has to be pretty expensive and I'm sure the GPU isn't cheap either, that with what will have to be a 1TB HDD is going to drive up costs quite a bit, there will have to be something that gives and that logically (IMO) is going to be the CPU as that will have the least impact on visuals when compared to the other improved areas. The CPU will be better than what's in the X1 and I'm guessing a year more advanced than the PS4 Pro CPU but I doubt it'll be some budget busting high end component based on not only cost but heating and power consumption. Plus with the other advantages and the fact that it's still going to be running what is essentially just prettier versions of X1 games I don't think they need a really strong CPU. If this were a new generation of hardware starting and the console was going to have it's own games than putting in the best CPU a console could handle would make sense but not just for making X1 games better looking.
I would love to be surprised and have it be a beast all around but the way these companies have switched their business philosophies and the fact that consoles have limitations that PC's don't makes me think it'll probably be a more modest CPU than people are trying to claim, and that's just fine considering what this console is supposed to be doing IMO.
They need to keep this thing as close to $400 as possible, they already tried the $500 thing and it ended up hurting them. I think being the strongest console at the right price is more important than putting out something that's more powerful than it really needs to be just for the sake of saying it and then having to charge way too much for it.
