this post was submitted on 22 Jun 2023
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Couldn’t there simply just be a contract between sony and Microsoft about the specs and keeping them under a specific umbrella and that’s it? I feel like it’s an incredibly easy solution
That's what the World Wide Web Consortium did for the internet and then Microsoft made Internet Explorer, used their Windows monopoly to push IE onto every PC, "enhance" the specs umbrella in incompatible ways, and squeeze competitors like Netscape out of the market.
Sony would absolutely come after Microsoft if there was any breach of contract. You’ve seen this whole way sony has reacted throughout this when they pay a ton of companies to keep games ps5 exclusives and/or timed released and/or timed content releases.
There is also a difference where by the time ps6 is in protype phase and for games to be tested on it the new Xbox would be also. There is no way after years of development on a console that Microsoft would re architecture their console because of something they saw on ps6
The kinds of hardware changes that Microsoft would make in response to knowing Sony's decisions would be the kind that can be made later in the process.
Imagine it's two years out from new console release and Microsoft gets their hands on Sony's specs. They look at them and realize that Sony's next-gen console is noticeably faster than the next-gen Xbox. Microsoft could shore up their hardware by requesting a larger GPU, more cache on the CPU, more system RAM, or higher clocks. Those aren't changes that can be made on a dime, but they are doable at that stage of development. Higher clocks in particular would be relatively easy: it means eating a higher defect rate and likely spending more on the power supply + cooling, but the silicon itself can be unchanged.
Alternatively, imagine this scenario in reverse: Microsoft learns that their next-gen Xbox is substantially faster than Sony's PS6. They could have their hardware parred back so as to lower manufacturing costs.
It would represent an enormous competitive advantage for Microsoft.