To be fair the actual summary of what has been said by "leaks" or "insiders" is nothing more than the following, which of course makes a somewhat surprising multiply sourced 12 TF retail power target for Xbox Scarlett interesting here when it would put the PS5 at needing to best that 12 TF number at retail if Xbox hits their target (yes these are targets for both of them until they make the final call on starting mass production). And of course the Xbox Scarlett dev kits have been further behind in getting out to more developers until very recently too apparently. I don't know who ends up on top by what sounds like a small amount eventually either way, but it really isn't accurate to portray things as a bunch of clear on record sources having PS5 more powerful either given the actual comments and record here.
- Andrew Reiner tweeted about PS5 being more powerful than Xbox Scarlett at E3 based on "dev chatter" and apparent target specs known to some at the time, but he never indicated whether it was a slight difference or anything before bailing out of the conversation
- Colin Moriarty said something about PS5 being definitively more powerful than Xbox Scarlett at the same E3 time frame, and information from Klee and Jason from Kotaku since definitely has pointed toward very close power which made this "source" not on the mark it appears
- Klee has a friend that is developing a 2021 or later next gen game that says the PS5 is slightly more powerful than the Xbox Scarlett (think OG Xbox One versus Xbox One S per his own comparison) based on just what he knows from the dev kits that they have had and whatever other specs info they were provided by Sony and Microsoft
- Jason from Kotaku most recently after the 12 TF Xbox Scarlett information came out said that he has heard that they are both VERY powerful and that developers said it was too early to be able to say for sure which would be more powerful (this recent wording from him seems to get lost in the discussion here)
- Matt as a mod on here has consistently said that they would be very close in power also and that is won't really matter either direction, but he hasn't clearly gone on record with which he believes is the stronger console even after the 12 TF
I said "it is said that the PS5 is stronger" which was not intended to make a judgment call either way. As I said, most, if not all of them, agree that they are about equal with a couple saying the PS5 might slightly stronger, with Matt saying that the difference (either way, he did not say the PS5 was more powerful) would not be significant, with him stating that significant would be greater than 15% difference. So please do not attempt to twist my words, one of the things I've rallied the most against in this thread is the twisting of others words.
But yes, there is still a long way to go before the final numbers being confirmed.
If everyone was surprised by the news that Lockhart wasn't dead, isn't it possible and perhaps reasonable given the proximity of the news, that people were also surprised to learn that Scarlett is targeting 12TF?
Before the WC article, other than a disregarded article from JeuxVideo, not a single insider or prominent news organization were talking about 12 TF targets for Scarlett. Now I see some discussing 12TF as if of course it was.
Lockhart sounds like it was a revival/change of direction, which happens in product development all the time at this stage as everyone is prepping for the big reveal in the next month or two. I don't think saying that everyone was surprised by Lockhart is entirely accurate either, since some of the more trustable sources had no comment/said nothing, while some others did claim it was dead. That can be attributed to having different sources though.
I don't think any of the insiders we have here took a shot at the 12TF ball because they were worried it might give them (or their source) away. Do not forget that when you see a NDA project or find out NDA info, you are often not sure how many other people know about it. Outing info as "concrete" if you are the only source puts you at risk, especially if the company is intentionally fishing for leaks.
If you want a good example: I've worked on games in the past that I literally cannot tell anyone else about, even my wife, because I know that less than 10 people saw the prototype that I saw (as an example). I'm not going to be dumb enough to talk about it. However, if someone else posted news about the title and gave the details that I could then back up, that is a different ball game because it shows a wider net of people know.
Essentially: No one that leaks anything ever wants to be the primary source of the info, they always want to be people confirming the info by being a secondary source. If you are the primary source, you yourself are the news, and thats a realm for journalists.