I doubt the more powerful product would release first and games would then later be downscaled to work with the weaker machine.
It only makes sense to start with Lockhart and release Anaconda later imo.
Mm. That's if we assume there's a long gap between the consoles (which, is the understandable natural assumption). And to be clear, I agree that's what they would probably do.. but.. I feel like releasing Anaconda just a bit early is the much more aggressive and intriguing move. It's kinda like paying more for the deluxe version of the game that lets you play a week early. Probably not right for most people, but there are definitely some who LOVE that.
As for studios, starting from the premise that both consoles COULD be released simultaneously Holiday 2020, then devs shooting for launch should be developing both versions in parallel. So, pushing one console up slightly puts some pressure on these studios, but.. spreading it over a few months gives you a lot more flexibility if one game really needs those extra 2 months versus one that was just hoping for the holiday sales boost (which this sort of marketing push with a cadence accomplishes in lieu of). Even more importantly, that's how dev kits work anyway - you start with more power than you'd get and then you optimize and cut down. Starting with the powerful machine might actually help devs target the weaker one with more constraints a little bit later.
So, how do you think "VR being baked into the PS5" will influence the performance of the machine. Pushing the VR break out box into the system can't be too cheap and will invariabel influence the costs of the APU. Do you think that this will be another Kinect moment, where power and consumer price is affected by something that most people don't care about?
Yea, this confuses me as well. Does building in VR do anything for Sony? Yes, if they can own the market and make VR an indispensable part of what it means to game. Color me skeptical. VR is building momentum, but it's not going to become truly pervasive for another 5-10 years minimum. And that's assuming that the underlying VR tech doesn't fundamentally shift sometime over this next console cycle. Considering PSVR has already had one breakout box iteration this gen to fix exactly this sort of incompatibility/design flaw (as have the other major manufacturers), I think it's very, very odd to think that Sony has committed to something so unproven, so hard. Doubt.