Sony is selling them at a loss. You usually put excess inventory on sale before the release of the next generation.
Sounds like you don't like the Atari VCS. I recommend that you don't buy it.
Back in 2018, I fired up Tempest 4000 on my Bristol Ridge APU PC and it played without a hitch. That was a marketing video to demonstrate future capability. Conspiracy minded people like you decided to read way too much into it. The Atari VCS will be able to play Tempest 4000 just fine.
Watch the hyperbole. Not as many CUs, but 1606G isn't dramatically slower. The R1000 line is a generation newer, and so notably faster than the V1000 line.
If you want to know how games will run on the Atari VCS, it will be similar to this board. Benchmarks start at the 8:45 mark. The board alone cost $418 US.
Atari has made mistakes, a lot of them. They will make more. But there isn't a f'n conspiracy.
I'm also not loyal. I am a realist who doesn't have much patience for conspiracy theorists.
I'm convinced. Looks like they used a mini-itx board supplied by AMD in that black box. Rob hadn't finished with the prototype board by then, so it makes sense. They do show a clear console with a board inside of it, but it was probably too buggy to use for the demo.
I'm willing to be wrong on this. Do you have an E3 tech press article where they were playing a black box? I just re-read the ArsTechnica article to refresh my memory. They said they were playing the system.
The tech press during E3 saw it play Borderlands 2 and other games. If they saw something fishy, they would of pointed it out. They knew the reputation going in.
I read the quotes by Rob, they sounded like excuses, and covering his ass. Rob was really stupid by going to the press. When it goes to court, those quotes won't look good.