Both companies deal with 3rd party developers working on software for both platforms. And the same company makes the chips.
They both definitely know what the other is doing in terms of the hardware spec, there's just no way that one of the thousands of people involved in these operations isn't friendly enough to share some info.
What we can see is that they don't know the business strategy that the other team will employ - take a look at neither company announcing pricing of their new system until as late as possible a couple of years ago.
Eh, kinda. Remember, when the Series & PS5 were being developed, AMD had isolated teams for MS and Sony that did not share info with each other. Had the companies kept all info freely going, there's a chance Microsoft would have copied certain customizations in PS5 like the cache scrubbers and aspects of the I/O (the I/O IIRC is more or less all Sony's doing so there would have been nothing of it in AMD's roadmap of the time).
When it comes to some of these customizations, often times they're patented, so unless a competitor gets an official license from the patenting company, any copying is an infringement and they can be sued over it plus eventually forced to remove any product using the infringed patents off the market until the situation is resolved. So I'd say as far as any stuff related to the 10th gen consoles Sony & Microsoft know of one another, is 100% only tied to what's in AMD's own roadmaps, which they'd make available to all partners, either publicly or on request. But these would only be things AMD own the patents and rights on; for example any customizations Sony have planned to integrate in their variant of an AMD design, would not be in those roadmaps and Microsoft could not legally gain knowledge of them nor attempt copying them without Sony's approval, or they'd end up getting sued. And vice-versa with Sony regarding any customizations Microsoft have planned that they have patents for.
And while some employees between the companies may talk with each other, stuff like certain customizations to console designs, or strategies of business plans with those products, would probably fall under being trade secrets and only the tops of those divisions would actively know of them. Those sorts wouldn't be freely sharing that type of information outside of the company, or they could face repercussions of their own. There are also NDAs involved in that type of stuff.
As for what they could learn of each other's plans among 3P, well 3P generally are kept out of the loop on many specifics until closer to the launch of new hardware. They may receive prototype hardware for example, but certain parts may be undocumented. They still have to sign NDAs anyway which would prevent them of mentioning about certain aspects to companies of competing platforms.
I have a hunch that there won't be any Xbox: neither the Xbox Pro nor the Xbox Next.
They'll launch a new controller with DualSense-type features and the previously-delayed Cloud device (Project Keystone) instead.
They could technically just launch that new universal controller, a cloud streaming stick/box, publish everywhere and call it a day.
But I think they'll still have some actual gaming "system", do all those other things and then call it a day.
Could just be said for damage control? You honestly think his going to come out and say "Yeah guys! You got us! We are releasing a new system in 2028 and it will have AI Features!" on a random blog/twitter post? Come on dude. These things are planned so far in advanced and you can't just all of a sudden now be like ok let's just release a next gen console in 2026 instead of 2028! 2 years is a massive amount of time, it's most likely just a pro version of the Series X and nothing else.
If it's about the power game than Microsoft has basically lost to Sony for three consecutive generations there. 360 was overall a bit weaker than PS3, but had more mature SDK and API tools early on and easier to get to grips with, hence why so many 3P games from 2006-2009 or so looked and ran better on it. But the system never got games on the visual level of TLOU, or GT6, or Uncharted 3 as just some examples.
XBO...well nothing needs to be said. One X was technically more powerful than PS4 Pro but a lot of games either traded frames or resolution to get that advantage. Remember the infamous early performance of RE3 Remake on PS4 Pro and One X? Capcom had to drop the resolution for One X to get the framerate performance in line with PS4 Pro...an eerie foreshadowing of what would be to come.
Series X is on paper more powerful than PS5 with TFs, texture fillrate, and more RAM bandwidth. But in practice it's been either only on par or in a lot of cases behind PS5 in 3P performance. And while there are some technical showpieces on the system, like Flight Sim and Forza Horizon 5 (and next year, Hellblade 2), up to this point it still doesn't have anything on the level of Rift Apart or Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores that's 1P, AAA, and large-scale (epic sci-fi action/platformer, sci-fi/fantasy open-world action/adventure). Even the newest Forza, next-gen only, falls short of GT7, which is a cross-gen game.
So I don't think Microsoft care too much about trying to win the power crown from Sony anymore because they've simply been unable to definitely do so for three generations in a row. It's just not an area they can win at, and maybe they've accepted that.
