There is just no way that they are going to come in at $599. That is just way too much for a lot of people. Without considering anything on leaked specs, the most they could do is $549. Although, I really think it will be $499. That ‘4’ instead of a ‘5’ on the front of the price is BIG in the mentality of buyers.
I think we can look at last gen though a good mark. PS4 launched with a modern-ish APU at its heart, but nothing else new in tech. HDD was standard, drive was standard, other capabilities were standard. It launched at $399.
Xbox One launched with essentially the same tech (slight variation with the RAM, and slightly smaller APU), but added a ton of features and cost with the Kinect. It launched at $499.
With the addition of SSD cache/storage, we are looking at a similar launch as the PS4/XBO with the APU’s (except modernized), but that added new feature is going to push it to $499.