I think people are not seeing the forest for the trees. This move is actually good for the consumer, and even better for Intel. One thing a person with a Z270 does not have is an upgrade path. That person will either sit on that chip and chipset for 3 to 5 years until there is enough performance to entice them to buy a new system, or they upgrade every year or every other year for only a 10% performance bump on a good year. They go X299, they can get a 4 core chip, but if they want an upgrade as games become more multi threaded, they can just buy a new chip, and memory. They don't need to buy a new chipset, and will have more money to put into the new Intel chip. That is all money in Intel's pocket not going to the board makers. With better multi threading, consumers will get a much greater performance boost going from a 4 chip to an 8 core chip, than just buying the next iteration of the Z370, or what ever Intel would call it. It's a win for everyone.