12/02/2013

The muti-generation generation?


Might need a few extra HDMI ports...

So the next gen is here! Clearly we should dump our ancient 360s and PS3s, right? Well not so fast. I don't know about you, over the last 8 years, I've built up a pretty decent digital library on both my 360 & PS3. Not to mention that at least through the next year, there are a ton of last-gen titles that seem worth holding onto your systems for awhile longer (South Park, Dark Souls II, Lightning Returns, Tales of Xillia 2, etc.). I feel like Sony & MS' reasoning behind no backwards compatibility (almost nobody used it) was very flawed as the PS3 and 360 were very different beasts than the PS2 and Xbox One. Nintendo clearly saw this, as it's pretty effortless to transfer you digital purchases from a Wii to a Wii U and it's backwards compatible with Wii software (also the Wii has essentially been dead since the end of 2012).  It certainly doesn't help that neither next-gen console has a ton of compelling software and really won't for months. My PS4 library is basically Injustice, Lego Marvel Heroes and Resogun because I have no interest in sports or car games, which seem to be getting the best reviews and it's going to be a long few months til Infamous hits.

So you have two systems with plenty of life left in them, and while I'm sure some were anxious to dump their previous consoles, but I really think you'll be seeing a lot of people hanging on to their older systems awhile longer. Hell, with the bundle deals this past week and last year (and probably next year as well) you are having a lot of people getting those systems for the first time so it's a whole new load of people that will keep those consoles going along with them seeing healthy software support through at least 2015. I probably will hold on to mine until my current ones crap out at least, then I'll probably have to evaluate whether it's worth the money to replace them. But I really see myself playing all 5 (when I get an Xbox One) home consoles plenty over the next few years at least, and I doubt I'm the only one.

That's it for today, but expect a gamer cinema tomorrow or Wednesday at the latest.

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