Well, it’s November, which means that the next-gen consoles that all of us here at GameSkinny have been talking about for the last year will be making their debuts. Both Microsoft and Sony have drawn the battle lines, and gamers will have to choose which side they will support.
While that is all peaches and cream, some of us may not be as excited about it as the rest. I mean, really, what is going to be in this generation that we haven’t had in the previous generation? So without further ado, here are five reasons you shouldn’t be one of the mindless sheep “going next-gen.”
1. The cost does not justify the upgrade at this point.
The fact is that both Microsoft and Sony have said that they will support their current gen consoles for at least two to three more years. That means we will see many of the new games being released this year on both the old and new consoles.
As we have already seen, games touted as the definition of “next-gen” such as Battlefield 4 and Assassins Creed IV: Black Flag are still solid experiences on the Xbox 360 and PS3. Why spend $400-$500 on a new console now when you can get the same consoles for an inevitable lower price down the line?
2. Don’t any of you remember the Red Ring and Yellow Light of Death?
I would think you all would be savvy enough to remember that Microsoft and Sony had some severe overheating and hardware issues with the first iterations of the current gen consoles. Just because they eventually fixed the issues with the launch consoles doesn’t mean that the PS4 and Xbox One won’t have the same problems. Do you really want to have to go through customer service again and do the whole waiting for a fixed and/or replaced console thing? Yeah, I didn’t think so.
3. We don’t know what kind of game library each system will have in the future.
While it is always nice to show off new tech to your friends, what happens if you buy an Xbox One for Halo 5, but then you find out that the new Star Wars: Battlefront will be a PS4 exclusive because some guy in a suit paid DICE behind closed doors (By the way, that probably won’t happen)? It’s always smart to wait for a little bit to see what kind of games are going to be produced for each system and then base your purchase on what types of games are available.
4. Technologies like the Oculus Rift and The Omni by Virtuix are true next-gen.
The consoles are posers, pure and simple. The real next generation of gaming lay in the 3D virtual space. With the Oculus Rift and Omni, full immersion in a game is within our grasp. We are at a point where games will not be based just on the quality of graphics or the story, but on the entire immersive experience and the ability to make you forget about the outside world.
5. The PC will take over the living room within the next eight years.
With Steam Machines and SteamOS being a thing, and both NVidia and AMD introducing new technologies such as Mantle and the NVidia Shield, consoles as we know them will cease to exists. Of course, gaming on the TV will still be the way we play are games at home, but we won’t necessarily have to have a console to do it. For example, Steam Machines are said to be able to stream any game to any TV in a house. If I can pick up a gaming PC that will stream games to any room in my house, have it look leaps and bounds better than a PS4 or Xbox One, and it still only costs $500 (the same price for an Xbox One), then I am sold!
So, having read all that, will you still be buying a next-gen console? Comment below!
