Did we REALLY need or want a new generation of consoles?

[Raze]

Nem said:
The answer is not really, despite what some hardcore will tell you here, wich is their vision.

Tech wise there isnt a huge evolution that can be perceived by the human eye. The average consumer cant tell the difference and doesnt like purchasing multiple consoles. I know of people that have bought Wii's and PS3's last year.
The hardcore though, were eager to see something new. This wont last though. As diminishing returns become bigger between generations, the high the chance that the market will collapse on itself. People just wont see the value on buying a new product for hundreads of euros/dollars for something they can hardly comprehend.

I am convinced that we might only have one more gen after this new one, if at all. Streaming is the way, not because its more convenient or better, but because there isnt a logic support to the purchase decision of a new console. I'm certainly not looking forward to it.

This is the best argument for the "NO" response, as the jump in technology wasn't as big of a factor as going from standard def (PS2) to HD (PS3) and the other company equivalents.  The market has reached peak volume with Nintendo getting a lot of non-traditional gamers aboard with the Wii, who they then forgot about with the Wii U. The overall market numbers are on track to be a lot lower than last gen, which is going to scare away a lot of investors, along with DOOM articles about the gaming industry overall.

 

 

 

SpongyFondue said:
Yes. The last gen for the most part was 32 bit and that carried a lot of limitations. I tend to mod my games and beacue of the 32 bit limitation sometimes you need to activate Large Adress Aware. It's a royal pain in the ass and now games coming up should be 64 bit, that eliminates the need to use stuff like LAA.

 

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This is the best argument for the YES responses. It seems everyone else is just part of the "we want it because we want it" answer. I can agree to that, as an IT person, that jumping to 64-bit platforms opens a lot more options for programmers.