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greenmedic88 on 19 September 2014
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As someone who pre-ordered 6 months before release and bought on launch day, I'm going to agree with a lot of what was written in the article.

Usually, there isn't good reason for buying a console during its first year of availability, particularly if you are still fully invested in the previous generation console you would be supplementing it with. Presumably you'll still be using that old console until software support dries up, or you buy mainly multi platform games and not surprisingly, buy your new games only for the newer hardware.

Most people can wait a year or even more to play the handful of games really worth playing.

In a year or two from launch, odds are the console will cost less, those games really worth playing will be available at a significant discount, and the rest of the catalog of games will have filled in, giving the buyer more playing options.

So why buy one in the first year? There are still games available exclusive to each platform worth playing; anyone can play the waiting game if they can wait 5 or more years to pick up a new platform and save a few hundred bucks between the console and the initial batch of games. But, if the money isn't really an issue and one would rather experience something now rather than 2-5 years later something like the PS4 is only $400. Is it worth waiting until the second or even third year of release to save $100 off the MSRP? Not for everyone; not if you have more money than time.

Unlike the author of the Forbes article, I've already received about a years worth of entertainment from the PS4 even though I'm still using the PS3. It was only $400 and it's still the same price, which wouldn't matter to me if even it wasn't, since it's already been almost a year since I bought it.

Truth be told, if my PS4 was stolen or anything happened to it in a way that I couldn't send it back to SCEA for repair/refurb, I'd just buy another one that same day for $400 unless a hardware update or price drop was rumored to be right around the corner.

I think a lot of early adopters aren't really buying new platforms for the reason early adopters buy them and as a result, they have unrealistic expectations (what? only a first year of release catalog of games? insanity!) that can only lead to buyer's remorse and/or an unused new console.