| garretslarrity said: So when I buy stuff, I want to use it for a long time. I like the feeling of knowing that I've had something for a long time and it has always worked well. Technology, even though it moves so fast, is no exception. Consoles are a perfect example of this. Not only I want a console I buy to work for many years, but I want their lifespans to be long. I see a lot of benefits to consoles having long lifespans, such as: -The purchase is better justified. -A better library. -Developers learn the hardware very well and can create some impressive looking games. -A greater chance for smaller IPs to make it onto the system (this one mainly applies to Nintendo consoles)
So I can see all these benefits to longer console lifespans, but I can't think of any benefits to shorter lifespans. The only one I can see is that if a system is selling very poorly, ending its lifespan somewhat early can create greater profits. So are there other benefits? I named a benefit to the producer, are there any benefits to the consumer? |
1. More new Ips, console launches see's devs actual take the opportunity to introduce new franchises, more so then drawn out dev cycles. This is backed by more active userbase. When generations are drawn out people loose interest, the market over saturates and in general its harder for games to sell, only the huge IPs benefit from a 100m userbase when you're 6 years into a systems life.
2. "Developers learn the hardware very well and can create some impressive looking games." Or they can just work with hardware 6x more powerful and produce games far better looking with exactly the same amount of effort. Sure the Last of US and GOW: A looked great, but imagine the PS4 launched in 2012 and those games were built for it instead of the PS3. No matter how well a dev optimises a game, modern hardware will always produce better results.
3.Better user experience. New hardware brings a whole host of new features, interfaces and interactivity which benefit peoples experience. Put simply, the more drawn out a generation, the longer we suffer outdated experiences and the slower we evolve.
4. Freedom. Introducing a new line of hardware does not mean the previous hardware automatically dies, its gives the tech enthusiasts what they want whilst those on more of a budget can stick it out with the old hardware for a year or so whilst it still gets releases. Similarly for devs it gives the freedom of 2 userbases.
Truly the only benefit of a long lifespan is on peoples wallets, but when you're talking about the difference between 5 years or 7, I don't think its a biggie for most. In terms of feeling like you're getting your moneys worth,PS1 (depending on region)/N64/Gamecube/Xbox all had lifespans of 5 years or less and I loved them a lot.
