This Gaming Generation is Horrible, the Industry is a Mess

[greenmedic88]

First off, I've been playing since the first generation of consoles; I've lived through and played them all.

The 8th gen feels like an incremental, but not insignificant evolution from the 7th gen.

The 7th gen was a considerable leap up from the 6th gen, which was reflected in the R&D, initial hardware BoM, MSRPs and duration of time between generational upgrades, partly due to the 2008 recession, but also to recuperate early losses from excessively ambitious hardware. The sole exception was the Nintendo Wii (profitable from day one with a low BoM and modest MSRP), which was the first to see an upgrade in 2012 despite developing an overwhelming initial lead in the early part of the 7th gen.

To me, the 8th gen feels like a conservative, 5 year cycle plan. Developed during an uncertain, post recession economy, cost cutting was a primary concern to offer the lowest MSRP and BoM possible. 5 year cycle because the modest jump up in hardware is likely to age faster.

Who knows, maybe MS and SCE will attempt to stretch their 8th gen consoles to 6, even 7 years before their successors hit retail. The Nintendo NX will likely hit 5 years after the Wii U debut in 2017.

In addition to hardware cost cutting, software developers have been resorting to every tactic to stretch games via DLC as well as offer annual releases on major franchises with pretty modest upgrades as would be expected with shorter development pipelines.

This is not something that will be uniquely characteristic of the 8th console gen; it's how the console and to a lesser extent the PC gaming industry will be heading into the future.

The other option is a step backwards in terms of scale, scope and budget of projects; small development studio indy games, mobile games, etc.

If it feels as though major developers who are releasing big budget titles are playing it a bit too safe, it's simply a matter of liability in most instances.