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Johnw1104 on 25 May 2016
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setsunatenshi said:
Veknoid_Outcast said:

Mostly because it strikes at the heart of one of the most essential qualities of a home console: the promise of stability. When I invest $300 or $400 in a console or portable, it comes with a guarantee that I'll be able to play a set of games for five or six years without needing to upgrade hardware. If I need to spend a significant amount of money every one or two years to keep up with the Joneses, then where is the difference between home consoles and the world of PC gaming?

My other issue, and it might sound anathema to some of my peers on the site, is the rationale behind the idea of an iterative console: that frequent advances in technology are necessary for the evolution of video game software. Personally, I don't buy it. I know console technology is lagging further and further behind PC tech, but, to me, that's fine. We hit a technological sweet spot years ago, and all the advances over the last decade haven't translated to better games.

Now, I'm no Luddite - I understand that video games are intimately connected with technology - but I resist the idea that the industry needs to push violently forward with resolution, frame rate, lighting, physics, etc. I would much rather console manufacturers invest in more modest hardware, and spend several years exploring its potential. For that reason, I'd actually prefer ten year console cycles to two or three year cycles. Although, I admit I'm in the minority on that one.

Don't you see the stability of being able to play your games on the current console that you can still own for the next 5/6 years, but if by any chance you decide to upgrade, you won't need to sell or store your entire collection just to start from 0 all over again? how about the stability for developers to create a game not having to worry if there will be a generation transition in mid development? i mean... come on, just because a new version of the console exists it doesn't mean you need to go and pick it up. Since you're not worried about better resolution, frame rate, lighting, physics, etc... why would you 'have' to buy the new version?

I keep hearing this common complain, from 1 side it's said they don't want to upgrade because it's pointless to have better image quality, but on the other side just because the same game is available in better quality they feel forced to buy it.

I'm just looking for a little bit of consistency here.

I could swear you're describing PC's in that first paragraph.

The point of consoles, in my mind (and much like Veknoid there said), is to make a one time purchase that will be your gaming machine for years to come, and for that duration games are designed specifically with your console in mind. Bringing out frequent upgrades will inevitably cause many to develop games for the newer hardware, potentially causing performance issues for anyone with an older model (anyone who's a regular PC gamer should be painfully cognizant of this issue). It also engenders frustration with those who purchased the old model just prior to the announcement that a new one is coming, which is one reason the New 3DS pissed me the heck off.

With PC's you can replace individual parts of the computer and you know of hardware upgrades many years in advance. Here, we seem to be getting "rumors" no more than one year in advance. Someone who purchases a console should be guaranteed that they'll be receiving the full console experience, and not lesser ports of better games. You speak of it being easier on devs, but devs actually hate this idea due to the additional costs involved of trying to maximize their games for multiple iterations of the same console. In fact, contrary to your claim that devs needn't worry about a sudden switch in generations, under this system turnover will be even more frequent.

http://www.playstationlifestyle.net/2016/04/19/ps4-5-neo-sony-playstation-4/

As for your comment about backwards compatibility, this in no way means there will be backwards compatibility indefinitely going forward. If they keep making consoles true upgrades (as in PS5) will render it as expensive as it's always been to have built-in backwards compatibility, and streaming may soon render that issue moot anyway. These upgrades are intended as a stopgap, not a successor.

I think it's important for consoles to not forget what they truly are: a less expensive machine exclusively for gaming. The model was never meant for cutting edge gaming, and given the new hardware will still be outdated when released, they're needlessly complicating their industry to little benefit for anyone, and we haven't even touched on the potential for upgrade exclusives that one has to imagine Sony and Microsoft will try to ease into the market over time (Nintendo already did it with the New 3DS).