UPDATE: RUMOR: PS5 Dev Kits Sent Out This Year. Launch 2019. BC With PS1/PS2/PS3. Sony acquires Silent Hill. Blade Runner PS5 Game At PSX. And More.

[DonFerrari]

Darwinianevolution said:

vivster said:

So you think there are people out there who think about buying a PS4 and then don't buy anything because Sony just released a better model? So that poor guy will have to not ever play video games again. How does that logic work?

If PS5 actually releases in 2019 it won't make the PS4 suddenly obsolete. The PS4 has been out by then for more than 5 years and will still receive games for at least another year or two. How is 7 years of lifetime for a gadget bad? So bad that people will not buy anything from that brand ever again?

Is that why people never buy phones, TVs or PC hardware? Because they release upgrades every year?

I said outdated, not obsolete. The PS4 Pro made the PS4 original outdated, but by no means is it obsolete. And wouldn't people with lower incomes want their consoles to have the biggest life cycle as possible, so that their investment pays off, isn't that what we all want in the end?

People on low income buying at the end of the gen will get a lot of library to buy at discounted price... PS1 and PS2 saw about 30% of their sales after the next console was released.

vivster said:

Darwinianevolution said:

I said outdated, not obsolete. The PS4 Pro made the PS4 original outdated, but by no means is it obsolete. And wouldn't people with lower incomes want their consoles to have the biggest life cycle as possible, so that their investment pays off, isn't that what we all want in the end?

Looking at every single other tech product apparently not.

Rather we're seeing the problems short term thinking like that brings. Because if you don't iterate regularly that means your product will be outdated for the whole duration of its life with no possibility to enjoy all of the advancements that have been made in the meantime. You're only of the early adopters but what about people who want to jump in later? Why would you offer them only an outdated product instead of an updated version?

In fact, money savvy buyers embrace the release of new products because that usually comes with price reductions for the older product, which they will then buy. The truth is that an old product is not obsolete until it really is.There might as well be a new console every year and there will still be people who will rather buy the 3 year old model because it's cheaper. You know, like they do now when they buy a PS4 instead of a PS4 Pro. And we already know that a lot more people are still buying the PS4 over the Pro. So it does not seem that the majority of consumers think of the PS4 as outdated. Or at least they think it does not matter.

All evidence speaks against decreasing sales with a higher number of iterations. If anything it will keep people from buying it when they know that there will soon be a product that is 10 times better. That decision is less clear when the next available model is only 50% better.

If we had a new console every 2 years, everyone would know what the deal is. Everyone will buy the iteration that fits best and can already gauge when the next product will arrive and how much better it will approximately be. The current system not only leaves the consumer completely in the dark but also tries to shove actually outdated hardware into their faces as if it was brand new. That's not very nice, don't you think?

Changing gen every 2 years would be an issue, even more when we see that most good games take until the 4th year of the gen to release using the HW the best way.

But sure they could make a case for gen every 8 years, with 2 or 3 upgrades within the gen... the problem would be how much the devs would invest to show the advantage of the newer HW.