I'm confused about this statement. What record did these consoles break? The Xbox One sold slower than the original Wii, and the PS4 is on path to sell about 1mil less than the Wii did in its first 8 months on market. Are you talking record compared to their respective predecesors?

You have it reversed OP. I'm amazed that despite 1/10th-1/20th the userbase of PS3/360, PS4 and Xone are already increasingly dominating the software charts. This shows how fast people abandon past gen.

7 million PS4's, 4.5 million Xbox One's, 84 million 360's, 82 million PS3's, yet PS4 and Xbox One already are tending to dominate the charts. It shows what we expect, people move on rapidly. The most active buyers have already moved to next gen.

I'd like a game to defy my sense of reality.  To shift my perpective so much I feel like I'm hallucinating.  This has happened through the generations of consoles.  Have you watched that Cosmos show they're running on the National Geographic Channel right now with Neil Degrasse Tyson?  Crazy stuff going on in that show.

I think "next-gen gameplay" could have been done last generation as well, btw...if developers weren't so focused on polygons. 

I just feel like the developers aren't thinking outside the box right now.  They know that their market is a bunch of graphics junkies who don't really need to go beyond the surface of their game.  Let's have some deconstruction going on.  Let's let the bottom fall out of a game and disappear into the coding.  Let's have "glitches" that actually become the "path."  Let's just fuck shit up.  That's all I'm saying.

As a silent observer, I've watched the software charts over the past few months. It really seems like people are primarily buying games for the last gen systems. It makes me wonder if we really needed a new Sony or Microsoft console. Sure, Nintendo had to play catch up in the graphics department to become HD, but did anyone seriously need an upgrade to the PS3 or 360? The software charts seem to be saying "no".

Perchance it's just a matter of ownership, as there are a ton more PS3 and 360 owners than there are PS4 and XB1 owners. Yet, I'm curious - as a gamer did you really need a new generation of consoles? Was your last gen console no longer good enough?

I really don't think the general public wants consoles anymore. I think hardcore gamers do, but that's about it. The days of console gaming being a pop culture thing are over imo. Anyone old enough to remember the PS2 knows just how different things are now. The PS4 is a success so far, but absoutely nothing like the PS2. The Wii will probably go down as the last huge console.

I think we're headed for a service based future. No more Xbox One vs. PS4. It'll be Playstation Now vs. Xbox Now etc. 

You say that but this is the first time I agree with the naysayers.  There was always something awe inspiring at launch.  Even the Dreamcast seemed amazing when I first saw what it could do.

I think they should have held off till 4k could be done at 30fps on new hard ware. I had in the passed posted that new hard ware should wait till 2014 or 2015 if possible.

Pointless 4k tvs are not standard in the living room. This is the first gen that doesn't support SD

I feel Sony put out good enough hardware that they can run with it. MS just shot themselves in the foot to many times.... this comes from some with xbl from day 1, and about 70 new games on the 360.

MS rushed. Its that simple, they didn't realize that the reaction to their policies was serious until the wound had festered. Their media focus made them blind.

really a 500 gb hard drive non-replaceable with the original sharing/always on install required original plan what were they smoking game sizes have gone up to what 25-50 gigs a game so at best 20 games installed? they could have made it user replaceable so i could drop a 3 or 4 tb HD in the system. my launch 360 has been upgraded to a 250 gb - the 20 lasted until 09 and the 120 was good through 12 when i needed more storage, only required installs on these drives and dlc.

Not enough beta tests.

and the gpu I still cannot believe how much gpu they sacrificed, and how old the tech was compared to gpu on market . when you look at the 360 vs gpu on market at launch it would be consided just under top offered gpu with features not found in gpus till next generation. where as the one has a modified gpu from lower midrange from a year before it came out wooo.

declining hardware prices have forced this generation of consoles to invest in PC architecture rather than exotic or futureproofed technology/

note i did not expect a 7970 or a r9 290x or a gtx 780 ti, power consumption is just too high, but something better than a 7850-7790 range gpu, or carry out a more customized core.

all i can think is AMD must have cut both companies a very sweet deal on cost. and Sony made the right choice MS did not. The the MS policy team decided to drive the brand into the ground with ill concived choices for the current market.

basically.