My wife and I work hard and both enjoy gaming. We budget our finances appropriately and have done a lot with what we have. I came from nothing and worked my way up, made wise investments and didn't piss my money away. Since I don't care for expensive cars or fancy clothes and since my wife doesn't either (including jewelry), we do pretty well on savings.

If that makes you stereotype us in some outlandish way, then that's your problem. It's not like I wasn't in your shoes before I got a good job. But even back then I would just budget carefully and buy consoles when the savings matched the price. It's all about priorities and the amount of effort you put in. If you have crippling debt or something like that, then yeah, that's going to be a problem. But at this point we have two houses and multiple consoles from every generation, and make less than $100k combined. So it's more what you do with the money you have than whether or not you're richie rich. Also, had one of our passions besides gaming been particularly expensive there would have been competition for the funds. But that's what my wife and I do when we get home. Watch TV and play games.

That being said, our ability to afford the systems doesn't mean we automatically get them. For example, why would I get the XBO when all of their exclusives show up on the PC? I also haven't picked up a WiiU because I consider it a bad purchase. The console is basically a Nintendo game's tax so when you consider the cost of the games you have to divide all the games you want by the cost of the console to consider if they're getting the console for. Since there are still less than 10 WiiU games I want, the $300 console price tag would add more than $30 to the price of every game which isn't something I'd be willing to pay for.

Remember also that some people are dropping thousands of dollars on all the consoles each generation to their detriment if they can't really afford it. Gaming and collecting them all could certainly be an addiction if you had that kind of console hoarding mentality. We're fortunate that we just want to make a wise investment with a high return in entertainment rather than just trying to collect things we'll never enjoy.

I feel severly overwhelmed, to a point that i have to sell a console or a few to get my head straight on gaming again. For instance: as of February 2014 i owned all 3 next gen consoles (PS4,XO;WiiU) and a 3DS XL but i quickly realized that, no way in hell i have the time to play all 3 and to balance out my gaming purchases on all 3 as equally as possible. So i ended up selling my WiiU and kept focusing on my PS4 and to use my XO for Halo Games and my 3DS for pokemon games, however i still feel overwhelmed by so many gaming consoles, especially because i still have my ps3 that i am still supporting and still playing, so long story short: i am thinking about selling my 3DS in the near future and possibly my xbox one (?) or look for a another way to use my xbox one for other things besides only for halo games, because it actually is a great console and i would hate to sell it. But my main focus right know are Playstation Homeconsoles.

you need a good job for it... realy well payed and not so long workhours. you just dont have enough time for all the games...

I'm not jealous of them. I can afford all of them myself but I just don't see the point. I would never be able to play on all three systems and I would end up neglecting one of them and then feel guilty for buying it.

They are rich assholes. I hate them.

Moderated - Leadified

The past two generations, I owned all three consoles. As a result, my gaming backlog is the stuff of legend. Plus, I really only played the XBOX 360 a handful of times. Absolutely not worth it, even if I did get it for free. I'm not making the same mistake this generation. I already have a PS4, Wii U, and gaming PC. And I can still feel the weight of the backlog. It's never about the price. Hell, I could afford to buy all three consoles every single month if I wanted to (and gave up on paying down more than the minimum on debts), but where's the sense in that if you can't fully enjoy the purchase? I envy those with all that extra time.

Life is kind of a cruel joke that way. You grow up with all the time in the world, but have no money, and often rely on your parents for game purchases. Then you get out on your own, start making money, and can afford more games. But your time is now limited so you can't enjoy the stuff you buy.

I think all consoles have some great games so I buy them all. I may not get nintendos next console unless they do a handheld hybrid but in the end I feel they all have some great games so I don't mind putting money towards them.

For me all consoles is the only way to go. No reason to get all Mr angry pants for tomb raider going only Xbox or street fighter only Ps. Ill pick it up for whatever its available for

as I've said before.

single player multiplats - ps

multiplayer - Xbox

pokemon/smash bros machines - nintendo

Purchasing the console itself isn't really hard. If you saved $10 a week, you could own every console in less than 3 years. Think about all the petty things people buy on a DAILY basis that add up, like the people that get Starbucks on a daily basis...  I don't drink coffee... I don't have that daily expense. 

Time is an interesting constraint... However, from experience, your time isn't evenly divided between the consoles you own. Any generation where I have owned multiple consoles, one of them would see significantly more play time and in turn game purchases. One of them would be the "primary" console. That doesn't mean I don't get value out of the other systems I own.

People do whatever they want to do with their money but I feel shameful to have to buy every console in order to play every game the generation offer. I am a huge partisan of the "one console" thing, or at least many console but one online store and being able to play any physical game on every console.

I think they are awesome and ought to be praised. They put much money in the game industry and help several console manufacturers to prosper, not only one of them. Even better if they buy many games, too... they don't even have to play them: every gamer profits from a healthy game industry, so these whales are very important and should be praised. So praise the god gamers... NOW!  ;)

Joking aside... apart from the higher hardware costs (which are laughable compared to many other hobbies) I don't see many downsides of owning and using several systems instead of one or two:

• you can cherry-pick the best games and are never forced to play mediocre games (there are never gaming droughts)
• without gaming droughts, the urge to buy most games day one is small (so higher hardware costs can reduce software costs)
• more opportunities to get great software deals
• you can choose the best version of a game
• if the version differences of a game are neglectable, you can choose the cheaper version
• if one service (PSN, XBL, Nintendo Network, Steam, Battlenet...) is down, you can play something else on another system
• even if one system/company is your favorite, the chances of you sour-grapes-bashing the rest get much slimmer
• if each system gets less operating hours, it can prolong their lifespan (my 360 had its RROD after 6 years, my launch-PS3 still runs fine)