My take on things? When a new gen begins, people are hungry for any new good game to play. The PS4 has the most users and people are looking for games to show off. As the library becomes more diverse and people do their usual thing, it will be harder and harder for games that can make a splash now to succeed.

It's been said that the beginning of a new gen is the best time for new IP. I agree. People are more open minded, now. Get in good now (Like Gears of War) and you'll have a fan for life. Pull a Lost Planet and people won't forgive you.

I dont get what you are talking about. What risks are companies taking? Unless you mean indys, but every one else isnt thinking too far outside the box.

No, Civ: BE is also available at retail, but I have no doubt that the majority of sales of all PC games these days are already digital.

The Divinity developer stated that only 10% of those 500.000 copies were sold at retail http://t.joystiq.com/all/2014-09-12-divinity-original-sin-moves-half-a-million-copies#1

I think retail can be considered dead soon on PC, even in traditional PC gaming countries. There will come a time where publishers will only produce retail copies as limited editions for die-hard fans anymore.

I think consoles will follow next gen. The transition has already started.

People are equally open-minded near the end of a gen, look at God Of War and The Last Of Us.

Equally?

Yeah equally. It just has to be a very good game, like the ones I mentioned. If you disagree, look at the sales of those two games and you'll know.

What I really like about this generation so far is the comeback of horror games. Something which was basically rare during the 7th generation.

I think this is a problem in recent years, and why people just assume the mid-tier games are gone.  They truly aren't.  Many just switched to online distribution to save money, which, unfortunately, caused many to just lump into the HUGE category that is indie games.  Many of these games are technically indies in the sense that the devs are independently owned, but in terms of scale, their games are definitely the mid-tier games of today.  There are also mid-tier physical releases, which Bound By Flame is the first to come to mind, and I'm sure there are others.

@OP

I think the success of the PS4 will definitely lead to a little more diversity in gaming.  It will definitely lead to Japanese devs/pubs taking more risks in porting their games over to NA, since they'll have a larger PS install base to sell to. 

True that, yo!  LOL.  The best part is that the newer horror games (for the most part) are focusing way more on the atmosphere, which is true horror, and not the random jump scares.  Take the Silent Hill franchise, for example.  The SH games from PS1 and the PS2 gens were mostly about creepy atmosphere, with a couple jump scares, and your character not being the best at combat.  The ones from last gen mostly focus on jump scares and combat, with very little effort into going into creating a truly engrossing, creepy atmosphere.  Kojima and Del Toro seem to be correcting that with SHs, if PT is anything to go off of.

Sorry about the quote tree, mods.  I'm on the phone. :(

Yeah, those two games were new IPs at the end of their gen (GoW in 2005 but close enough) as well as TLoU but those were two highly acclaimed games from very respected studios.  At the beginning of a gen, even some modestly reviewd games get great sales and exposure.  At the end of a gen, a lot of great games get buried.

It can be said all gen long.  Quality doesn't always equal sales but early on, a new game like Carnival Games, SSX, Dead Rising, Devil May Cry, etc. is likely to thrive.  New IPs at the end of a gen have a tougher time against established franchises.