Depends on their business goals. For example, MS prioritizing subs and services would lead to cross gen being the best route as it keeps their consumer base as large as possible.

For Nintendo and Sony, who prioritize having larger install bases for their hardware, 1st party exclusives that leave the previous gen behind are a must. This gives consumers more of a reason to upgrade.

When it comes to 3rd party, it is really up to them. It makes sense for them to do cross gen for about 2 years however, to keep their potential sales as high as possible while the next gen grows. Hardware sales mean nothing to them afterall.

From a consumer standpoint, cross gen should be viewed as a good thing as it keeps late adopters from feeling like they lost their money. The only people in this camp that wpuld be against it are those who want the new hardware to be pushed as soon as possible, which thankfully is only a vocal minority.

I was initially not gonna post on this thread since this topic has been argued to death on this site for the last couple of months, but this take called my attention.

Ubisoft, EA, Capcom, Take Two, etc., have ZERO moral obligation to support X1 and PS4 owners. Why? because they were not the ones who sold those people a console.

The only ones with a moral obligation here are MS and Sony; and I for one, find it hugely disrespectful to drop the support of a console even before the next one is released. I mean, by holiday 2021 there will be around 85m PS4 owners who will have one and half year without any game from the company that sold them the console; and by holiday 2022 there will be around 60m PS4 owners who will have TWO AND HALF years without any game from the company that sold them the console.

How anyone who is not planning to buy a console at launch finds this acceptable is beyond me.

They have zero obligation, but it would be most beneficial to support them for about two years after next gen drops.  Install base is everything, and going from over 100mil to under 30 mil when it comes to potential consumers would not be a very smart business practice.

Of course it is beneficial to them, but that's not the point. The point is that it is not their responsibility to support those or any other consoles for that matter.

1st party should focus on the new hardware. As many have aptly pointed out already, if you're asking people to spend $500+ on new hardware said hardware should have games only found on it. Realistically, cross-gen 1st party games only weakens the reason to get the Series X.

Edit: Obviously in the case of a game like Halo Infinite where the game has been in development for Xbox One for several years, it makes sense that it is a cross-gen game. 

It's fine to give late gen projects more reach and help new platforms get started while developers get to grips with the new hardware.

Most companies will have game engines that can support cross gen compatibility without too much hassle.  I expect that we'll see a lot of PS4/PS5 games that are basically identical - obviously with cut down graphics for PS4.  

Get used to hearing the phrase: "free PS5 upgrade codes when you buy the PS4 version".  It isn't logical to "ignore the new platform" or to "ignore the install base"

3rd parties do it every gen to ease into the transition, this is normal. 1st party depends on your factions “culture”.

I actually fully support MS initiative to do the same transition period in launch year. It benefits others in that late adopters aren’t left out who don’t want to upgrade right away. It benefits me in that cross gen games still look much better and tend to score higher.

Next gen launch exclusives historically sacrifice quality for graphics. It becomes a shallow tech demo. Look at the meta scores of Ryse and Knack (see I’m using both consoles for examples). Then you got Forza 5 and Killzone Shadowfall, each the lowest scored games in both series.

We got the entire gen to play next gen exclusives, I say the launch year is an exception because quality matters.

Bold prediction: LOU2 remaster for PS5 will outsell any next gen exclusives by a long shot. PS fans will tell you next gen only matters yet this will fly directly in contrast.

Sony would never "remake" TLoU2.  You know damn well they would just up the res to native 4k, and sell it to us a second time.

Sorry that’s actually what I meant to say. Remaster, not remake. Ironically that will be the #1 poster child of PS5 exclusives until the next Naughty Dog game releases mark my words.