I'm saying it's their job to sell people products and pay their employees good wages. If they weren't trying their best to sell their product they wouldn't be doing their job properly, which is something far more guilt worthy.

It's not like they're selling people complete toasters either. Whether or not people drank the usual kool-aid of pre-next-gen hype, the machines currently do a good job. Even better in comparison to the previous gen at the same stage. Not sure what kind of issue we're trying to make here. If you're gonna complain about anything you ought to question the lack of legitimate next-gen exclusives and killer apps so far, as that's what ultimately should drive people to buy systems.

In retrospect I think "overhype" was the wrong word to use. It's more so "overpromise" that I meant. Might change it.

Well that's a difference in perspective then, I never really see "it's a businuess" as a good excuse, even if it is an understandable one.

As for killer apps, I actually think they're both better off in terms of games that they were last gen at this point, but it is of course true that cross-gen can have held some games back, even if I think people often overestimate how big a difference it makes.

Maybe, but isn't that the case for any new hardware release? Objectively this gen hardware is far better designed, thought out and not laughably underpowered, unlike the 8th gen was, where a substantial mid-gen upgrade was required just to guarantee stable 1080p/30 performance (yes, mid 20fps in sub-1080p or even in sub-720p on newly released and advertised as 4k machines, was a thing back then), without having to worry about your neighbour who kept asking, why is your hairdryer on all the time. Just watch some DF videos from 2014 and compare them to 2021 ... it's night and day. This isn't a hyped gen. It's we-fixed-it gen. The last one was overhyped AF.

I mean we can quickly agree that the mid-gen upgrades overpromised more, but I don't remember the base models being advertised as 4k machines (were they?) and I haven't experienced anything near that bad performance on my PS4. But I can definitely agree this isn't the first time overly lofty promises have been made.

In terms of hardware I think both companies have delivered on their vision as well as held true to early marketing claims. Personally I never felt like there was a focus on 8k at any point.

I feel from a games perspective Sony has been 50/50. Some games feel like true next-gen experiences like Ratchet & Clank, Demons Souls and even Astro's Playroom. Whereas more established big IP like GOW and Horizon FW felt a bit underwhelming. The back tracking on cross platform was disappointing.

MS has missed the mark from a games perspective so I wont even get into that.

I think OP is right about the need to hype new tech for the average consumer. The moms and dads who don't follow the evolution of consoles very closely need to be reeled in with some simple sound bites, like talking about 8K instead of 4K and so on, in order to signify that things are moving forward and this is why you should buy the new thing.
The other thing is that while consoles do get more powerful, the demands keep growing as well. Devs come up with new engines and graphical advancements and effects and whatnot, and those will quickly gobble down some of the gains that new hardware offers.

Well, my first console was the NES. My mom got it for me as a kid. And since then, I've either been given, or have purchased for myself, at least one console for each generation.

Up until PS5/XB4.

That tells you something right there. If someone like me, who is still clearly interested in the industry, can pass on an entire generation, you know something is amiss. At this point, I feel like the only thing that could make me upgrade is some revolutionary, Halo CE/GTA 3/OOT killer app. But I don't think that's going to happen, so I'll likely skip out on what Sony and Microsoft are offering, which is pretty sad. I have owned every Playstation and Xbox since their first. It sucks.

Are you just not going to play console games for the next 5 years if most games don't come to PS4/Xbox One?

Both Halo Infinite's big open-world campaign and multiplayer have locked 60fps for quality mode and a relatively smooth 120fps mode in performance (assuming they fixed VRR for campaign) with still decent resolution. Starfield is not Halo.

Are some people not able to grasp that different types of games will allocate the machine's resources differently to reach different goals for different gameplay experiences? Is that too much difference to think about? Do we not value variety, creativity or originality anymore, and instead prefer the industry to become even more homogenised?