Other than spider 2 I haven't touched my ps5 in a while.  I'm with you on PC....  runs xbox and ps5 games, just better than consoles.

Maybe just time for Xbox to leave consoles. I play my PS5 almost daily and just got it last year. I'm good for this gen to last a few more years. Still feels like it barely started.

I think this generation will be quite long.  A significant jump in power is quite expensive.  The price difference between a 4070 and 4080 is about 2x.  Not sure consoles, priced reasonably, have a jump anytime soon.

I think they should, and the reasons are twofold: for the industry/gaming at large and for Microsoft/Xbox.

Let's start with the industry view. Back in the 360/PS3-era MS and Sony started to entangle their respective hardware generations with each other, releasing close to each other and highlighting direct competition. This had a negative effect on the industry. As their direct competition meant that they were in dire need to directly one-up each other, they focused on measurable stuff: power, performance, graphix. This while disregarding the more unique aspects a console can have, the additional value for gamers. This lead to explosive growth of budgets since this era, as the focus was more and more at tech and power, which meant games had to utilize this.  Since then we barely have seen exploration of new genres, or even old genres that fell out of mainstream (a space indies started to fill). We see the same genres - shooters, action, action-adventures, 3D action RPGs, racers - over and over with only advancing graphics and effects. I miss the innovation in new ideas that were present before. Again, the indies are here for the rescue.

So disentangle the hardware gens on the side of Xbox and PS might help to cut the gordic knot. If their respective consoles have years on each other, it will be quite easy to have more power, without pushing it to the extreme. Instead they could focus on features that make their platform stand out more. If we dial down the speed of technological advancement, game devs get space to breathe and control their at this point unsustainable budgets. It looks like development of an AAA game is by now needing six or more years. This is crazy. We need a full generation to get the games for it. There is a need for companies to get to more palatable two year development cycles.

And for MS? Well, simply put Xbox is losing at the moment against PS. That is not even down to the hardware - which is completely fine, Xbox Series is a good device. It is down to the brand power of PS, which is based in the unspoken promise of PS getting the 3rd-party games. We saw now with PS4 and PS5 that it can sell on remasters and some weak early entries on this promise alone. And the promise is fulfilled eventually, as the sales of the platform lead to the 3rd-parties releasing their games there. This brand power was built over decades. Nothing MS can do to build the same in the next 5-10 years. So they need to focus on what makes their platform special. Something that is much easier, if it gets it's own spotlight without being compared to the system of the competitor.

Yes, Xbox should leave because you don't play it lol. 

It's had plenty of third-party games already. 2026 wouldn't be early at all, even 2025 would be early by modern standards but not unprecedented.

I don't buy the argument of too soon to think about a shorter lifecycle. That's like saying around early 2015 that it was too early to talk about a Wii U successor. 

You don't stretch out a lifecycle just to get more games. Nintendo was not about to push Switch to Holiday 2017 or later to get more games on Wii U (3DS already had plenty). 

Sega didn't wait another year or longer to push the Dreamcast just to get more games on Saturn. 

I don’t know, but I feel like 'exclusive' games have been quite rare, not just since the Xbox One, as some say, but since the Xbox 360 Kinect era. Microsoft has been relying mostly on Forza, Gears of War, and Halo. Their message for more than a decade has been, 'Please buy our console and be patient because games are coming.' If they once again abandon their console without delivering, why should gamers trust them that this time it will be different? Why not wait 1-2 years more to get a console from a company that has shown support for its console?

Sony and Nintendo have never, or at least rarely, given up on their consoles like Microsoft. People often think about the price advantage that the PlayStation 4 had to explain its comeback in the US. Still, honestly, I believe a big part of it was also because Sony made a lot of effort to support the PlayStation 3 during the last years of its life and made tremendous work to rebuild its image when Microsoft seemed to somewhat try at the beginning of a new generation, only to then quickly give up. It’s becoming ridiculous.

I think Microsoft may try to launch its console earlier than Sony, but it’s a risky move that may end up diminishing the little trust left in Microsoft. What message would that send to Xbox Series buyers?

I honestly don't see why I would ever buy an Xbox. I have a PC, a Switch, and a PS. Why would I spend money on a console that is likely to be abandoned by Microsoft quickly? If Xbox had kept the momentum of the X360 pre-Kinect, I probably would have bought Xbox consoles, but now Microsoft seems really unreliable. The thing is, if Microsoft wants to launch a new console in 2026, then the Xbox Series is mostly dead already, which is a shame. The numbers are lower than the PS5 but certainly not to the point of justifying such a policy. It feels like sometimes Microsoft is that brainless actor who only knows how to buy stuff but actually doesn't understand gaming or really wants to put in real effort.

That's not why I said that. Just that their hardware isn't selling great and when you have an over 50 percent drop. Second generation in a row. MS has made it clear hardware is not their focus but game pass. Their physical game sales are not moving much at all. Sure physical is in a decline but many store owners don't have a lot of issue moving Sony or Nintendo physical games off shelves. Not the same with Xbox. Their revision of XBO already shows no disc drive. So what is the point then when every first party game is on GP and PC anyway? The hardware makes no sense anymore.

I only mentioned my PS5 as I'm not ready for the 9th gen to end anytime soon.

xbox 360 lasted a decade. This generation has not even started yet.

Releasing quick consoles is a good way to ruin a brand.  This generation is just now getting interesting.  Especially when there is next to nothing that wasn't on last gen hardware.  

Way too soon to be considering new hardware.