This Generation - The Lack of a Meaningful Difference

[machomuu]

For those who don't feel like wading through text, there's a TL;DR at the bottom.

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I don't think, since I've been of a gaming mentality, that I've ever been less interested in the three gaming consoles. This isn't a knock on the current generation so much as it is its consoles, I mean...

...I guess this is more the case for the PS4 and the Xbox One than it is the Wii U, but it didn't really dawn on me how utterly detached I am from the hype and excitement that surrounds these two consoles. I mean, they have their exclusives, sure, and maybe it's because these consoles have such small exclusive, non-port libraries, but I really feel that the only difference between these two consoles are their fandoms.

I don't mean this literally, of course, but with the 360 and the PS3, or the PS2, Xbox, and GC, I felt the difference, not because the companies shoved it in our faces so much as because the consoles were just so plainly different. With the PS3, you had free online, Playstation Plus' benefits, lots of games from the East, it could do "everything" (and less as a result), and the Playstation names that you loved were right there. You want Rachet and Clank? There you go. Uncharted? Boom, 3 of them. Sly? Back with a vengeance. That was the PS3. With the 360 there was a paid (though solid) online service, less exclusives but Backwards Compatability, critically acclaimed controller...you had these things that you could identify with the consoles even if you didn't look them up or know about them. These were the things people talked about. These were the things people got excited about.

But this generation...it really don't feel like that. I may be speaking a bit too soon, but the two consoles feel very samey, and as a potential consumer I'm here thinking not "which one is the better choice", but "Is there any reason for me to get either of them?" They both provide a paid service with benefits, neither of them exactly have a forte on the exclusive front, Remasteries abound...and I may sound pretty out-of-the-loop saying this, but it's largely because I've never really considered it from this perspective. I constantly look at why the two aren't exactly worth buying as they are- which, even still, I consider the case (BC on Xbox One could be worth it but, as its yet to be released and we really don't know the end result, I'd still say hold off), but in terms of the consoles as individuals...the personality just doesn't seem to be there. The Xbox One and the PS4...I find it hard to call them individuals.

And, of course, I understand that they have their exclusives, but you don't see people talking about how the Xbox One has the better merchandising strategy or how the PS4 has the better specs- the latter was a lot more the case pre-launch than now. You don't people saying which has the better online service or which has the better First Party. It's just about who has more games- not even exclusives, just who has more games. And I've mentioned that I don't particularly like things that breed negativity, and a lot of times that's all arguments of these types tend to bring on.

But the difference between the arguments of today and the arguments of back then is that there was an excitement to these discussions in the past. There was a legitimate joy in talking about the things people loved about a specific console, something it had that the others didn't quite do. Now, it's more about the games than the consoles- which, really, should be a good thing, because at the end of the day, it's about the games, right? Of course! But the problem comes with the fact that the games now more than ever aren't really tied to the console their on. There's nothing that makes ReCore feel like an Xbone game and there's nothing that makes Horizon feel like a PS4 exclusive (or, the inverse, with games like Final Fantasy Type-0 and Kingdom Hearts on the Xbox One). This is largely due to a lack of First Party presence on the consoles, as even when the consoles' features don't make them stand out, their First Party, which may stand to be their face and how they present themselves to the public, certainly will. In a lot of ways, the fandom for the consoles seems more particular to the brands than the consoles their making.

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This is rambling, a series of thoughts spontaneously expanding on a single observation I had (and because of this, I do post this with a fair bit of hesitation). I won't vouch for its coherence given how it came to be but I will restate quite simply what spawned all of this, which was my detachment from the excitement surrounding the PS4 and Xbox One due to their similarities. I might be wrong, but as a sub-owner of one and a possible future buyer of the other this is what I've observed, and as it stands I can't much see buying these consoles as a purchase for now so much as they would be an investment for the future.

Anyway, enough from me. Any thoughts on this?

 

[Spinosaurus]

There's also a case of diminishing returns here. The jump his gen hardly seems as big as as they used to be, it really feels more like a continuation of last gen with increased emphasis on better graphics and somehow worse performance. Devs are obsessed with making games that are just bigger and better, and it all feels homogenized at this point. The "NEXT GEN!!!" hype really isn't there...and it's taking its time. I've been playing on my cousin's PS4 and Xbone I still don't have the incentive to make the jump. They're all so samey, even taking into account the 360/PS3.

Everything so far has been "been there, done that, next". Neither of the two console has got its Uncharted or Gears of War.

I know you're talking about the difference about the two consoles specifically but I feel like this all applies. No one is trying something new. "Bigger and better" is what this gen is being so far.

 

[Satoshi Ookami]

I think it's pretty visible that next-gen was just developers being careful and not taking risks while bringing consoles to the bigger audience.
With the games being all about graphics even more, it feels like they are trying to be a PC.
I'm placing hopes in PS5, because odd ones were always trying to do something new.
I personally have a PS4 and if the Dualshock 4 wasn't such an awesome thing and I wasn't against Steam and PC gaming, I would probably regret my purchase.

 

[mew_nani]

I think part of the problem might be the fact that consoles have gotten about as good as they can get short of going 3D. Going from the Atari 2600 to the NES, you see a huge difference between them and what they're capable of. From the NES to the SNES, from the SNES to the N64, you can see a huge difference in power, graphical capability, and even the addition of the third dimension, and since most of the consoles had this logical progression you can definitively tell when one generation ends and the other begins. But once we got past the PS1 and N64 we started approaching a definite limit with how powerful graphics can get. You can still compare a Gamecube to an N64 and see a difference, but it wasn't as much of a difference as before. Same deal with transitioning from a PS2 to a PS3; graphics got better, models got more defined, but the difference isn't nearly as apparent as before. Now we've hit that ceiling; graphics have gotten about as lifelike as they can get; we can't really get any better than this. You can compare a PS3 and a PS4 and you can just barely tell a difference. There's not all that much a difference anymore, so it only seems appropriate the games would also follow suit. Graphically we've hit the ceiling, so games even from the last generation don't look or even play that much differently from the current one.

Graphics can't really get any better anymore. As a result, consoles have sorta stagnated. That's my point of view on it.

 

[Necrum]

I would say that one large contributor to the problem is the sudden shift of focus off of making game consoles, and instead focusing on making all-in-one media entertainment devices. The next gen has such a huge focus on TV and music brought to your system that I feel like the games got sort of left in the dust a bit. Computers and Nintendo don't have this problem because of how focused they can be on games. Sure, Nintendo has integrated Netflix and YouTube into their consoles, but its always been an afterthought rather than a main feature of them. And PC gaming is just that: gaming. Other people are handling the media aspects of computer use, so services like Steam can really focus on the best gaming experience possible. I really feel like Microsoft has especially drifted far from focusing on the game industry, as they have explicitly advertized the XBone as a multimedia platform instead of a game console.

 

[Circuit]

I a similar feeling when it comes to the consoles, and it's all down to what that console is worth to you, in the end I suppose.

Technology has been getting ever better for a long time, with maximum memory space increasing by 100% within 18 months frequently. This means that companies can really push new consoles to their limits, to give the user the best they can possibly buy. But companies also end up getting stuck on recreating the same thing over and over. And there is a reason for this. Every time something new or innovative is tried, more often than not, these attempts at changing the norm are shut down grossly. The sales of repeats and paint jobs of older games sell a lot better than new, innovative games and consoles stepping outside of their comfort zones just doesn't make money like a simple touch-up to an old design does. I'll take an example from Nintendo (simply because I can remember the figures right now). The Legend of Zelda Wind Waker was an amazing game. I loved this game, it really stuck out in the Zelda franchise and tried something completely different. It sold 3 million copies. That sounds like a lot, and let's be real, it IS a lot. But when compared to Mario Party 8, it shrinks behind Mario Party 8's 8 million copies. Portal and Portal 2 together sold around 8 million copies. Half Life 2? 12 million. Mario Party 8, a simple touch up to an old classic game sits up in the sales figures with some of the most innovative games ever. The Gamecube, often hailed as one of the greatest consoles Nintendo ever made had some great games like Metroid Prime, Pikmin and Resident Evil 4. But these games didn't actually sell well at all, when compared to game like Melee and Mario Kart. The Gamecube as a result was one of Nintendo's worst performing consoles! But when a simple rebrand with a slight touch-up appears, i.e. the DS to the 3DS, the sales sky-rocket. This happens in games, and the sales of games like Call of Duty, Battlefield and Fifa (Madden for those in the US) only increase over the years, with each new instalment offering almost exactly the same as its predecessor, with simply a new skin. But each new instalment also brings in tons more sales. The top selling Mario games are all those games that feature the traditional 2D scrolling game we know and love. The sales of games like Galaxy and Sunshine simply are put to shame. When a console tries to step out into doing something new, it fails miserably. Take the visual boy for example. Even the Wii U isn't selling as well as the Wii before it! But simple paint-jobs keep selling, like the PS4 and XBone which are essentially copies of their predecessors, with a couple of small changes and a rework.

One of the reasons some of us fail to take interest in the new releases is that we enjoy the innovative releases above the same old reworks. But the majority clearly don't, when games like New Super Mario Bros. Wii sell much better than Mario Sunshine. I would say that the lack of interest in part comes from the lack of new content, that some of us would love to see, but in the gaming industry, it's the majority who make companies their money, and hence the sales figures determine what is further produced. And what is produced just isn't interesting or new anymore.

 

[SnowpointQuincy]

Nintendo makes games that are fun.
Indie devs make games that are different
Xbox and Sony are very obsessed with tech but do very little with it

How often do games ship with problems at launch, how often is Nintendo guilty of this? Granted, Nintendo games have few problems because their tech is like ten years old.

 

[Morkula]

I have to agree that this gen is underwhelming. The consoles are more powerful than last gen, yes, but at the same time, even a mid-range PC was pulling ahead of them even at launch. Now a PC with a $150 GPU can match or even outperform the dedicated gaming consoles if the game is properly PC-optimized. In previous gens, consoles were a huge step ahead of PCs at launch and PCs had to catch up over the cycle of the consoles. I know that's partly because of last gen going on so unbelievably long, and also because of economics (Sony and MS both can't afford to sell consoles at a loss, so they had to make money from the start), but it still means that the leap isn't impressive at all.

Speaking of PCs, there's no excuse for the lack of PC optimization on next-gen games, or the development issues companies seem to be having. The consoles are on an x86 framework and are quite literally PCs. So why are companies having so much trouble getting games out for them? We're nearly two years after the release of PS4/Xbox One and there are very few games on both systems, and no real standout exclusives. There's also no real excuse for crap like Arkham Knight's PC version running as poorly as it did, to the point it had to be pulled from sale.

Also, on a side note, remasters are getting ridiculous. I could understand PS2 games getting the HD treatment for PS3 since they look like ass on HDTVs, but last-gen remasters for current gen are just insane. Smooth the rough edges a bit, maybe make them 60fps and 1080p, and then milk another $60 out of customers? Just go away and spend the time you spent doing that on, I don't know, actually making new games.

 

[Crizzle]

I understand how the OP feels.
For me, the PS3/XBox360 are so good that it doesn't feel like the next generation will provide much of a jump. That's why I'm not nearly as excited. I visited my cousins who had a PS4 and I didn't really feel that big of a difference in gaming experience from the PS3. Maybe I'm wrong, but that's just how I feel.

 

[GreenFlame]

PC has always outperformed consoles, whether it's last-gen or this generation of consoles. For me personally, there isn't even a competition - PC is much better.

I feel as though the new generations of consoles try harder each time to keep up with PC. It will never happen, they simply cannot match the openess and flexibility of PC if they keep sticking with their horrible limitations.

But consoles still sell for some reason, so the cycle will never end.

 

[Spinosaurus]

Until owning a capable PC isn't a big investment, consoles will never die.

They are just far more accessible. Gaming has mass appeal now, but I feel like the benefits of owning a PC is overstated. The majority of people are content with what consoles offer.

 

[Satoshi Ookami]

But consoles still sell for some reason, so the cycle will never end.

There is a considerable amount of people that do NOT care about graphics, 4K and all that and want to play a game that isn't and won't ever be on PC.

 

[machomuu]

There is a considerable amount of people that do NOT care about graphics, 4K and all that and want to play a game that isn't and won't ever be on PC.

Are you implying that the majority- or even large chunk of console gamers don't care about graphics? Because I would be inclined to disagree. Looking at any generation, graphics have been a hot topic in console gaming since the dawn of 3D gaming. This whole idea that people think only graphics matter and the resulting misconception that graphics don't matter largely came from them and was a huge thing during the 6th and 7th generations. This whole sentiment of a "PC Master Race" didn't always exists, and during the majority of that time the PC wasn't nearly as big as it is now in terms of gaming and overall power potential.

Similarly, if you're implying that the majority- or even a large chunk of PC gamers care about graphics most or like PC gaming largely because of the graphics, as a PC gamer, I would also disagree. It's a perk, and possibly a dealbreaker to some, but it's a single benefit, not the be all, end all. Similarly, the idea that a game won't ever come to PC really doesn't matter much all things considered, as emulation exists and lately we've been getting even the most unlikely games such as HDN and Akiba's Trip, among others. "Won't ever" is a pretty strong phrase.

 

[SLTE]

I'm increasingly meh on purchasing new consoles. Some of the exclusives are neat - I love Mario Kart 8, for example - but I'm increasingly content with playing the little indie gems that pop up on Steam constantly. They're much cheaper, they don't tax the devil out of my computer, and they're often more fun than what I'd get on a console gaming system. I don't care if what I'm playing is incredibly attractive or detailed; I just want something that's consistently enjoyable.

Also? Something that's complete. I'm tired of paying $60 for a console game that isn't actually finished come launch day, which further diminishes the hype for the bigger, badder consoles. The bugs are strong in some games. I'm looking at you, Assassin's Creed.

 

[Sir Codin]

There is a considerable amount of people that do NOT care about graphics, 4K and all that and want to play a game that isn't and won't ever be on PC.

Graphics is not the issue when it comes to PC. Plenty of new PC games released only on PC, especially indie games, use low-end graphics that could play on console systems released two decades ago and they sell like hotcakes.

Most people chose PC due to mods and certain genres of games that just CANNOT play very well using a gamepad. RTS, isometric role-playing games, and first-person/third person shooter games just plain work better with a mouse/keyboard than with a gamepad, PERIOD.

Plus, it's not the graphics themselves that are an issue, but the general performance. Get a good enough PC and games will run smoother than they ever could on a console, including Nintendo games (don't believe me? Get an N64 or Gamecube emulator and run a game).

For anyone who still feels like being an incorrigible moron and thinks console gaming is superior to PC gaming, go here and be enlightened: https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/wiki/guide