Are you getting a next generation console?

[Jackolantern]

With the flurry of news and announcements on the new consoles, and the slips by 3rd-party developers that hint to the fact that both Sony and Microsoft's new consoles will be out by Christmas, I was wondering where everyone stands on this. Personally, I am going to wait to see which console becomes dominant, and then probably get it once a couple of models and price drops have passed. This generation I first bought a PS3 for $650, and then watched the Xbox 360 become the dominant system. I don't want to repeat that again

[hallsofvallhalla]

I will wait to see what comes of them and which one will drop price first. Unless one gets Rock band first then I am in!!!

[Jackolantern]

Is anyone still making the instrument music games? They got huge for about two or three years, and then suddenly it seems like each company dumped them after poor sales of their most recent versions.

[vitinho444]

Hahaha, PS1: It was a good childhood, PS2: The best console i ever had.. oh the times i spent with it. PS3: Bought it to play cod and turned out cod sucks.. PS4: You never will get me alive!

From ps3 on i always will prefer the PC. I can upgrade it (if i figure how to open it) and get games for free

[Viper]

while i prefer pc gaming, some things just make a console appealing to me. especially rpg's like oblivion or skyrim and the like. not to mention i really dig sony's exclusives (Metal Gear Solid, Uncharted, and i cant wait for the last of us).

So ps4 for me.

I also really like having the console as a media center.

[Jackolantern]

I don't think Metal Gear Solid is going to be a Sony exclusive anymore. A collection was released for the 360, as well as the newer Revengeance spin-off. Any future proper MSG releases would likely be coming to Xbox as well.

I like PC gaming as well, but there is a certain niceness to knowing that there is nothing to deal with in getting a game to work. If it is for you console, you just buy it, put it in, maybe install part of it, and it will work, every time. No upgrading parts, no incompatibilities, etc.

[vitinho444]

while i prefer pc gaming, some things just make a console appealing to me. especially rpg's like oblivion or skyrim and the like. not to mention i really dig sony's exclusives (Metal Gear Solid, Uncharted, and i cant wait for the last of us).

So ps4 for me.

I also really like having the console as a media center.

Once i found out i could use my PS3 Controller in PC i quit PS3

[Jackolantern]

Well, the new Xbox system has been announced. And its called....the Xbox One. Wait a second though! That is what most have been calling the first Xbox that came out! So beyond that confusion (which reminds me of the issue where people called the PS1 the PSX, even though that was a separate system that came out in Japan that combined the PS1 with a DVR and other functions), the system is quite ugly, and doesn't seem to have taken aesthetics into account really at all. Obviously the new consoles are going to continue the trend of getting bigger and boxier as their internals keep getting bigger and more like a well-equipped PC (Xbox One has 8gb of RAM and 8 CPUs), but still. The PS3 was a large box system, but still tried to have a bit of style.

As a side note, Microsoft is also trying to get a piece of the second-hand game market, by requiring you to pay a fee to play second-hand games. No clue yet on how this is going to be done, but we can expect Sony to probably do something similar. This will probably also affect the game rental business, since there is little difference between a rented game and a second-hand purchased game as far as the system manufacturers are concerned.

[Callan S.]

Not sure how bad guy-ish Sony is, but I'm not fond of microsoft and not fond of supporting them (also they charge for their online 'service' which is mostly nothing but setting up peer to peer connections)...and the red ring stories, ad nausium.

Mostly the whole games market seems to be going toward 'you rent our games, you own nothing! Some stranger from far away can decide to confiscate your entire collection for whatever reason and you can suck it - and you'll still come because 66% off sale!' - particularly with steam.

The AAA companies have enough money to appear to love making games. They don't love making games. None of their executives would make a game, not even a game maker one, if they weren't being paid. It's as mercenary as hell.

I'm less inclined to find interest in finding the dominant mercenary, fake affection for game making dispenser console in future. Dominant in what? Creating digital crack (rather than creating games about things that are important to them as people instead of as conglomerates?)

[Jackolantern]

The AAA companies have enough money to appear to love making games. They don't love making games. None of their executives would make a game, not even a game maker one, if they weren't being paid. It's as mercenary as hell.

Every company wouldn't be doing what they are doing if they weren't getting paid. From the restaurant down the street to the company who made your toilet paper. Even if the devs like what they are doing and are doing it for the passion, the business decisions are made either by the CEO, who answers to the board, or by the board themselves, who all want to see the profits. I don't see anything wrong with that, as that is how big business always works. It is exactly the same with movies, music, books, etc. I love independent games, but there are some games that are simply too big to be done without the involvement of big business, in the exact same way you won't see a summer blockbuster special-effect-fest movie being made independently. The beginning investments are just too large, so it needs serious money to be made, and we can't expect others to be willing to go millions of dollars into the hole so we can have a nice game, so obviously they have to make a lot of that money back.

There are some definite issues I have with this generation of consoles, though. Most notably the fact that both console manufacturers are trying to kill the second-hand game market. We have known they have wanted to for some time, but this is hearkening back to the NES days when Nintendo got hit with anti-trust suits in their iron-fist attempt to control the market in the late 80's (different tactics for a different purpose, but still very underhanded attempts to make sweeping changes to the game market).

I have no real issue with Microsoft charging for Xbox Live. XBL is lightyears ahead of what both competing consoles offer for free, so you are getting a lot for not much (you can get XBL down to around $3 a month if you buy in bulk).