TLDR: The leap from this gen to the next just isn’t that impressive (yet)..
As of right now we have release dates and we have prices for Sony and Microsoft’s upcoming consoles.. and tbh... I just don’t care..
Huh? What is your problem?!
I’ve been gaming since the late 80’s (yup I’m getting old AF) and throughout the console evolutionary journey, there was always something great to look forward to with the next generation of hardware...
From Mario and Sonic on the classic NES and Master System the leap from 8-Bit to 16-Bit was the anticipation of playing video games that looked like they were straight out of a comic available 24/7 in solo or 2 player game modes. Titles like Super Mario Kart just took fun to a whole new level. Controllers with More buttons meant more moves,
When the Sega Saturn and Sony PSX hit the shelves in 1995, the arcade machines I’d been feeding little gold coins into were in for a shock... the 32-Bit consoles were bringing the arcade games into your home and they were doing it well.. Daytona, Ridge Racer, Virtua Fighter, Tekken, Virtua Cop, Time Crisis... oh man, the arcade classic list just goes on and on... that’s not even mentioning some genre changing games like Gran Turismo, Final Fantasy 7, Tony Hawks, Resident Evil, Tomb Raider, Metal Gear Solid... the list doesn’t end. With titles like Nights and Wipeout pushing the boundaries really early on, the future of consoles and gaming appeared very bright. Being a CD format also meant the audio tracks in the games could easily use real licensed titles. This generation meant owners could also play all their music CDs via their CD based consoles.
Not long after comes the Nintendo 64 armed with a freak of a controller, FOUR yup four controller ports (bye bye multi-tap), in tow with games that burnt themselves into my frontal lobe... Mario 64, Goldeneye, Wave Race, Perfect Dark are just incredibly beautiful games that I reflect on instantly when I think about the history of gaming. These games were visually incredible, well thought out and considered, single player and multiplayer experiences that at the time, had little competition overall (yeah yeah, just my opinion).
For the next round of competition the PlayStation 2 and Dreamcast continued the tradition of bringing more capable functional hardware, visually incredible graphics and mind blowing games to the market. This generation also brought an entry from Microsoft in the form of the Xbox while Nintendo introduced the quirky (mini-DVD) GameCube. This generation allowed certain owners to now watch DVDs from their consoles.
After spending many sleepless nights of endurance races in Gran Turismo 2, Gran Turismo 3 came along and just blew my mind visually... and then there’s the audio... just the sound of the cars was music to a teenage boys ears. Titles like Metal Gear Solid 2, Grand Theft Auto, Burnout, Zone of Enders were just oozing with creativity and these were extremely immersive experiences.
Microsoft’s Xbox or should I say Halo... where do I start with Halo... initially coming from a largely Sony and Nintendo allegiance but always exploring & adoring the Sega brand, I was not jumping out of my seat to explore Microsoft’s brute entry into the console wars. At the time I was regularly playing Gran Turismo 3 and Perfect Dark’s Combat Simulator. After a co-op play through of Halo on Legendary I was in awe at the level size, design, story, gunfights, physics, characters, weapons and vehicles. The ever changing battles from the AI was satisfying in a way that only Perfect Dark’s combat simulator could even come close to rivaling. I was sold, even if initially only because of the Master Chief and his Covenant rivals and what would eventually be their A Grade successor titles. The multiplayer in the Halo games is unique and balanced in such a great way that you need to play it to ever really understand it.
The next generation brought Nintendo’s Wii, Sony’s PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360. This generation early on tried to focus on their accessories, Nintendo’s wii remote acted as a pointer and a controller that would receive inputs from the 3D space, this worked via a sensor bar. The Xbox 360 came in with wireless contollers and they launched the Kinect, their motion sensing camera. Microsoft’s offering also had a strong focus on being a media centre, not just a gaming console. The PlayStation 3 had their dual shock 3 controllers, a built in Blue Ray Player and wireless connectivity and Sony launched their PlayStation Eye Camera. Another key difference with this generation of consoles was where the world was globally in terms of access to the big World Wide Web. This generation made use of this by creating subscription platforms that allowed users to game with one another (YAY!!). The advantage that PC gamers always had was online play and this was a real turning point for the other (still) ongoing war, PC vs Consoles.
You may be starting to get an idea of how console evolution drove experiences in so many ways, the consoles were capable of more, evolving every generation to incorporate media capabilities at an affordable cost, developers seemed focused on pushing the boundaries, creating experiences and worlds that our minds had never fathomed. The games inspired so much creativity, unknowingly unlocking future artists, musicians and developers.
As we are on the cusp of the launches of Sony and Microsoft’s latest offerings (I will reframe from venting into Microsoft’s choices for console names... W T F Microsoft?!) lets quickly look at what currently stands as the current generation..
Xbox One (2013)
Xbox One S (2016)
Xbox One X (2017)
PlayStation 4 (2013)
PlayStation 4 Slim (2016)
PlayStation 4 Pro (2016)
We’ve had a pretty good run with this generation, from my narrow perspective there’s been a tonne of CoDs, some more Battlefields, Halo changed hands (and as a hardcore Master Chief fan I was disappointed at the result), Gran Turismo was surpassed by the Forza and Project Cars franchises, GTA V, well the current gen remake of the amazingly impressive 360/PS3 game still seems to be going strong and Red Dead Redemption gives a hint into what the mechanics of the next GTA might offer. The subscription services continued to be quite worthwhile with free titles available every month and Microsoft’s Game Pass has been viewed quite favourably globally. Cross Platform Play is finally a common reality, people make money from streaming games is also common place and the consoles are capable media players..
I’m not overly blown away by this generation and this is because of the developers of game franchises that I came to love, they aren’t that much of a leap from the previous generation.. Halo/Battlefield/CoD/Forza, they all looked awesome on the previous generation but they don’t seem that improved.
Sony has been encompassing boundaries that I thought Microsoft would have been at the forefront of, integration of the PSP/Vita with the Sony Console and the PS VR in my opinion have been largely under marketed. As times have changed, smart devices like mobile phones and to a lesser extent tablets (thanks to the unforeseen growth of the internet) have become the main platform that we view our media on, social media platforms grow exponentially while free to air television and radio are now dying mediums. What made Sony so successful with the original PlayStation was the marketing, the TV campaigns and the magazine ads were prevalent, discussed and memories of a guy binning the PlayStation as part of the Society Against PlayStation (SAPS) still come to mind. Being the tech giants with the money that Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo behind them, I’m really surprised that FaceBook and Instagram at the very least aren’t plagued with sponsored ads of their upcoming consoles, that influencers aren’t out there hyping up new games, consoles & peripherals.. who is in charge of the marketing for these companies??
The 2020 consoles are armed with impressive hardware, coming in with AMD 8 Core Zen 2 CPUs, AMD RDNA2 graphics, 16GB DDR6 Ram, SSD’s & Ultra HD Blue-Ray players... but the games shown on them so far aren’t what I’ve grown up expecting from the “Next Generation” of consoles.. where’s the wow factor? Maybe my expectations are too high, perhaps once I play the new offerings in 4K at 60 frames per second I’ll be able to immerse myself into the finer details and lighting effects that are on course with the latest offerings but after seeing what the Unreal Engine is able to do I guess I was hoping for full titles showcasing these capabilities.
I guess what I’ve in a really long winded way tried to convey is, new consoles used to bring leaps and bounds in technology, graphics, games and experiences but even this generation doesn’t seem to really push the boundaries much past what the last one did... when it comes to games a lot of the big developers seem to be churning out title after title, cashing in on DLC or micro-transactions, with no real quantity to the games. I’m just not excited for the new consoles because no games have drawn me in and until something that knocks my socks off appears I won’t be getting either in a hurry... I’m just gonna be quietly hoping I get to see some games made ONLY for the new generation and in the meantime silently satisfied playing the Tony Hawk remakes and frustratingly battling PC hackers in CoD Warzone.
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