Is the current generation of game consoles underwhelming so far?

[mathew101281]

It feels that way to me right now to me. To me their just doesn't seem to be a big enough jump between today's games and last generation's to warrant getting to excited. Maybe the incoming advent of vr will give us the big evolution that I'm looking for.

[jump]

I find it funny that games less than a year old are getting HD remakes are people getting excited about it, it's early days so it takes a while for developers to really push the new consoles especially since they have to be designed to work on the last gen too.

[Xero Kaiser]

especially since they have to be designed to work on the last gen too.

And this right here is why the current consoles seem so underwhelming. The sooner they drop the old gen and truly move forward, the better.

[Nyssane]

And this right here is why the current consoles seem so underwhelming. The sooner they drop the old gen and truly move forward, the better.

The problem is that many gamers don't purchase the new consoles until a year or two after they've been released (let's be real here, $400-$500 is a pretty high price point for a console that isn't too drastically different from the previous one). So if developers want their games to sell, they need to develop them for 360 and PS3 along with One and PS4.

Then again, if they pushed for more great games exclusively on next-gen consoles, it would then push more consumers to buy the systems. But that's a risky approach.

[Xero Kaiser]

The problem is that many gamers don't purchase the new consoles until a year or two after they've been released (let's be real here, $400-$500 is a pretty high price point for a console that isn't too drastically different from the previous one)

It only seems like there's no drastic difference because Sony and MS don't want to let the last generation go. Nobody was playing NES hand-me-downs on their SNES. The PS2 didn't launch with a bunch of crap you could buy on the PS1. When the 360 launched, MS was quick to leave the original Xbox behind. But look at this gen. It's been almost a year and what can you really get on the X1 that you can't get on the 360? Ryse? Crimson Dragon?

Of course, support for the last gen doesn't stop overnight, but I've never seen the gaming industry so scared to move forward before.

[The Drunkard Kid]

Eh, the next gen has been out for less than a year and it generally takes at least a year to develop a unique AAA console game for a console that you aren't learning to program from scratch.

Not to mention that the same companies that are making games for the PS4/X1 are also making games for the PS3 and other current gen systems on the grounds that they've more or less mastered those programming systems and there is a huge install base that they don't feel like alienated by jumping ship on them.

EDIT: And yes, they generally do create games for old systems for years after new systems debut. The NES were getting their own versions of SNES games like TMNT Tournament Fighters and the like alongside the SNES and the Genesis, and the PS2 was releasing hit (at the time) exclusive games like Persona 3/FES and Persona 4 alongside and years after the PS3's debut, as well as getting ports of Sonic Unleashed. Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess was multi-platform for the Gamecube and the Wii. And they were still releasing PSP games years after the PSVita came along, and even got at least one new game out after Sony stopped making PSPs, and more may still come out.

[Big Geek]

Not to mention that the same companies that are making games for the PS4/X1 are also making games for the PS3 and other current gen systems on the grounds that they've more or less mastered those programming systems and there is a huge install base that they don't feel like alienated by jumping ship on them.

A friend of mine has been the creative director for a number games. What I understand is that most games are in development for 3-5 years before they see the light of day. The amount of wasted cost for these games to have been developed for XBox 360 or PS3 for 3 years and to just scrap them and develop it for the XBox One or PS4 would be too vast to do. I think it will take until 2015-16 at the earliest before we see games show us what these consoles are truly capable of.

[SocializingMogo]

It only seems like there's no drastic difference because Sony and MS don't want to let the last generation go. Nobody was playing NES hand-me-downs on their SNES. The PS2 didn't launch with a bunch of crap you could buy on the PS1. When the 360 launched, MS was quick to leave the original Xbox behind. But look at this gen. It's been almost a year and what can you really get on the X1 that you can't get on the 360? Ryse? Crimson Dragon?

Of course, support for the last gen doesn't stop overnight, but I've never seen the gaming industry so scared to move forward before.

There were several games initially for PS2 that were pushed to PS3, one of them is the infamous Dead Premonition.

[The Drunkard Kid]

Also, the 360 and original PS3 models were largely backwards compatible with the XBox and the PS2, so anyone who made the jump still had access to their old games as well as any new games that were being released for the previous gen, so they had more motivation to make the jump, giving developers the incentive to make the jump themselves.

[simbob4000]

It only seems like there's no drastic difference because Sony and MS don't want to let the last generation go. Nobody was playing NES hand-me-downs on their SNES. The PS2 didn't launch with a bunch of crap you could buy on the PS1. When the 360 launched, MS was quick to leave the original Xbox behind. But look at this gen. It's been almost a year and what can you really get on the X1 that you can't get on the 360? Ryse? Crimson Dragon?

Of course, support for the last gen doesn't stop overnight, but I've never seen the gaming industry so scared to move forward before.

The PS2 was completely backwards compatible with the PS1, and there were still PS1 games coming out a few years after the PS2 came out, like some of those old Final Fantasy games and Chrono Trigger. There were also Persona games coming out on the PS2 a few years into the PS3. Microsoft wouldn't have left the original Xbox behind like they did if it was anywhere near as big a the 360 is.

Aren't all the things Microsoft put out for the Xbox One things you can't get on 360? I know you can't get Forza Motorsport 5, Killer Instinct, and Dead Rising 3 on 360.