What happened with Gen 9 consoles?

[Grindspine]

This video is worth a watch. It is a good commentary on the state of the Xbox Series X/S and PS5 nowadays...

Annddd... as a related follow up, what happened with the modern Halo games?

[CreepinDeth]

I've only watched the first video and my reply is only about that one. It's not a bad video. Some good points but I would argue some of his reasoning is a bit subjective. I personally don't think it's the worse gen. I highly prefer it to the 360/PS3 days due to the fact that we don't have consoles with exotic CPUs.

But I think he might not be fully seeing why gaming is the way it is today, even though he kind of touches on it. The reason is capitalism. A lot of game companies have investors. They're not really independent like they used to be. Making games is not just hard, but incredibly expensive these days. If a game fails to make their sales projections, then you see layoffs and project cancellations.

This is why you see a bunch of Fortnite/CoD/R6/Overwatch clones coming out. Actually, it's not just capitalism, it's also gamers who created this themselves. Gamers these days want instant gratification. They want games that are constantly updated with more content.

See, developers/publishers are not just competing for money, they are competing for gamer's time/attention as well. These battle royale/multiplayer games are constantly at the top of the most time played on PC and console. If gamers are only playing one game, then other games are going to fail and that starts a domino effect. And if they're also putting money into these by purchasing battle packs (or whatever you call them) then other games are going to have a tough time competing. Gamers only have so much money to put into their hobby.

It's a tough industry. Many are losing their jobs because of failed sales projections, so you see remake after remake coming out because those will usually bring in a little more money than a brand new IP.

I would argue the consoles themselves aren't the issue. I'm glad the PS5 and Xbox Series X|S exist because they are not held back by crappy Jaguar CPUs like the PS4/XBone. It's just that we are now in an era where the industry has trapped itself into having to produce ridiculous profits to survive.

[BLUEVOODU]

@CreepinDeth - I think that's a pretty good assessment.   Gamers have a hand in this for sure.

I will also say... it's not just gaming... what you see here is now a world-wide phenomena.  What does that mean?? 

The entire world has been stuck since just before 2000.  Salaries have been stuck for many... only until recently were salaries going up a bit.  I would argue it's only in some industries.  Cars... yeah, there's been technological improvements... but they all look the same.   Music ... almost everything is on the table now.  I would argue this is a great thing for many older established musicians though.  For newer musicians, there appears to be a rubber stamp they need to hit.  There are tons and tons of examples.

A rubber stamp has been figured out for many industries.  They don't really deviate from the formula.  Capitalism, we can argue, is the issue.  I would argue it goes beyond that ... it's the way of the world now.

I don't see an easy way out as creativity is not really rewarded outside a select few examples.

[Grindspine]

I upgraded my computer monitor, but even though a PS5 or Xbox Series X seems like I can swing the cost, I just don't see any appeal in either console.

What happened to first-party and console exclusive games? Why buy a console when I can get the same game on PC?

[CreepinDeth]

What happened to first-party and console exclusive games?

They don't make enough money anymore.

EDIT: To elaborate more, it's basically what I said in my original reply. Games are so expensive to make these days that locking them down to a single console is actually a money losing proposition.

Just look at all of the publishers/developers who have gone back to Steam despite the fact that Epic provides a better cut of the money. You have to reach as many customers as possible to make your money back and net a profit.

The only 1st party that actually bet on the right horse was Nintendo. They stopped chasing the fidelity train. Sony and Microsoft are stuck with having to produce even more powerful hardware to entice customers to keep coming back. Gamers want the "best" graphics so that's who they have to cater to. And when you're chasing graphics, your budget skyrockets.

[targetrasp]

The quest for profits seems to always turn into an Icarus scenario. Something good becomes better and better as interest is generated, little guys make a name for themselves and turn into big guys, marketing explodes, big guys start buying up little guys, big guys start paying more for little guys, big guys get too big, margins become miniscule, ceo's and board of directors go from people within the industry to some flavor of investment banker, min max hits harder, creativity, innovation (in the sense of taking risks / trying something new) becomes too costly and we get Madden 75, Call of Duty 400, and a whole lot of vanilla flavored games, all be it on fantastic hardware with pretty graphics.

Not chasing bleeding edge technology affords Nintendo some liberties, but they still play it pretty safe with their games. They stick close to the Zelda, Mario, Pokemon staples (peppering in some pikmin, kirby, and DK) and haven't had a new IP of note since Ring Fit in 2019 and Splatoon before that in 2015. They took lumps with the Wii U, N64, GCN, and the Virtual Boy but have persevered and always put out great games.

I think Nintendo's business model will keep them in the console space while Sony and Microsoft are destined to dissolve off into the PC space. I've already decided to not buy a new Xbox or Playstation, despite having chased after each previous iteration. I just hope Nintendo continues to innovate, take risks on peripherals as well as games, and put out another Kid Icarus, Earthbound, 1080, wave race, excite bike, or better yet, the next unforgettable IP that'll be able to stand with the Mario, Zelda Pokemon tentpoles.

[Grindspine]

I agree with a lot of those points. Xbox has pretty much been absorbed by PC. The only appeal for Xbox seems to be for those who don't have or cannot afford a gaming PC. There is just so much shared space between the Series X and a decent gaming PC.

Sony has had a mainstay of home theater systems for a long time. That affords one benefit to someone wanting to add a media player and/or gaming console. That idea may be dying with so many TVs having smart streaming features. I noticed my recently purchased Samsung TV has some gaming available on it as well. I have not delved too deeply into it since we are mostly using it for streaming.