So... PS4 or Xbox One?

ganon578 · Post by **ganon578** » Tue May 21, 2013 10:02 pm

...I guess you can throw Wii U in there too, though it's more like current generation hardware with a fancy tablet.

And please don't drop any fanboy trolling on here, there's no need for that anywhere.

Now that the Microsoft reveal is over with, we know for sure that there will be two new consoles to consider in the next year or so. The PS4 dropped with a big splash a while back, the impending Xbox reveal just wrapped up earlier today, and the Wii U has been on the market for a bit, but has gone quite stagnant due to the lack of killer software (which will hopefully pick up in the coming months).

So where is your money going? Nowhere? Anywhere? All three?

Personally, I will be sitting it all out for a while for a number of reasons, but not that I am uninterested in the hardware (quite the opposite, actually):

1) I just got my 360 2.5 years ago and my PS3 1.5 years ago. With the limited gameplay time I have, there's still a massive library out there for me to play on both of those consoles.

2) With a family, house, and two vehicles to keep up with, I don't have $300-$500 USD lying around waiting to be spent on a new console.

3) Nintendo hasn't sold me on their system... yet. I'm a diehard for their systems and software, but I have no idea when Zelda or the next 3D Mario is coming. Pikmin (as charming as it is) isn't winning me over anytime soon. Currently there's just not much to play there that I can't enjoy on a system I already own.

So whenever I get around to it (however many years from now), I will pick up one of these three. At this point I don't have much allegiance to any company (save for Zelda). I enjoy playing Halo and the XBL experience as a whole over PSN, and I'm rather happy with the 360 controller. The PS3, however, has gained a lot of momentum in my basement lately, due to the games I have picked up for it, a change to a new controller (Afterglow Wireless), and the built-in Bluray player. It's all up in the air for me!

Anyone investing this year?

Post by **Sades** » Wed May 22, 2013 1:58 am

Xbox One. If I'm lucky enough to have enough disposable income at some point/generous relatives who will chip in for it come the holiday season...

Notabot · Post by **Notabot** » Wed May 22, 2013 2:38 am

I'm a Playstation guy through and through, but I have never purchased a system until at least 2 years after it's out. Mostly for monetary reasons, partly because I too have a backlog that keeps me entertained just fine, and because it usually takes a while for them to get the bugs out and come up with what people actually want anyway. (The initial design of the PS3 was soooooo ugly!)
So I'm not buying anything until probably Black Friday of 2014.

angloconvoy · Post by **angloconvoy** » Wed May 22, 2013 2:24 pm

Not even slightly excited about either console yet. In fact, given the way they're increasingly becoming crap PCs (a trend that really started with the current generation) I'm getting more and more attracted to the idea of just building a gaming pc and abandoning consoles. Console-wise, my next purchase is most likely to be PS Vita.

Springer85 · Post by **Springer85** » Wed May 22, 2013 2:59 pm

Notabot wrote:I'm a Playstation guy through and through, but I have never purchased a system until at least 2 years after it's out.

This.

I'm probably going to spend my money on a PS4 eventually, because I've always had a PS system.

Cyberstrike nTo · Post by **Cyberstrike nTo** » Wed May 22, 2013 4:40 pm

The one that is the cheapest.

StoneCold Skywarp · Post by **StoneCold Skywarp** » Wed May 22, 2013 5:08 pm

angloconvoy wrote:Console-wise, my next purchase is most likely to be PS Vita.

I'm sorely tempted by the vita too. Thing is I have the PSP Go! and never use it, same as my Nintendo DS, so can't justify the spend even with all the free games on PS+

TBH, I would go for the ps4. I've never really cared for the Xbox systems at all (and I've sold enough of them in the past!) and nothing in the presentation really wowed me.

I don't care about kinect or any of that stuff. The thing that should sell these consoles are the games.

I put on Facebook that I'm more likely to pick up the PS4 but only when it drops to the £200 mark. The PS3 I have is more than capable of doing everything I need it to: blu-ray player, media hub, games consoles, streaming content.

Happy days.

Post by **Warcry** » Wed May 22, 2013 7:03 pm

I've got zero interest in any of the three so far, and it'll probably take a while before that changes.

Notabot wrote:partly because I too have a backlog that keeps me entertained just fine

This is basically my attitude to any new console launch. If there's only going to be one or two games I want to play on it, I'm not going to buy the thing. I got my Wii in 2011 and my 360 last year, and I've got a solid backlog of games I want to play on both before I move on to a new system.

StoneCold Skywarp wrote:I don't care about kinect or any of that stuff. The thing that should sell these consoles are the games.

Same here. The Xbox team spent their whole presentation going on about how you can use the thing for social networking, how it can work as a cable box, how Kinect can do voice commands, etc, etc, but didn't say a single word about gameplay, which says to me that they don't really understand their own target market. Nobody is going to buy an Xbox for any of those things -- they'll buy it for the games, with the rest being a nice bonus. I mean, my wife and I use our current consoles for Netflix a lot but we'd never buy one just for Netflix.

The lack of backwards compatibility is a real failure too, especially since the 360 doesn't exactly have a reputation for robustness. Whether I get a PS4 or the new Xbox I'll have to keep a 360 on hand to play my 360 games regardless, which is going to hurt the brand loyalty they've developed as people moved from the original Xbox to the 360 (or from the PS1 to it's two successors). This is one area where the WiiU has a leg up on the competition.

Post by **inflatable dalek** » Wed May 22, 2013 8:30 pm

Slightly dumb non gamer question, but why are they calling it X-Box One? It makes it sound 359 times less good than the 360...

Post by **Warcry** » Wed May 22, 2013 8:41 pm

The implication is that it's the one piece of entertainment-related hardware that you'll need in your home because it does "everything", I think.

Post by **Denyer** » Wed May 22, 2013 9:10 pm

Not fussed, really. The stuff I play occasionally is on the Wii and PS2 and more about the games (and pvp) than the hardware and graphics. Not interested in HD TV -- I watch most things on a tablet these days, if at all, since it's easy to stream to one.

Lots of things hit "good enough" quite some time back, IMO. And retro stuff's often more appealing and has been thoroughly vetted by years of re-appraisal.

Knightdramon · Post by **Knightdramon** » Wed May 22, 2013 10:14 pm

PS4 through and through, but not until a year or more has passed since launch.

It appears, as I'm getting older, than I'm giving less a damn for franchises than I did when I was younger.

Earlier on, it's which console would get more resident evil titles [which got me a camecube]. After playing only the first half of RE5 and quitting, I'm not into it anymore.

So now its Dead Space, MGS, God of War and the WFC/FOC games. So probably a PS4 for all of them.

Notabot · Post by **Notabot** » Wed May 22, 2013 11:34 pm

inflatable dalek wrote:Slightly dumb non gamer question, but why are they calling it X-Box One? It makes it sound 359 times less good than the 360...

Microsoft has a thing for non-linear numbering. Windows 95, then 98, then 7. I think it's determined less by logic and reason and more by Yahtzee.

Heinrad · Post by **Heinrad** » Thu May 23, 2013 1:20 am

I'll probably go PS4. After it's been out for a bit.

A friend of mine wanted me to get a WiiU a while ago, but I said I'd rather stick with my 3DS. When I asked him a few weeks ago, he said just get a Wii, because Nintendo dropped the ball on putting stuff out for the U.

Post by **Clay** » Thu May 23, 2013 2:35 am

I think this image neatly illustrates the problem with subsequent console generations:

Even as the polygon count increases exponentially, the perception of increased detail plateaus. And if that's the case, you have little reason to buy a new console if your existing equipment has plenty of titles that are fun to play.

Notabot · Post by **Notabot** » Thu May 23, 2013 5:56 pm

That's a great illustration! I'll have to keep that one.
Remember when the Playstation came out and we were so impressed with how lifelike the images were? Or (if you can remember) how amazing the Atari 7800 was compared to the 2600? There really isn't anything right now that can be revolutionized, is there, graphics or otherwise?

Post by **Denyer** » Thu May 23, 2013 6:38 pm

Clay wrote:Even as the polygon count increases exponentially, the perception of increased detail plateaus.

True, but rendering realistic light sources requires a hell of a lot of processing power, and getting it a bit wrong (especially faces) means you end up in uncanny valley territory.

ganon578 · Post by **ganon578** » Thu May 23, 2013 7:51 pm

Interesting to see a lot of you are on the same boat as I am:

Wait for a while and get it when it's cheaper and the current console cycle really dies out. I used to be a day-one kind of guy... I managed by some act of God to actually get a Wii on launch day by pure luck, and my original DS was a launch day system too. As time has worn on, I'm not as fussed to get these things the day they arrive. The Wii U is a great example; had I bought one of those at launch it would have been moot since those things are shelf-warming worse than DOTM Bumblebees.

As for graphics, I don't believe I will be incredibly impressed with what comes out on this next cycle. There are still a lot of games on the 360/PS3 that I marvel at (God of War: Ascension being a recent example).

And I don't really have any desire to buy a system for the multimedia capabilities. Bluray player? Sure. My PS3 does that. And I already have DirecTV, so there really isn't a drive for me to do Netflix or Hulu Plus on a system.

Knightdramon · Post by **Knightdramon** » Thu May 23, 2013 9:10 pm

On that topic, how many of you actually play games for longer than 5 hours a week anymore?

When I was in primary school/junior high, I'd easily clock in around 9 hours daily on my PSX.

High school, got up to 13 hours or so on my PS2/gamecube each day.

2009 when I got the PS3, I played MGS4 for like 5 hours straight just to finish the first chapter because I had no clue the game auto saved and didn't want to lose anything.

Today I played for like 30 minutes FOC on my PS3...and it's the first time I've played any console videogame since early February.

So yes...it'll be a while before I commit to any new console.

Post by **Warcry** » Thu May 23, 2013 10:04 pm

Knightdramon wrote:On that topic, how many of you actually play games for longer than 5 hours a week anymore?

Occasionally, but on average probably not. Compared to my high school days when I was burning up whole days playing Goldeneye and Perfect Dark with my buddies, my gaming time has decreased a lot.

If I get a new game that I really like, I can sometimes sink that much time per day into it. I burned through all three Mass Effect games in under a month the first time around and a playthrough on each game takes around 40 hours (not something I'd recommend you try). But on the other hand, I can also go three or four months without even firing up the machines.