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Punting on Next-Gen?

With the industry seemingly tone deaf to consumer requests to not go all-digital and tech prices skyrocketing with no end in sight, will gamers support the next-gen or will there be a wholesale acceptance that what we currently have is “good enough?”  – TheWriteKevin79 via Instagram

Even before the impending abandonment of physical discs in PlayStation’s next-generation hardware (and rumors swirling that Xbox could follow suit), there were serious concerns about the viability of next-generation consoles. Neither the PlayStation 5 nor Xbox Series X/S have outsold their predecessors, indicating that many fans now see generational upgrades as less essential than before. This is likely thanks to more cross-generation games for longer into the current hardware’s lifecycles, plus the fact that the graphics (traditionally a major selling point for consoles) weren’t as markedly better than the PS4 and Xbox One; framerates and loading times are harder improvements to sell to a wider, more casual audience. Add skyrocketing prices due to component shortages and international trade policies, and it would have already been a lot to ask many folks to buy extremely expensive hardware in a time when many are financially struggling.

Honestly, the unpopular plan to remove physical media is just some extra thunder in an otherwise perfect storm. Most players buy their games digitally today; that is true. But the removal of physical media also removes another aspect: competition. If you want to pick up a game you missed from last year, you can go to every store, compare prices online, and look at used games or sales so that you can get the best price possible. The removal of a disc drive means that if the platform holder doesn’t want to drop a price, it never has to. You could draw the comparison to Steam within the PC market, but unlike the PC, which has Epic Games Store, GOG, and other digital storefronts, we don’t think PlayStation or Xbox plan on letting third-party stores onto their proprietary hardware. It all adds up to both PlayStation and Xbox needing to really make the case for why their new hardware is worth what will likely be an unprecedented amount of money.