I tried to order a PS5 about a month ago, when Walmart was scheduled to drop some. Just as a sheer exercise to see if I could. I kept taking my eye off of the ball and barely missing the drop every ten minutes. So it became a challenge to overcome. And then, finally... the order actually went through.

I had the chance to pre-order before launch, but didn't really have any desire for one. The hard drive capacity seemed untenable, it looks like a life-sized obelisk/monolith, there weren't any exclusives that I really wanted, and $70 games are for the birds.

None of that has really changed since. But the difficulty of scoring one made me more curious, oddly. How green WAS that grass, really? FOMO! Plus, I figured that I could try it out, redeem the PS Plus Collection games, and then pass it along for a profit. Which I still might.

But y'know what I really hate? Like, with the intensity of a thousand suns? My PS4 Pro. Because it sounds like it has a thousand fans. Every time I boot up that clunky piece of shit and am forced to install hours of updates and just... listen to it's dynamo-esque acoustic output, I'm filled with the deepest regret. Plus, they don't sell them anymore! So they're kind of going for a lot on Amazon, seemingly. Except Amazon won't let me sell them?

Anyway, I'm still in the middle of figuring out the most financially rewarding way to kick my PS4 Pro to the curb, but I did try out the PS5. The transfer gave me some issues, but whatevvvs. And I still don't really care about the library (the PS5 library, I mean - real libraries 4 Lyfe!), but just the quiet operation and fast loading almost make it a worthwhile way to play games that I don't really enjoy.

The new Dual Sense features are really cool in Astrobot (which is also cool). The triggers seem a bit gimmicky, but the haptics really are a step up from the Switch's HD Rumble. The position of the thumbsticks is still horrible, though, and it really irritates me that Sony won't let you use DS4 controllers on PS5 games.

Will I keep it? I dunno. I got the disc version, because god(s) bless the library. I rented basically every single PS5 game the day the system arrived, and I don't really plan to buy anything day one (or maybe at all), ever. (I can't try too many at the same time, due to limited hard drive space, though. So far, I've only played Astro Bot and Fenyx Rising, which is a decent BOTW-like, if too repetitive and slavishly devoted to the Ubisoft open world formula.) It basically makes the PS4 obsolete, so if I can get a decent price for mine and keep renting everything, it will be an affordable way to play the ol' AAAAAs. The onboard media decoders stink, but it has 4K Blu Ray capability. Plus, I feel like the demand and resale value will stay high for a while.

To be honest, I was thinking of building a new PC, instead, since mine is 25 years old... but all of the parts are super-expensive right now. I'd also like to reward Xbox for their hardware design and Game Pass ecosystem, which is an insane deal, but the inertia of my existing library makes the PS5 a better choice, even though there's no easy/cheap way to try out indie games on PS5. Those guys could use the buys, anyway, I guess...

Anyway, that's my story! What are your "next-gen" plans (by which I mean modern PC/PS5/Xbox Series)? And if you've already jumped in, what do you think, so far?

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My family pooled together and tried to get me a PS5 for my birthday... only to realize that wouldn’t be possible so they just gave me $500 and said “buy it when you can.” I intend to honor that as soon as it’s possible but I’ve given up on all of the tracking website and Twitter following nonsense and am not in a real rush to get one anymore since there’s nothing I’m really dying to play right now anyway. And $70 games are indeed for the birds. I usually wait for all but Nintendo games and occasional must-plays to drop in price and I’ll definitely be doing even more of that with $70 games... another reason to go with the disc versions of these systems, as you’ll save way more than $100 by the time you score all of those cheaper games on Amazon and eBay over the years.

So yeah... my plan is to get a PS5 when I can and whatever the heck Nintendo releases as always. Xbox Series X? No plans for that but if they end up releasing some must have exclusives maybe I’ll have no choice? Guess we’ll see.

I can't imagine what would make me want a PS5 or new Xbox. I managed to snag a great gaming PC last year for Half-Life Alyx, and I'm guessing any non-Switch games that I couldn't live without playing will come out on PC. Sony's first-party cinematic games don't appeal to me at all, and on the off chance the new Halo is really cool, that's on PC!

I'm considering upgrading around September. That's about when I generally get a pile of extra cash to splurge with (Tax return, share dividends, and work bonus all hit within a month.)

Of course this assumes that they'll be easier to get then

At this point, there's nothing I "must" have for PS5 or XSX, so until the games get here, I'm not pulling the trigger on either console. Even the latest PS5 commercial shows two exclusives: one that isn't out yet (Deathloop, and that's being handled by Bethesda so my interest isn't high) and the other was showcased as the PC build (Final Fantasy XVI). That's it.

Console looks cool, controller sounds great, but I need games.

@ludist210

And Deathloop is on PC too!

I'm looking to buy a PS5 sometime next year. Though arguably if Nintendo does a Switch Pro I'll probably do that first.

I currently have zero interest in getting a new console. Give it some time for must-have games to come out, some issues with the hardware to be worked out, and a price drop and maybe I'll consider it.

I got them both at launch. My general rule with next-gen consoles & cross-gen stuff is that if there's a game (or games) coming out that I'm absolutely getting day 1, and I haven't gotten a new console yet for whatever reason, that's when I'll get it. So with Hitman 3 coming out in January and since I'd be carrying my progress over from PS4, I figured I'd at least try to get a PS5 by January. But for once, Sony actually had a launch lineup that made me want to get a PlayStation day 1. And it pretty much came down to Demon's Souls. For a lot of people it's not really a new game, but I'd held off for years on playing the original with the expectation that it was going to get some sort of rerelease or remaster at some point. So once that was there at launch, it became an easy decision for me.

The Series X...okay, that might have been a bit of an impulse purchase. Not that I haven't used it, I've played a few multiplats on there (namely Cyberpunk) but I certainly could have waited. It was a combo of getting sucked into the preorder hype and the attitude of "well, I'm going to get one at some point anyway, so why the hell not?" I dunno. It freed up my PS4 Pro and Xbox One X to give to some friends before the holiday, so if it made two people happy, then goshdarnit I guess it worked out in the end.

As for impressions, the PS5 at least gave off the illusion of a new console launch. It had a few exclusives at launch that took advantage of the new hardware, be it Demon's Souls with its visuals, or Astro's Playroom as a showcase for the new controller. With the Series X, it was more reminiscent of the launch of the Xbox One X or PS4 Pro. It felt more like the next console revision for Xbox (and to be fair, I think that's how Microsoft views their console business now. It's just one piece of their overall Xbox ecosystem). Covid certainly affected things, but I think all in all Sony put a respectable launch lineup together, whereas with the Series X I'm sure the plan was Halo: Infinite all along and that game's just not ready for prime time.

Demon's was great, played through it twice. Astro's was a delight; we've reached the point where "Playstation nostalgia" is actually a thing and I appreciated a lot of the references to their history. We'll see if the DualSense features get widely used, particularly the haptic feedback (which came across really well in Astro's). Hitman and Demon's did make good use of the adaptive triggers when shooting a gun/bow, I really do like how those feel. Overall, I love both of the new consoles' controllers. I was never a big DualShock fan until the DS4, that was the first one that didn't feel "cheap" to me, and now I think it feels that way in comparison to the DualSense. I like that it's got more weight to it now. And I've always liked the Xbox controller since the 360 days, and they've continued to iterate on that. No complaints.

So that's where I'm at. They're basically the consoles I'm playing new multiplat games on now, and I do feel and appreciate the benefits of playing games like Cyberpunk or Hitman 3 on the new consoles vs. the old consoles had I waited. But I also totally get why that wouldn't be enough of a reason to rush out and spend $400-500 bucks right now, especially if you're fine with playing cross-gen games on existing platforms and are waiting for actual next-gen exclusives. Personally, I'm happy with both of them right now. I lean towards the PS5 at this moment in time simply because it's provided the more "new generation console" experience of the two, but that can certainly change as I play more games on the Series X that take advantage of its power.

I tell myself at the start of each generation that this will be the one when I finally invest in a gaming PC, but it hasn't happened yet! Between the three consoles, I can play 99.9% of the games I'm interested in. Admittedly, I am a bit jealous when it comes to Half-Life: Alyx, though. We'll see what happens there, maybe it'll come to PSVR2. Regardless, I will play that game at some point, come hell or high water.

@TheBigG753

Yeah, I’ve been telling myself I’m going to build a gaming PC for years too. I actually bought a gaming laptop a few weeks ago but Alyx wasn’t running so hot on it (turns out it was probably the cable I was using) and I couldn’t get any VR Visual Pinball tables working despite following two lengthy tutorials, so I experienced super buyer’s remorse and got a refund on both the laptop and Alyx the next day. Where I’m at right now with that is I want a smaller form desktop PC for my living room so I can just connect it directly to my tv and play games on my couch with a lapboard or nearby VR space. I’m going to wait until it’s actually possible to get the components for a reasonable price and think about it again.

I got the XSX since a) it was easier to grab than a PS5, b) hardware-wise I had heard more horror stories about the PS5, c) not a huge fan of the XSX monolith but I sure do like it more than a giant warped book.

Also, I had toyed with the idea that I would get a PC, but eventually I let myself be convinced that the XSX was "a good machine to play games on", came to understand that that as expensive as it is, a PC would cost more, and that ultimately decided that I'm not a guy who installs mods and shit, and never will be.

I don't regret my decision. With how inexpensive converting 2 years of Live into GamePass Ultimate ended up being, it's been paying off. I've played a bunch of co-op games with Karen on the thing, and if there's a game we don't end up liking for whatever reason, we just move on to the next one. Works great.

I also completely skipped the previous gen save for Nintendo stuff, so mainly I've been catching up on the XSX, playing Yakuza or Nier Automata. If I had owned a PS4 last gen, I probably would have waited on getting a new system.

TheBigG753 said:

Admittedly, I am a bit jealous when it comes to Half-Life: Alyx, though. We'll see what happens there, maybe it'll come to PSVR2.

It has to, right? It'd be a huge selling point for Sony, and Valve's mission is to bring VR to the masses. Assuming the PS5 can run it, I don't know why Half-Life Alyx wouldn't get a port!

Remember when Portal 2 came out on PS3 and they said Steam was gonna get full integration with PSN?

I'll probably get something when they get cheap, at least as pre-owned consoles. I got the XBO used for $400 after it came out, and didn't get PS4 until I got a Slim and Uncharted 4 for $220. Still don't really see a reason to upgrade, though of course I am wowed by the new gen's speed and load times.

Honestly, I first need at least one title that to me is must have that I can't really get on the systems I have, or at least, can't get in a decent form. Which could be Resident Evil 8, since I doubt that will run all that well on the PS4.

After that, I dunno. A few more games and a price drop and then I'll jump in.

@Secret_Tunnel

Yeah, I don't see anything stopping it from happening from either a technical or business standpoint. It's just a matter of is there mutual interest on each side to get it done. I would think there would be, but you never know.

To me, they're easily the most redundant systems yet, absolutely zero interest in them. I guess it goes to show that the gap between my interests and what the average mainstream consumer cares about continues to widen with each generation.

@Mop it up
Honestly, I think the mainstream audience is jumping off the next-gen cliff just as a matter of inertia. And will continue to play mostly CoD, Assassin's Creed, FIFA, MADDEN, and Fortnite. I mean, there are barely any exclusive games, months after launch. How could there be a killer app?

Maybe the "killer app" isn't even necessary anymore, in this age of entertainment starvation/content overload. Except for with Nintendo, perhaps? I have to wonder if the Switch would've taken off without BotW and MK8. Although the Wii U underperformed, even with both games, so maybe it would've.

Guillaume said:

Also, I had toyed with the idea that I would get a PC, but eventually I let myself be convinced that the XSX was "a good machine to play games on", came to understand that that as expensive as it is, a PC would cost more, and that ultimately decided that I'm not a guy who installs mods and shit, and never will be.

I thought the same, but the Duck Game mods are outrageous. They elevate it to an 11/10 game!

(But they can also still run on a laptop.)


It's funny that so many of us are PCrastinating. One day, in the far-flung future, NW will become a PC-only board! And we'll all brag about emulating the Nintendo Quark at 1024 frames per second in holovideo.

@Anand

PC gamers and Nintendo fanboys have always had a strange alliance in the console wars. I remember looking up to them back in the Wii days on IGN; they were obviously and smugly superior to their PS3 and 360 counterparts, yet had sympathy for the Nintendo underdogs who were at least trying to do something different.

PC and Switch really is a great combination, and way moreso now than it was ten years ago. Like you said in the other thread, I really don't get Sony and Microsoft's strategy here with giving all their games away for free and putting them all on PC. I guess they're just relying on people not wanting to put the effort into setting up a PC? That is the one downside, PC stuff is still jankier.

...except now that jank is on the consoles as well, with their dozens of options for adjusting how the game looks and plays, and multiple versions of the game across different versions of the console. The idea of getting a canonical experience is really out the window at this point, save for Nintendo.

I wonder why Steamboxes never took off? If Valve could just improve their wonky Big Picture Mode interface and slap that on a proprietary machine, you'd think people would be all over it. Sell it at a loss, make it super cheap, bankrupt Sony and Microsoft, and then rake in even more money from the 30% they take out of every Steam sale. Or maybe they're trying to not draw attention to themselves with all the talk of tech monopolies...

Secret_Tunnel said:

PC gamers and Nintendo fanboys have always had a strange alliance in the console wars. I remember looking up to them back in the Wii days on IGN; they were obviously and smugly superior to their PS3 and 360 counterparts, yet had sympathy for the Nintendo underdogs who were at least trying to do something different.

PC and Switch really is a great combination, and way moreso now than it was ten years ago. Like you said in the other thread, I really don't get Sony and Microsoft's strategy here with giving all their games away for free and putting them all on PC. I guess they're just relying on people not wanting to put the effort into setting up a PC? That is the one downside, PC stuff is still jankier.

Yeah, PC and Nintendo platforms are pretty synergistic. (Until the Nintendo system gets emulated!)

I get Microsoft's strategy, kind of. They're a software/service company. They don't really care if you buy the software (or subscribe to the service) on PC or Xbox or on the cloud. Except for not being able to charge for online nor get a 30% cut of third-party software on PC, but it looks like they're trying to eliminate that imbalance by merging Xbox Live Gold and Game Pass and bringing Game Pass to PC.

But they must be eating so much of the cost of Game Pass, particularly with the crazy conversion deals. Plus all of this shit that they're acquiring these days. So how long term is their ultimate goal? And is that goal even constant? It seems to have evolved from having the set-top box that you run everything through (oops, Smart TVs) to having the most widely-used subscription service. They started out funding exclusives, then paring them back in favor of third-party deals, and now they're back to exclusives for their subscription service. But when do they project that they'll start turning a profit? Is the whole idea of the Xbox brand just running on inertia?

Sony, yeah. I don't know what the hell they're doing, but they're effectively training me to never buy any of their games, ever. With the backwards compatibility, freebies, and free service games, one could conceivably buy a PS5 and not buy any software for years.

Secret_Tunnel said:

I wonder why Steamboxes never took off?

Same reason that Stadia didn't, right? Linux!

You know who wouldn't have any issue with a service that streams Windows games, though...

I ended up getting a PS5 at Christmas because it was literally the ONLY thing my son wanted last year. I'm not sure why, but I assume it was because all his buddies at school wanted one as well, and...FOMO. I guess.

It seems like a fine machine, but if it was up to me, I would have waited. There's nothing really to play on it. Nothing exclusive and compelling, anyway. My son beat Spider-Man: Miles Morales and completed Astro's Playroom (which has nothing to do with The Jetson's dog, unfortunately). But now all he uses the PS5 for is Fortnite which seems silly to me since we own that game on EVERY PLATFORM THAT GAME HAS COME OUT ON WHICH IS LIKE A MILLION AT THIS POINT.

I have zero interest in the Xbox platform. Except for the 360, Microsoft's hardware was never really compelling to me. I haven't bothered with an Xbox since the 360.

Anand said:

Sony, yeah. I don't know what the hell they're doing, but they're effectively training me to never buy any of their games, ever. With the backwards compatibility, freebies, and free service games, one could conceivably buy a PS5 and not buy any software for years.

It's funny you mention that. A buddy of mine bought a PS4 (years ago), signed up for Playstation Plus, and then never bought a game for it. Just whatever was offered monthly, he'd download it and play it. I have no idea how Sony is making money off of him, but he's a happy gamer. So whatevs, I guess!

@GameDadGrant Well, you already explained it, FOMO. Consumers want the next big thing day one so they can be part of the cultural zeitgeist around it, they don't want to wait months to see if Sony eventually releases it as a free game and then play it long after all of their friends have stopped talking about it.

Well, most people I think.

Also, Playstation Plus is what, 50 bucks a year?, and if someone uses it for 5-6 years that's probably ultimately not that different from the money the average consumer would have spent on games. We're "hardcore" gamers here and all love buying a ton of games but I think the attach rate for most systems is only like 5-6 games or whatever? I have no idea how much money Sony keeps from Playstation Plus versus how much they get from licensing fees on the average game sold blah blah blah so I don't really know how to compare these two numbers, but I'd wager they end up in about the same spot either way.