Why bother buying an 8th generation console?

[BlackDS]

With the 8th generation of handhelds in the pipeline, and considering how impressive the 3DS and NGP/PSP2 look on paper, what should game companies do to make me buy their home consoles? I'm assuming that the PSP2 will have a similar sort of composite video cable like the original psp did, so that factor of screen size is negligible. Also, I've heard claims that the PSP2 has the roughly the same graphics capabilities as a PS3, and I doubt that the visual difference between 7th and 8th generation console graphics is going to be that great.

[Flodder450]

To me,the jump of graphical capabilities from the last generation to the current wasnt as big as from 8 to 16-bit or from N64 to Gamecube,[the] graphics just got a new layer of polish,nothing more

[msimplay]

At the moment nothing at all attracts me to the next generation of handhelds at all.
Nothing new at all updates to the same old games we've all played before all in the same style.
Even the 3D's estore for classic Gameboy games is just still just old games and while its a good business model there's nothing really if you've already played all of those games before.
Plus with the nature of all new virtual console type releases some games will be wrapped up in licensing problems so there's a chance you won't get to play some games you had previously anyway.

Plus the benefits of having a handhelds are kind of stripped because the consoles are expensive there's no guarantee that other people will also have one.
I mean it would be pretty good to play someone else on Street Fighter IV while traveling but you battery probably won't last either and being expensive no telling if they would also have the game and top it off it'll be the same game we've all been playing on the Xbox / PS3 for ages anyway.

The success of any console / handheld relies upon the games so if anything worth buying for me comes out then I'll buy it but am not so eager to buy new things anymore as there is no point at the moment everything I already have serves me well for my needs.

[BoringSupreez]

With the 8th generation of handhelds in the pipeline, and considering how impressive the 3DS and NGP/PSP2 look on paper, what should game companies do to make me buy their home consoles? I'm assuming that the PSP2 will have a similar sort of composite video cable like the original psp did, so that factor of screen size is negligible. Also, I've heard claims that the PSP2 has the roughly the same graphics capabilities as a PS3, and I doubt that the visual difference between 7th and 8th generation console graphics is going to be that great.

Well, the PSP2 has some new games announced which aren't ports of older games. And also, I wouldn't care much about whether the graphics are better. That's not how I measure the bang for the buck, it's the games you should be most concerned about. And the games so far look great to me, even if I have played some of them before.

[BlackDS]

well what I'm saying is that the difference graphically between consoles and handhelds is becoming smaller and smaller every generation. So similar that some people will look at consoles and handhelds in the same view, and obviously the handheld is better because you can take it everywhere you go.

[Bradtemple87]

We are at a point where how good can a game really look?

[BoringSupreez]

We are at a point where how good can a game really look?

Yes, that's true. I mean, Valve is still using the same graphics engine they made for Half Life 2, which will be 7 years old this year. In 2000, nobody was using graphics engines developed in 1993 or 1994, that would have been ridiculous. We're certainly approaching the cap.

[AmishSamurai]

I can see this generation of consoles lasting much longer because we're nearing the graphical cap and online play greatly expands the lifespan of a game. The Kinect, Move, and MotionPlus have certainly given their respective consoles second winds. I wouldn't be surprised if gen 8 ends up being mainly handhelds for the longest time.

[jfrost]

We are at a point where how good can a game really look?

Yes, that's true. I mean, Valve is still using the same graphics engine they made for Half Life 2, which will be 7 years old this year. In 2000, nobody was using graphics engines developed in 1993 or 1994, that would have been ridiculous. We're certainly approaching the cap.

Valve has updated the Source engine quite heavily. Some updates even caused compatibility problems.

[Bradtemple87]

We are at a point where how good can a game really look?

Yes, that's true. I mean, Valve is still using the same graphics engine they made for Half Life 2, which will be 7 years old this year. In 2000, nobody was using graphics engines developed in 1993 or 1994, that would have been ridiculous. We're certainly approaching the cap.

Valve has updated the Source engine quite heavily. Some updates even caused compatibility problems.

I was about to say something myself, that didn't sound right.