When should we see next Gen Consoles...

[Snickerd00dle]

im fed up with next gen too, i mean, if i want to go buy a new game, chances are, its only going to last me 8 to 10 hours, and it will be very mediocre, and it will cost sixty five dollars including tax...thats rediculous, i can go out and buy a kick ass ps1 rpg for half the price, and it will last me weeks...there are still a few titles i enjoy playing, but for the most part, i dont care about gears of war 2 because its the same game as one

[Mozgus]

I don't care, because I won't freakin' buy it.

And when this generation ends we're going to see probably one of the most annoying things. Considering that we've moved completely into a "online experience" with our consoles, it's not going to be cool if they drop the servers for these consoles. It won't be immediately in the next gen, but the time will come when it won't be worth it to them, there won't be enough subscribers to warrant its use. And that'll be a shame.

What are MS's plans to extend the lifespan of their XBLA? The DRM protection on it is highly dependent upon being connected to the internet, and if they don't support it long term what are users going to do? Especially us the retro community.

Hopefully they do help us out, but they won't forever no matter what. May it be 5 years or 10 years... but I highly doubt in 2025 20 years after the initial 360 will they be supporting it if at all... though I still today play my Genesis 20 years later (released in 1989).

It's something I don't like about the video game industry. This is speculation, but our past has really shown that they expect you to "keep up with the times". The movie industry doesn't particularly do this, they upgrade their distribution medium but I can still easily watch Marlon Brando in a movie with out a hitch. The gaming industry isn't as friendly about this... play Super Mario Land from monochrome GB isn't an easy task anymore. Not even in PC gaming, the work arounds and the sort to play old Dos games or Lucas Arts games is a pain. Yeah we've got emulator... but that is third party semi-illegal.

I've thought about all this quite a lot and I find it very depressing. It's just another reason why I'm sticking with the "retro-friendly" consoles anymore. I don't want to get attached to something that will stop working someday (halfway or completely) due to some rich assholes shutting down some servers. I still have my 2600 and NES, and I know that when I plug them into my TV, I'll see some shit on the screen, hear some shit on the speakers, and none of the content will be missing. All the modes in Combat will be there. All the weapons in Megaman 2 will be there. Everything is contained on that cartridge. You don't need some internet connection to someone else's server to experience the other half of a game.

It's scary honestly. I don't like the direction the industry is heading. Fuck the hive mind.

[RackGaki]

Between widespread hardware failures, horrid DRM, ridiculously-priced peripherals and pulling the plug on their beta console, Microsoft is lucky that they have made it this generation. I've found more worthwhile games on Xbox Live Arcade than on the rest of the next-gen consoles (or disc-based 360 games), many of them remakes.

The industry is due for a slowdown on hardware releases. I think everyone will be happier for it.

[Tercoil]

I think that another video game crash is imminent, or a 'recession' at least. I think these consoles will last us quite a while probably and we will start hearing and seeing new consoles about 2015 except nintendo will probably release a WiiHD soon just to milk more money out of the ever so gullible consumer (see ds lite).

But i think that in the next 1 or 2 generations of consoles we will see a huge console crash, simply because they aren't really making consoles anymore but pc's with fancy case mods and gamepads. These will cost as much as a regular pc and so no one will bother buying them.

Also is it just me or has anyone else noticed the overall shithole that is most games these days?? sure there are good games coming out, but really 'good' games are getting less and less frequent. To me this seems to directly parrallel the era before the video game crash of 1983 soon enough we will all wisen up and realise nothing is worth buying.