Next Gen Advent Calendar III: Countdown to Switch 2 - 16 Days

[Junko]

Microsoft’s “ roadmap “ was revealed during the activation acquirement hearings so no real surprises there

[wakka]

I'm of the view that the whole notion of gaming generations is an increasingly irrelevant one.

We're arguably still in the same generation we have been since the launch of PS4 and XBO, and the eventual PS6 and XSX2 will represent a further continuation of that same gen.

That's not to say the way games are designed and played won't change in the future - it totally will over the coming years and decades - but I personally think for the foreseeable those changes will be driven by developers, rather than hardware manufacturers.

[Neon Ignition]

One thing I need to learn, one day, is to ease off the Day One train. Every time I get eventually sucked in to getting one because of the fuss and fanfare and there really is no point

[Neon Ignition]

Welcome to a very belated update, the four year countdown came and went last November, so six months later we play catch up and face the imminent arrival of the first of the next-gen systems.

18 months ago it was seen as a low chance that the Switch would still be Nintendo's primary console on the market and yet as of today that remains the case, the system powering through the months adding millions more units to its score board. Sony have since released their Pro variant of their console and successfully ridden out a long period with out first party exclusive launches, relying on successful exclusive signs ups and remasters. Whilst Microsoft have tied the Series S/X to a stack of dynamite and pushed the plunger, still intending to launch a new generation but slaughtering the market appeal of the hardware brand and instead increasingly finding greater success as a third party publisher.

Past the Fourth Anniversary of this generation:
What are your thoughts on how it's going?

What are your thoughts of each system?

How do you feel about this generation being expected to be entering its twilight years?

[Neon Ignition]

I'm honestly finding this generation to be reaching a point where I'm beginning to nestle into it whilst still feeling like we're early in and still seeing little that really stretches the hardware. I think it's why I find the notion of MS launching the next Xbox generation within the next 18 months so laughable. It smacks of an eye watering mesjudgment of the market which I know is pretty much their raison d'etra at this point so is also believeable. On paper, despite what this update has been amended to, we're around a little over two years from when Sony would release the PS6 based on prior gens and they're still failing to get PS5 hardware standard exclusives out and seeing PS4 still supported to a degree. I just feel we're so deep at the point where standardising 10 year generations should be a given, if Nintendo got 8yrs+ out of the Switch then how the hell can the need for rushing to £1000 new gen consoles seem justifiable?

Most of the better, notable games of the past few years have come from smaller studios running on lower budgets without most of the masses even noticing which really underscores that it's the AAA $300m budget club of studios that need to learn, something that only extends the current gens viability. I'm not sure I can think of a single current gen release that wasn't on PS4 and felt like it couldn't be on PS4. The bones of new releases feel deeply rooted in last gen, if not sometimes the gen before that. Switch 2 is going to see PS4 Pro level graphics broadly be a prominent feature all the way through to at least 2033 meaning for Switch 3 we're likely to see PS5 Pro levels visuals run us all the way through to 2040. Hardly anyone actually gives a rats ass about path tracing etc so I really wouldn't care one jot if PS6 is delayed by years - it will exist solely to appease Sony shareholders and with Xbox irrelevant there's just nothing driving the rush to it on that front either.

Of the existing systems:

I won't lie, a good few games can make the Switch creak but I wouldn't have minded if Nintendo had have held off further for Switch 2 either. It's fine it's coming but mostly just to finally get Nintendo outputting long overdue follow ups on the software front. I can't look at late life releases on Switch like Mario RPG, Peach Showdown or Echoes and pretend they don't look incredibly good visually.

PS5 is PS5 - It's such a standardised console experience at this point. I don't buy too much via it which helps with the inflated cost of titles on it but I've never once felt it was remotely near 'done'. If anything I think the concern is that it remains on course from a software side to be the weakest of all five PS gens, defined by its predecessors library and third parties having never really delivered on its own terms at the current rate.

Xbox - What is there left to say? I'm enjoying MS's frequent if never individually impressive output after the many years of drought but at this point that's entirely divorced from the hardware which is at a point that I can barely grasp why anyone would consider picking up one anymore beyond maybe as a Game Pass gateway until MS inevitably divorce the two.

GTAVI is probably going to define PS5. It'll be lifted by being the system that the game first arrived and was experienced on for most rather than its remaining exclusives feeling like they have that much impact I think. When PS5 goes it won't bow out like a tired old veteran, it'll be protracted and reluctant transition to a system that is more a rebranding exercise than a notable step up... basically:

[Dogg Thang]

Yeah, I didn't necessarily need a Switch 2 yet and I do wonder if the upgrade will really feel justified. I'm sure it will eventually, maybe it's just a question of when. As always with Nintendo systems, I think there might be a little bit of a slow start to the great software.

I have a PS5. I don't think I've completed one game on it yet. It's a good system. It works and the big games come out on it. So that's all good. But I don't ever get excited by it and I probably could have done without it.

I don't even feel like the XBox really exists any more. Now and again, I hear it mentioned (back when Indy was released mostly), but it just doesn't enter my visibility any more. I'm not sure MS could do anything to change that for me, at this stage.

[wakka]

Consoles are just appliances these days really. You periodically upgrade them for some mild improvements but the experience remains fundamentally the same as it was previously.

The era of seismic technological shifts is well behind us unfortunately.

I'm not intending this as doomsaying - gaming is bigger and better than it's ever been in so many ways. But that specific excitement of a quantum leap in technology every few years is just not a part of gaming now in the way that it once was.

I've said this before in other posts, undoubtedly in this very thread, but I think the whole notion of console generations is now an irrelevant one. We're in the post-generation era.

[Neon Ignition]

Yep, it's similar to the demise of the 'Bit' generations. We got very clear 8-Bit, 16-Bit, 32-Bit, 64-Bit and 128-Bit generational divides in the public conscious but we didn't continue on to the 256-Bit, 512-Bit and 1024-Bit ones because the definition became much more fluid and nuanced. We've continued to see that spread into other areas - the Switch is classed as an Eigth Generation console... it's not, it's a ninth generation one, Nintendo didn't launch two in the same gen, they moved the next one up because their current one was terminal. "Ah, but it's not much more powerful than a WiiU!" comes the cry - if that's how it worked the Wii would be considered a sixth generation console alongside its power stablemate the Gamecube. There's a reason that how many GC's meme exists. But the introduction of Pro's has blurred that even further.

Maybe the next PS should just be called the PlayStation 2028 Edition and just continue as an iterative platform

[Neon Ignition]

Next-Gen Countdown 01/03: 21 Days till Switch 2

Today: Cyberpunk 2077 Ultimate Edition
The countdown to the first console in the next-generation of machines has begun, we'll be ticking down the clock by covering some of the key details and titles for the new system as we work our way closer and closer to release day. We start with the port of Cyberpunk, the game being five years old now but still seen as a visual benchmark. The devs are working to deliver a stable 30fps Quality mode and 40fps Performance mode with visuals weighing in close to the PS4 Pro's standard, most recent previews looking like this will be the most stable way to play the game in handheld form.




Will you be picking up Cyberpunk 2077 for the Launch?

[wakka]

Yep, it's similar to the demise of the 'Bit' generations. We got very clear 8-Bit, 16-Bit, 32-Bit, 64-Bit and 128-Bit generational divides in the public conscious but we didn't continue on to the 256-Bit, 512-Bit and 1024-Bit ones because the definition became much more fluid and nuanced. We've continued to see that spread into other areas - the Switch is classed as an Eigth Generation console... it's not, it's a ninth generation one, Nintendo didn't launch two in the same gen, they moved the next one up because their current one was terminal. "Ah, but it's not much more powerful than a WiiU!" comes the cry - if that's how it worked the Wii would be considered a sixth generation console alongside its power stablemate the Gamecube. There's a reason that how many GC's meme exists. But the introduction of Pro's has blurred that even further.

The last real generational shift was 360/PS3 -> Bone/PS4 and tbh that one was already a mildly damp squib compared to the giant leap forward from PS2 to 360.

From a perspective of talking qualitatively about the actual games and the experience of playing them I don't think categorising platforms into 'eighth gen', 'ninth gen etc' is useful any more. It's probably still got some utility for talking about the commercial fortunes of machines but the technical capabilities of a console are irrelevant to that.

Maybe the next PS should just be called the PlayStation 2028 Edition and just continue as an iterative platform

Yeah. I'm sure there's some real headscratching going on at PlayStation about how to package PlayStations going forwards. There's an argument for releasing more consoles more frequently with milder upgrades, rather than waiting eight years to do one medium-sized update.

[Neon Ignition]

I've been tempted by Cyberpunk though I'm not entirely sure why. I could get it for Ally X and not long ago got the collection for PS5 Pro... probably just that it's kind of weird to have a new system picking up just one game

[BearBoy]

My "current" consoles are a PS4 Pro and a Switch and I'm not entirely sure where I go from here tbh. I'm sure Mario Kart World will be great, and it's always nice having new hardware, but that's not really enticing me to get a Switch 2 for the time being. I had assumed I'd probably get a PS5 when the Pro appeared but I'm struggling to pick out any must haves (for me) that I can't get on the PS4 and the price (£699 for the console, £69 for a disc drive, £65 for a second controller) isn't exactly helping.

Maybe sack off the PS5 Pro and just get a standard one or hang tight for the PS6 and skip a generation?

I loved my original Xbox and especially the 360 but Xbox just doesn't seem like a tempting option at all now.

[Neon Ignition]

For many who have held out all this time I imagine that if there's going to be a pull the trigger moment it will be next year for PS5 when GTAVI launches. It's weird to have console buying decisions largely dictated by second guessing if waiting to buy one will mean by the time you do the price has gone up another £100

[Neon Ignition]

Next-Gen Countdown 01/03: 20 Days till Switch 2

Today: Fast Fusion
Launching for the low price of £13.49, this is the fourth entry in the franchise which has seen one for each generation of Nintendo console since the Wii. With 4K, 60fps, HDr support, this new entry lets players fuse parts of the ships to create custom racers. Each entry is in essence an updated and expanded version of the game before with the F-Zero style series being fairly unique in that it is Nintendo exclusive.




Fast to Buy It?

[briareos_kerensky]

I'll wait for a few reviews. The WiiU version was good but not really enough to keep me wanting playing for more after a few hours.