With the widespread excitement flooding the world as the next-gen consoles quickly approach, I’d like to talk about why it may be a smart time to hold off and wait a bit longer to upgrade. I’m someone who owns both current-gen consoles from Sony and Xbox so this isn’t a thing about taste but more so a reminder that for some, it may not be the right time just yet. Maybe you’ll agree with me and maybe you won’t but either way comment below or Tweet at me to let me know your ideas and impressions on the big switch.
Pricing
Firstly, I want to talk about the big elephant in the room, money. With the regular prices for Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 being $399.99 and $499.99 it can be a stretch for people to just come up with the funds to get these consoles right out of the gate. This is a normal situation and doesn’t even include the ongoing Pandemic where we’re seeing more lost jobs since the Great Depression. What I’m really getting at here is, don’t feel like you need to upgrade just because the consoles are coming out. There are amazing things that the current-gen ones have been doing and you may have invested a lot into them.
Games
Over the last 7 years since the current consoles rolled out, I know I’ve spent a pretty penny on the games available. While most of the games we own now will be able to have a place on next-gen, the same can be said about future titles and current hardware. We already know that the current consoles’ lifespans are going to be prolonged further because of the tech inside of them. Sure, they won’t have the same video output or speed but they will have the same story, characters, and gameplay.
Both companies have stated that these consoles are not going anywhere soon so enjoy them to their fullest if you have to, without feeling left behind. Most forthcoming games in terms of multiplayer will be cross-platform and cross-generational so this adds something to keep in mind for the multiplayer gamers whose friends maybe switching.
Current-Gen is Powerful
That leads me to the actual capabilities of current-gen hardware. These are still some pretty powerful systems and honestly, for me at least, upgrading is a want more than it is a need. Just look at the above photo, Xbox is putting out a Cyberpunk 2077 One X console at the same time as the next Series X is coming out. The Xbox One X and PS4 Pro are heavy-hitting consoles and while they may not meet the specs of a God-Level PC, they’re still a force to be reckoned with.
Another thing to take into account for these next-gen consoles is if you’ve invested in a better tv or monitor in order to take full advantage of these games. If you don’t have 4k or a great refresh rate, then you’re not going to get everything you’ve paid for from your hardware. I haven’t even gotten the full potential out of my Xbox One X because I’m still using a 1080p television and haven’t upgraded yet. Small things like this should be accounted for because if you’re going to shell out a hefty sum of money for a console, you should have all of your perimeters in check.
Space
Lately, we’ve seen a lot from Xbox and Sony about how much save space is going to be available for our games to sit in. Right now you can upgrade your internal or external space on either console with no real issues. Sure it’s HDD and it’s slower but for those who don’t care, it really isn’t an issue. When you upgrade to next-gen keep in mind that you are going to have to take into consideration that you will need to pay a little more for a little bit of storage. Now I’ve seen online people saying that you don’t need everything downloaded and that deleting something to have enough space for a different game isn’t a big deal. For people with slower internet though, it’s a really difficult thing to deal with when it takes hours if not a day just to download a 30gb game. For some, it’s not a big deal, for others it’s a deal-breaker.
For the PS5 you can just buy another internal NVME SSD as long as it fits, I find this the cheaper way of doing things and a little more user-friendly in terms of money spent. The Xbox Series X on the other hand only accepts their proprietary expandable SSD cards. They run for $219.99 and are 1gb. Some have said this isn’t expensive but I’d argue that in the current climate of things, this is a big thing that people with slower internet may want to take into account.
Hardware Defects
For the last topic, I want to talk about the possibility of issues that people may inevitably come across when dealing with the new systems. Last-gen saw Xbox 360s eating discs and turning crimson with their infamous red ring of death. I’ve had first-hand experiences with current-gen issues that happened when the consoles first launched. My dad and I both got PS4s and it just so happened that his was hungry for discs and started to crunch them. He sent it back and of course, they fixed it. The thing is, going by my experience it was a 50% rate of failure at launch, and that’s not a good thing. It’s especially bad when you take into consideration what’s going on right now with the Pandemic.
We see game releases being pushed and this comes down to the fact that companies are slowing down production to keep their workers safe. I feel like there’s going to be issues with these consoles because they have to rush them out during a pandemic and things are going to be overlooked during their testing. They have fewer workers and still want to push them out by the holidays, I just don’t see this working out entirely.
Conclusion
I hope that some may have found this article either informational, insightful, or comforting. Some aren’t as fortunate as others right now, and I just wanted this to show you that you don’t have to own the biggest and most expensive gaming consoles to be able to enjoy what’s available for every one of us. We’re all excited for the new systems but it’s also a good thing to be pulled back to earth every once in a while. Both companies have shown that the current-gen isn’t going anywhere so at least they have our backs for now.
