I got a different take from this article. The economy doesn’t really play into the fact that games are so big today because you have to make it bigger than the previous one. Same with the console stats. Gotta make it more powerful. But we are at a point where most people can’t see the difference between PS5 and PS4. It’s going to be even less obvious when PS6 arrives.
Because improving visuals is an easily quantifiable task, but improving gameplay requires creativity and risk-taking, neither of which are compatible with the AAA business model.
Depends on which games though. Like a CoD or FIFA will continue as usual, small visual upgrades but still yearly releases with minimal changes. Going from a PS4 to a PS5 with those games will hardly be a difference. I think current generation consoles focused more on higher resolution and higher framerates anyway, which was a welcome change to me, since a lot of games on PS4 ran like sub-par 30 FPS.
But if you take games like Horizon Forbidden West, it’s a pretty significant visual upgrade from Zero Dawn. Same goes for Spider-Man on PS4 and then Miles Morales on PS5, visually looks like a pretty significant upgrade.
Perhaps not everyone notices the visual fidelity moving up in consoles, but honestly that’s never been all that different with previous console generations. Unless you compare games from early in the life-cycle of a console, and then another game from the end of a new generation console. It still mostly gradually happens over the lifetime of a console generation.
I do think graphical progress has been slower than before, mostly because they seem to have shifted focus on higher framerates and resolutions. But in 5 or 10 years we’ll look back at these visuals as laughable. I remember feeling like this every few years, like thinking something looks like the most realistic game ever, and 5 years later you look back at it is being pretty mediocre compared to new standards.
Within console generations, change has indeed always tended to be gradual, but I think the point here is that we’re talking about the step up to the next console generation, for which the visual difference in graphical power used to be very large, you could do a lot more on the newer console than the older one, but has become more gradual over time. Many already didn’t see the need to upgrade to the new Playstation or Xbox from the PS4 or Xbox One, and a lot of their libraries were backported to the older consoles (granted, the consoles dropped during Covid so scarcity played a part in that but even after production picked back up they’re not doing as well overall). The only console that could still likely make a big visual leap to a new generation any time soon is the Switch to the Switch 2, and we still don’t have confirmation on whether Nintendo is even planning on such an upgrade. Just like the Wii, it sold like crazy while still being the least powerful in the generation because it had a knockout combination of utility and quality games. On the other hand, it is showing its age now, so if Nintendo doesn’t make that upgrade who knows if the fans will continue to support it.
Nintendo has acknowledged that a new Switch is coming, and we’ve seen leaks come out of Chinese manufacturing that appear to be legitimate to those in the know.
It was an open secret at Gamescom that it’s going to be similar in performance to the Steam Deck or a PS4 except running on ARM. That will be a huge upgrade compared to Tears of the Kingdom struggling to hit 30 FPS at very low resolutions.
Everything is in a tough spot. Wait for the global economy to not be literal garbage and you’ll see stuff like gaming consoles pick back up.
I got a different take from this article. The economy doesn’t really play into the fact that games are so big today because you have to make it bigger than the previous one. Same with the console stats. Gotta make it more powerful. But we are at a point where most people can’t see the difference between PS5 and PS4. It’s going to be even less obvious when PS6 arrives.
I agree that it’s time for a hard reset.
Focusing too much on image detail improvements over game play is definitely a problem that most AAA games have.
Because improving visuals is an easily quantifiable task, but improving gameplay requires creativity and risk-taking, neither of which are compatible with the AAA business model.
Depends on which games though. Like a CoD or FIFA will continue as usual, small visual upgrades but still yearly releases with minimal changes. Going from a PS4 to a PS5 with those games will hardly be a difference. I think current generation consoles focused more on higher resolution and higher framerates anyway, which was a welcome change to me, since a lot of games on PS4 ran like sub-par 30 FPS.
But if you take games like Horizon Forbidden West, it’s a pretty significant visual upgrade from Zero Dawn. Same goes for Spider-Man on PS4 and then Miles Morales on PS5, visually looks like a pretty significant upgrade.
Perhaps not everyone notices the visual fidelity moving up in consoles, but honestly that’s never been all that different with previous console generations. Unless you compare games from early in the life-cycle of a console, and then another game from the end of a new generation console. It still mostly gradually happens over the lifetime of a console generation.
I do think graphical progress has been slower than before, mostly because they seem to have shifted focus on higher framerates and resolutions. But in 5 or 10 years we’ll look back at these visuals as laughable. I remember feeling like this every few years, like thinking something looks like the most realistic game ever, and 5 years later you look back at it is being pretty mediocre compared to new standards.
Within console generations, change has indeed always tended to be gradual, but I think the point here is that we’re talking about the step up to the next console generation, for which the visual difference in graphical power used to be very large, you could do a lot more on the newer console than the older one, but has become more gradual over time. Many already didn’t see the need to upgrade to the new Playstation or Xbox from the PS4 or Xbox One, and a lot of their libraries were backported to the older consoles (granted, the consoles dropped during Covid so scarcity played a part in that but even after production picked back up they’re not doing as well overall). The only console that could still likely make a big visual leap to a new generation any time soon is the Switch to the Switch 2, and we still don’t have confirmation on whether Nintendo is even planning on such an upgrade. Just like the Wii, it sold like crazy while still being the least powerful in the generation because it had a knockout combination of utility and quality games. On the other hand, it is showing its age now, so if Nintendo doesn’t make that upgrade who knows if the fans will continue to support it.
Nintendo has acknowledged that a new Switch is coming, and we’ve seen leaks come out of Chinese manufacturing that appear to be legitimate to those in the know.
What I mean is, whether or not there’s going to be a visible graphical upgrade in the Switch 2. The console’s existence has been known for a while.
It was an open secret at Gamescom that it’s going to be similar in performance to the Steam Deck or a PS4 except running on ARM. That will be a huge upgrade compared to Tears of the Kingdom struggling to hit 30 FPS at very low resolutions.