8th Gen support is still very strong and these consoles really did have 10 year life spans

We're in 2023, which means that we're in the 10th year of the PS4 and Xbox One. Both systems just got 2 huge new releases in the form of Diablo IV and Street Fighter VI. They also continue to get the vast majority of indie or AA games, even if some of the AAA stuff has finally started to skip them, now that the new systems are nearing 3 years old and are entering their traditional primes.

While it's not unheard of for popular consoles to continue to receive support for years after the release of their successors it has traditionally lasted for a year or 2 with releases slowing to a trickle after that. That's not the case with the 8th gen. Instead what we're seeing is almost the opposite, the vast majority of games being available for them with some games even skipping a PS5/Xbox Series X release entirely and relying on backwards compatibility to be playable on the new systems.

I think this is on balance a good thing. It's not great that some games are being held back by having to be playable on what was underpowered hardware when it released and is now downright archaic, but I think the games that are using the new horsepower and faster loading times for valuable stuff are, in fact, starting to cut the tether and of course there are lots of games that don't harness a fraction of the power of the PS4, let alone the PS5. Ganryu 2 could run comfortably on a PS3 (and probably a PS2 at a lower resolution) so there's absolutely no reason not to sell it on PS4. It's good that people who couldn't find new consoles or don't want to/can't spend the money to upgrade are still getting things to play, and it means that indie devs have a massive userbase, some of whom are cut off from a lot of the higher profile stuff (though they can still play Diablo and Street Fighter!)

I think the reasons behind this are many. Part of it is the pandemic that led the newer consoles to have slower uptake. Part of it is the Switch, which has a massive install base and means that anyone who wants to sell their game there has to shoot for specs far lower than those of the PS4 and Xbox One. Part of it is new game engines that are very good at publishing on many platforms at once; if you're making a game in Unity and you can make a PS4 version with minimal effort why wouldn't you?

But I think a large part of it is diminishing returns. Capcom realized that for the core of its new Street Fighter game it just didn't need the full power of the new consoles. Tone down the effects, reduce the texture quality, and the art style they went with is not very resource intensive. IT's not like you need complex AI or vast worlds for Street Fighter. Same for Diablo. We really are reaching a point where console architecture is iterative (The PS5 is pretty similar to the PS4 under the hood) and we're not seeing vast jumps so why not make games for old hardware? The PC does it all the time.

Ultimately I'm happy about this. For one thing I have my Xbox One X hooked up to my treadmill and it's great that I can just play Diablo IV on it (along with lots of other stuff) without worry. For another thing it's good when games have more places to sell and when people can enjoy the latest and greatest without having to upgrade kit. It's really a win win.

The only slight tinges I have are a concern that some games might be held back (though to be honest the majority of the best games this gen have been the cross gen ones with a lot of 9th gen only games like Redfall and Forspoken being kind of duds) and just missing the excitement of a new generation. There was nothing quite like going from NES to SNES, or PS1 to PS2. PS4 to PS5 is nice but you have to really be looking to notice much. And then there was the excitement of new hardware having a fresh library to explore, whereas now the vast majority of my PS5 library is PS4 games. I just platinumed Pyre, and while I loved it, it's an old game that's just as good as the new stuff coming out, and it all mixes together. I just wrote about the nostalgia for my Xbox 360 and I won't have that with PS5 because the upgrade was so seamless.

But those are just old man ramblings. The good far outweighs the bad here. With SF 6 coming out on these old things they'll be at least getting new DLC for many years to come. I don't think they'll survive to drinking age but they might make it to their teens, and that's a new frontier in a whole new way.

I think the diminishing returns are a very, very significant aspect of this scenario. In many ways, Red Dead 2 and Last of Us II are the best looking games I've played on my PS5...and unless I'm forgetting something, neither were patched to take advantage of the newer hardware. Likewise, there's something shocking about seeing Control run on a PS5 for the first time, and despite some distracting and persistent visual glitches I'm amazed that The Witcher 3 (and at times Grand Theft Auto V) suddenly looks as if it came out tomorrow...but I also don't think Final Fantasy VII Remake, Ghost of Tsushima, Spider-Man or, honestly, the latest Horizon or God of War look as if their past entries were merely hilarious teases of future potential. It's mostly the load times that make those things feel significantly different.

Which isn't nothing, especially when a game looks so shockingly good like The Witcher 3 while also shrugging off load times that were previously a somewhat definitive part of the experience, but I suppose it's also telling that it's the oldest game I've mentioned in this post that's made, in many ways, the strongest impression on me after nearly 2 years with this towering beast. If I remember correctly, background detail is significantly different between old and new Gran Turismo 7. But then, wasn't there a moment where the best way to play Elden Ring was to install the PS4-formatted file on a PS5?

I honestly don't mind any of this, to be clear. I love that games as interested in their mechanics or vibes as their revolutionary visuals have (mostly) become about as normal on a console's store as Steam or some other PC shop. But with the recent announcement that Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart is headed to PC in July - a game that was, with little to no modesty, advertised as an experience only possible because of the architecture of the PS5 - I'm a little confused. And if I may swerve, that confusion doesn't make me think another mid-gen PS5 Pro or XBox One X makes any sense, but rather we little console kids oughta get to just enjoy this current round for 20, 30 or 40 years if their circuits be willing. I get the feeling we won't see the most impressive idea of what a PS5 can do until, crud, 2027?

Edit: That is unless an AI 3D prints a Sleeping Dogs sequel for Christmas. Then the future will definitively be then (now).

Grubb is gonna have a bad weekend by looking at this topic title.

On the topic: It's absolutely fucking nuts that a PS4/XONE still costs as much as it does this late into its life. I've waited for them to be a reasonably priced pickup, unless I want one of those shitty One S things, which I don't. I'm still waiting.

@nodima: I think the argument with Rachet & Clank was that given the overall power of the PS5 its special architecture made it possible, not that it could never be done on a more powerful rig. I mean ultimately we're just talking about speed in terms of chip, RAM, and SSD performance. IT's not like the old days where architecture was really actually different and, for example, the Genesis didn't have Mode 7 and so couldn't do something like Pilotwings. It's like 2 years later, PCs have gotten better, they can raise the minimum requirements a bit and make it run.

I have yet to upgrade, still plenty to play on ps4