What is the longest it's taken for you to acquire a console from its original release date?

If you're like me (and you're reading this so you probably are) you have probably gotten your hands on most of the major consoles in the decades (for me 6) that you've been around. I picked up a Wii-U in December 2021 when the system originally launched in November 2012. I think i even picked up a Sega Saturn 6 or 7 years after launch. So for me the Wii-U is a new record. My therapist might use that to cite that my addiction is getting better.

Hmm, I think getting my PS5 recently might be the longest time from launch to getting a console; usually I'm pretty quick, but supply issues were obviously an issue this time around. Of course I wasn't super desperate considering most things are coming to PC these days.

@rorie: I think your PS5 was the genesis of this thread. I'm thinking i might not pick one up for years out of spite. Now that i think about it i was pretty spiteful with the Wii so that might be the ultimate champion.

I was gifted a Switch in January 2021 and often still forget I own one. Lagging behind that is the PS5 which I got in September 2021. Maybe it took longer to get an N64 or Playstation but you could rent those from Blockbuster and they were gifts from parents so the timeline is blurry.

I bought a PS4 Pro in 2019.

Feel free to do the math.

@facelessvixen: So Dreamcast, Vita, DS, 3DS, xbox one, ps3, ps2 all were gotten in a tighter window than the ps4 pro. Or are you being obtuse?

Probably the PS3. I went quite a ways into that generation without having a 360 or PS3 but I think I had the former a few years prior. The Wii would be the only other contender because I picked one up way after the fact but I no longer have any idea as to when.

Otherwise I don’t really go back and buy a lot of old consoles, its mostly at least within their relevant generations.

The PS5 for sure took teh longest.

PS was aquired five month after launch
Dreamcast was "won" in a contest within two weeks of launch ist launch in 1999
PS2 was aquired at launch
Xbox was aquired withing the ten months
Xbox 360 withing five months
PS3 at launch
PS4 withing a month of launch
PS5 was finally aquired by luck of Sony's own lottery after 15 months!

I got an NES in 1995. It was a hand-me-down from my older cousin. I also bought a Dreamcast in 2015 or so, so I guess it's that.

@sometingbanuble said:

Because due to focusing on PC since 2015, I question whether the count is six years from when "PlayStation 4" launched as a platform, or two years and two months from when the Pro version of the hardware launched. If the former, then the 3DS is my actual answer since I bought a New 2DS XL in 2018.

Not sure if it totally fits your topic but I bought a 2ds (new 2ds xl to be specific) in 2020 after I bought a Switch in 2018. Tho the model came out in 2017, it was my entry into the 3ds platform which first released in 2011.

As usual, I'd say when the original console launched. So a DS Lite would be based on the DS launch. A 2DS would be based on a 3DS launch of course. If you qualify it then i guess it doesn't matter. These boards spend more time tearing apart the question rather than answer all forms that you think the question is taking. Is there a supply chain issue with characters typed.. or thinking?

I honestly don't remember all my console acquisition dates, but I think it's probably the PSP, which I believe I acquired in 2010 (it came out in 2005). I never intended to get one... how I did is kind of a funny story.

A friend of one of my two roommates in grad school came over one day and said that he had found a PSP in a rental car, and did anyone want it? I said "Sure! I like video games!" It ended up being the oldest model in existence (several hardware revisions had been released by then), was missing the charge cable, was set to German language, and had a SpongeBob SquarePants game UMD in it. It seems likely that some German tourists had given their kid the PSP as a distraction during their vacation and they just forgot it in the back seat.

I'm not really into handheld gaming devices since I rarely travel and spend most of my time at home; I'd rather just have a home console hooked up to a TV. But since I had gotten this thing for free, I bought a charge cable and did spend some decent time on it over the next few years. It's how I discovered Monster Hunter for the first time with Monster Hunter Freedom Unite, which I put hundreds of hours into, and played all the way through Persona 3 Portable with the new female protagonist (I had played Persona 3 FES previously). I also played through Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Puzzle Quest, and Final Fantasy Tactics on that thing, all games I had played before but was happy to revisit. Not bad for free.

Well, the first console I ever got was a Genesis, and I got that somewhere around 1999-2000 probably. But that was a gift when I was a child. If we're talking about being grown adults with money and the ability to buy a thing at will, it'd probably be the PS3 for me. I started that gen on 360 and got a PS3 at around the halfway point.

PS5 will be the longest when I find one

ps4 in 2019.

I got a PS4 Pro in 2018 since there was an offer to get one cheap from Target and I wanted to play God of War. Other than that I usually try and get a console within the first year if I’m interested in getting it.

My PS3 came with a copy of The Last of Us.

Aside from that, I got an original Xbox in 2010 with the intent to mod it (I did and that was fun) and my dad bought a Game Gear with a bunch of games for like $5 or $10 off of eBay in the mid 2000s. My brother and I shared that one.

I still have not bought a PS5 and have largely given up on getting one any time soon. I might in the far future but I have more than enough to play right now.

For me, it is the first console I ever got. A friend of my mother gifted me an SNES before ending his life. I think it was around 2007, so that's about 15 years later going by the European launch date. I also got a PS 2 from a friend of my fathers in (I think) 2014 which is about 14 years late. At that point I had a PS 3 though so I didn't use the PS 2 much, except to play Need for Speed: Carbon and Guitar Hero (which came with the system).

I just bought a PS3 fat because I love the look. Hell of a time finding a DualShock and no luck with an original SixAxis. If anyone wants to sell for a fair price…

Does it count I got an OG Game Boy in 1996? Not a slim or Color but the original brick. It was on sale with Mega Man for like $20.

I got a PS3 in 2016 so I could play all of the Yakuza games that hadn’t come to PS4.

PS5 will be the longest. After upgrading my PC to a 2080TI a few years ago, I haven't seen anything genuinely significant that this new console generation can provide that would be better than my current setup... other than Dualsense haptic feedback and those very few PlayStation exclusives that interest me. The haptic feedback is honestly the most intriguing aspect, but I wouldn't spend $600 or whatever it is just for that. I will wait for a PS5 Pro most likely, and there doesn't seem to be much of a need for Series X when Game Pass for PC exists.

Of those I’ve owned, PS3 - I skipped release and was a student the next year with a 360. Ended up grabbing one in 2011 just after I got a full time job.

After that, OG Xbox was 2003 so 2 years, 360 was early 2007, hopefully getting a PS5 soon. Everything else has been launch (N64, Xbox one, Switch, Series X) or launch window (PS2 and PS4).

Probably 4-5 years old for Sega MS2 and Megadrive and the PS4.

I wont be getting into the next gen until probably the next next gen cycle because my backlog os too long. I’ve also got about 20 switch games and no console yet so there’s that too.

I got a PC in like, 2013. That's easily like 3 decades after it was first released.

bought an xbox 360 probably 6 months before the Xbox One came out.

I think it was the PS3 I bought in 2008.

Heh, all my console experiences go the other way since I've always been a PC gamer first and foremost -- I think the Switch is the only console I ever bought within the first month (and for that one, my wife and I decided to do opening day, since we had never done that before.)

Other than that -- if I got a console within the first year, it meant I really wanted it lol.

If we're counting used consoles, the SNES easily wins. From consoles that were still officially sold in stores when I bought them, I got a PS2 in 2007 when God of War 2 came out.

I bought a used N64 I think in 2002 when I already had a GameCube but it didn't have any games. The only games I remember playing on it were Ocarina of Time and Perfect Dark.

I bought the Xbox 360 probably 3 or 4 times during its life cycle (having sold the previous one), most recently when the Xbox One was already out that I had no interest in.

I was just at the post-office, picking up an Atari 2600, if that counts.

As a broke kid/teen this happened a lot. There were a lot of systems that I didn't get until long after they were dead, including the Sega Saturn and Sega Dreamcast. The biggest one that I missed for years but that I desperately wanted was the SNES. My parents just never sprang for it, maybe in part because I already had a Genesis. I did get an N64 with Star Fox 64 as a birthday gift pretty early, though.

Since roughly adulthood, the first example that comes to mind is the Xbox 360, which I didn't get until the Elite model came out. But for the last couple of generations I've been there at launch for all the major platforms.

I never actually owned a Saturn or an Xbox One. Buy as far as getting my hands on a console I really want, PS5 is easily the worst. I still don't have one.

I bought my first N64 in 2014. Sold it last week.

Got both my OG Xbox and Series S on day one. Other Xboxes we're about a year after launch.

I got an NES as a kid the same xmas as we got our Sega Genesis (which would make it a 4-year wait) - they were at fire-sale blowout prices so we were lucky enough to get it at the same time.

I still have never bought a PS1 - my PS2 and PS3 can play those games so it's not a huge loss. I sold my entire PS1 collection this winter and may get a PS1 with a MODE so I can play on original hardware.... maybe.

I think I bought my N64 sometime in the 2010's. I had access to one when it was out, in my college living situation, but did not buy one until much later.

It took forever to get a Wii simply because it was so popular. I remember it taking over a year from "we want this" before I was able to go into my local store and actually buy one.

I have no idea when I'll get a PS5 or Xbox Series X... I'm in absolutely no hurry on those.

In terms of new consoles, I didn't get a Playstation until December 1999. Late in the day but it's a good time to pull the trigger because the library is as good as it'll get and mostly cheaper.

As an adult, I usually wait six months for the used stock to start showing, price drops or bundles.

If we're counting used, I must've snagged my Gamecube a year or so before Gamestation went under. 2011-2012.

2011 i got a dreamcast so i could play shenmue 1 without a emulator ( loved 2 on my xbox) so i guess that would have to be my answer . i never had a snes or atari 2600 but my fiancee has them so Technically i acquired those when we got together but i feel thats a bit different than purposefully acquiring something.

if we were top talk current gen systems of their time late then i would have to say ps2 , i think i got mine 3? years into that cycle