@MB said:

I don't plan on buying any new consoles until at least one price drop happens and there are several games not available on PC that are must-buys.

It's going to be difficult to justify buying either of the new consoles when I already have a two year old gaming PC that is capable of far more. We'll see.

Frankly, you don't know what these consoles are capable of. From what I understand hardware is much better mastered on consoles, when it's not running Windows and developers know exactly the components they're dealing with. The rumored graphics core on the next PlayStation console is already very capable on laptops, so I'm excited to see what it'll bring on a console (if the rumored specs are indeed accurate). Also, I'm expecting they'll be great entertainment centers: a set-top box, a home-theater device (in that both consoles should read blu-rays) and a gaming console all at once.

Out of curiosity, what are your computer's specs?

@Snail: Right now I have dual 7950's, an AMD FX-8150 at 4.1ghz, 16gb of ultra fast RAM, and a Corsair Force 3 SSD to run games and Windows off of. Those are the important parts.

While of course no one knows what the new machines will be capable of yet, I think it's a pretty safe bet to say that there is no chance a $399 or $499 box will be able to approach anything close to what a good can do. I mean dude, I'm running $800 worth of video cards alone. If by some miracle the new Xbox or Playstation is $399 or $499 and can pump out graphics as well as my PC can, that will last about three months before a whole new series of video cards and processors come out and I upgrade.

About 6 months after release when there is a price drop and all the kinks have (at least started to) been sorted.

Nope it needs something I actually want.

Now the next xbox, unless they really screw something up, thats the machine I already know I'm going to buy for my non pc 3rd party stuff.

I definitely wouldn't say "no matter what." But I think I'm going to buy it. I've never bought a console at launch before, and even though I know it sucks in certain ways, I might do it just because. It's not like consoles come out that often. Of course if the Orbis looks awful, then I will change my mind.

Considering the use I got out of my PS3 no I wont buy one.

@MB said:

@Snail: Right now I have dual 7950's, an AMD FX-8150 at 4.1ghz, 16gb of ultra fast RAM, and a Corsair Force 3 SSD to run games and Windows off of. Those are the important parts.

While of course no one knows what the new machines will be capable of yet, I think it's a pretty safe bet to say that there is no chance a $399 or $499 box will be able to approach anything close to what a good can do. I mean dude, I'm running $800 worth of video cards alone. If by some miracle the new Xbox or Playstation is $399 or $499 and can pump out graphics as well as my PC can, that will last about three months before a whole new series of video cards and processors come out and I upgrade.

I see. My computer has awesome specs too, and I'm well aware there's no way the next generation of consoles will beat its hardware, but I'm also aware that the only games that fully take advantage of my amazing computer's hardware are the PC-exclusives/built-mainly-for-PC games like the ones from The Witcher and Crysis franchises.

Most games are built mainly for consoles, so when the new consoles come about with their shiny new hardware I think that, for a while there, there will be little difference between the console version and the PC version of the game, while now the difference is just unmistakably drastic. As the consoles age the difference between the quality of console games and that of their PC counterparts will become more evident again, because game-designing technology improves but their hardware stays the same, and your PC with the very same specs should again start to perform a lot better than Sony's and Microsoft's next-gen offerings.

Don't forget that PlayStation 3 titles like Metal Gear Solid 4 and Uncharted 2: Among Thieves received "Best Looking Game of the Year" awards and other similar accolades from several editorial websites, including Giant Bomb.

Still, over the last few years I've been doing most of my gaming on my PC. I've gotten too used to it to let go. It's the best way to play games. Ultimately, I think I'll probably just be getting the better-looking version, even if it only looks slightly better - though those trophies can be quite persuasive, so maybe if the graphical difference is hardly noticeable I might falter.

No, I like what Steam is doing with Big Picture and Steambox. Combine that with stuff like Project Shield. Also, PC games are like 10-20 EUR cheaper at launch and then there's Steam sales. If I'm gonna get one of next gen's consoles it's probably gonna be an Xbox just because it's the console I enjoyed/used more this gen.

Like every other console I will but it when there is a game I really want that I can't get elsewhere. The timeframe can vary a lot by console. It was Oblivion for the 360 (I didn't have a gaming PC at the time), P4: Golden for the Vita, Professor Layton for the DS. Still nothing for the 3DS (though Fire Emblem is tempting) or WiiU.

They would have to mess up pretty hard for me not to get one. It's been like seven years since I bought the last one. SEVEN YEARS.

@Berserker976 said:

Frankly I'm a bit surprised more people here don't feel that way.

This might actually be the first console I'll buy day 1.

Unless they require you to hand in one of your kidneys or something like that. Feel like I want to hang on to those bad boys.

Yes, especially if Killzone 4 is a launch title

I'll definitely get one but the price will determine when.

Quite the opposite, actually. The thing could give epic hand jibbers and I would still wait for a redesign and/or price drop.