Sony recently announced that the PS5 was entering the latter half of its lifespan. Microsoft, meanwhile, promised that new hardware is being developed and it will be the biggest power leap we've ever seen. Meanwhile I'm over here questioning whether the Series X and PS5 will ever justify their existence let alone their price points.

Whatever you want to say about the current generation of games, I think it's hard to argue that it's a quantum leap over the last one. It's true that something like Spider-Man 2 looks enough better than its predecessor that you wouldn't necessarily mistake it for a PS4 game, but how much did we really gain from that slight improvement? Insomniac themselves have questioning the amount of money that was spent making Spider-Man 2 and especially making it look as polished and bombastic as it is. If getting the most out of the new hardware is so expensive that it's impractical even for a sure fire hit like that, then how many games are actually going to utilize its potential?

Meanwhile Tears of the Kingdom showed that in terms of gameplay and physics, we've reached a point where software development is a much bigger limitation than hardware. Yes, ToK would have benefitted from being on a more powerful system, but it was on the Switch, a platform that's nearly 7 years old and was underpowered when it released. Switch 2 is probably necessary at this point, but even that is going to be weaker than the PS5 is, and the platform it's replacing has a power level not much greater than Xbox 360, which is coming up on 20 years old.

What I'm saying is that yes, power matters, but we've definitely reached the point of diminished returns. When I look at my favorite games from last year, they are dominated by Switch games and indie experiences, with AAA games mostly failing to make much of an impression on me. I did play God of War: Ragnarok last year, and really enjoyed it, but there's a PS4 version of that game. Same with Horizon Forbidden West. I've seen the comparison videos showing the PS4 vs PS5 versions and there are differences, but they're not differences that I'd pay $500 for.

AAA gaming is currently in something of a software crisis, not really a hardware one. Games have gotten incredibly expensive to make and market, and game design has moved more and more towards an unsustainable "live services" model that gamers are starting to reject. AAA games used to be able to somewhat rely on a "wow" factor to sell themselves, with production values carrying a lot of the load, but that's getting harder and harder and we see situations where something like Suicide Squad compares unfavorably on just a visual level to the same studio's last game, which came out almost a decade ago. The same could be said for Skull and Bones, which does look better than Black Flag in most ways but certainly not enough to make up for its deficits, and looks worse in certain key areas.

Sony is a little disappointed by the recent performance of the PS5, but they're also giving us a year where there are no new first party games for it. Microsoft is coming off a year where it released a string of games that ranged from disappointing (Forza, Starfield) to downright awful (Redfall.) Last year has been deemed an incredible year for games, and in many ways it was, but if you look at the actual games that made up that list you see a lot of indies, Switch games, and games that ran okay on Xbox One and PS4 (like Armored Core and Street Fighter 6.) You see many fewer games that attempted to fully utilize the hardware of the new machines, and many that were "next gen only" seem to have been that way because they didn't bother to develop versions for the old systems, not because it was impossible to do so.

So what is the problem that new hardware is going to fix? If fully tapping the current hardware is impractically expensive and difficult, and if the games that do make use of that hardware aren't tending to hit any harder than games built for older machines what is the pitch for investing in yet another expensive box to put under the TV only to serve up the same experiences in a slightly shinier format, while the software side of development continues to flounder at the high end? Is Spider-Man 3 going to come out for PS6 and cost $500 million to make, or be cut back in ambition and scope because development is unsustainable?

As an old head gamer who has been around since the days of the NES I have always been excited about new hardware. I have fond memories of playing Resogun when the PS4 launched and Dirt 5 when I got my Xbox Series X. But right now I want the platform holders to actually finish justifying the current generation rather than looking on to the next one. I want to see Microsoft actually put out some special first party games for the Series X. I want to see Sony give the PS5 a lineup that can compete with the PS4's, which it absolutely does not have at this point. I don't want to see budgets get even bigger leading to even more microtransactions and live services and fewer games I actually care about.

Console generations have gotten longer over time for various reasons (economic crash extending 7th generation, half step consoles extending 8th) but now it seems the manufacturers want to shorten this one and...there's no reason to. Fix the problems with the software first. Then you can sell us new boxes. Nintendo may be pushing the Switch 2 to 2025, which would give the Switch a full 8 years as an underpowered system, and one of the most successful platforms of all time. Meanwhile last year had some of the best software that platform has ever seen, and it remains relevant. You'd think that others would learn from this but instead it seems like they're going to take the Tim the Tool Man Taylor route of More Power.

Personally I'd be happier with less power and a better suite of games.