written by owen on 2024-Nov-11.

I have been playing console gaming exclusively for a long time.  I don't play games on a PC because of all the distractions that come with PC gaming.  I work on a PC all the time so gaming on it would be overdosing on an addictive drug.  I got a super metroid snes from my grand mom in 1995 - that is how long I have been console gaming.  I was amazed by a 6 button controller and assumed that more buttons would mean better games.

Ever since the PS4 Pro launched console gaming has done a nose dive in almost all areas except No Man's Sky.  NMS is pretty much the only reason I would buy a new video game console in this day and age.  The console gaming scheme is littered with the tears of gamers all over the world.  I can watch modern console games on youtube at 4k 60fps and IMHO they don't seem all that fun - pretty but not fun.  Besides pressing the buttons yourself there is no real reason to buy these new "prettier" games because I can watch a playthrough on youtube on my 4k tv and have pretty much the same experience with added commentary and the ability to skip the boring parts. I can enjoy a game for 10 years. Games should not be telenovelas. Get off my lawn

But the experience is not what we are talking about in this article.  I can talk about experiences and games that really want to be movies until the cows come home.  This article is about the abomination that is "Pro" consoles or "mid-gen refreshes".  Whatever you might call it.  Usually you see these abominations being promoted by PC-gamers- disillusioned by the constraints of console gaming.  I am not even going to talk about the train wreck that is Xbox.  Sony is the main culprit in its goal to create more profit, and decided to introduce pro consoles as a way to create a new SKU. A SKU which inadvertently fragmented a market place that does not handle fragmentation well.  If you want configurations, performance vs quality modes, updates everyday, you should play your video games on PC.  Console gaming was a place where you buy a game and you just play until you are sick of it and be done.  Worse case scenario you would have a game running at 30fps because the developer chose to compromise one thing or the other.  Long and short is you had the game and that was it.

A Lot of articles cry about not being able to change the wallpaper on the Switch or watch Netflix but these authors fail to realise that these things DO NOT MATTER.   The only thing that matters is that the game runs as best as it can on the hardware that you bought with your money.  I am not even going to debate the cost of games.  As the consoles age the games that were released would get better because the developers were able to spend more time and effort optimizing their games and working out the bugs on a single SKU.  With the advent of Pro Consoles, why would I spend any time optimizing for the base console?  Developers get a free bump in power from new "Pro"-hardware so the base console is basically forgotten.  Even at the end of the console's life cycle, why would I buy a super nintendo when there exists a super nintendo pro?  The base console which would have sold millions at launch is regulated to the trash heap.  Even if the install base of the pro console is smaller - why would anyone bother with the base console?  Slim consoles don't really have as big of an effect.

These same articles also moan for a "Switch 2" because whether knowingly or unknowingly they want to increase the console churn.  They want new pieces of plastic that they can do content dumps on for the feed.  They don't really care about console gaming.  Nintendo, if I follow thier thinking, will not release something that will cannibalize their own platform - I do not know how these authors cannot see this.  This is what Pro-Consoles do - they eat the mindshare of the base console.  And you cannot say that - "its just for those games who have disposable income".  This is redirection - all console gamers play the same game - its not like the 10000 hardware setups that exist in the PC gaming world.  

Console gaming used to be simple, cheap and efficient.  Now you have a modern console burning  50 watts in standby and upto 200watts when running at max.  These are basically PC power consumption levels!  Why?  The increasing promotion of graphics and resolution over other aspects not only makes for higher power consumption but also increases production costs of game development.  All those pretty polygons are not cheap!  I would not be surprised if these modern game dev teams weren't 90% artists and animators.  I am not saying that art is not important in a game but seriously how much is too much?  If you remake PONG with modern graphics- is it going to be more impressive than the original?  It is the same game!  You need to add something more to it than just more art.  

I recently got access to a PS5, did a mini review and came to the conclusion that it's just more art on top of the same games.  Now with a Pro-PS5 coming out you basically have the same games from the PS2 with PS5 graphics that are slightly better looking on the PS5-Pro.  I should not be surprised after the abomination that was the PS3 but I am surprised that this pro-console practice is not discouraged by more people in the games journalism field. 
It is as if "shut-up and buy it"  is the way of modern gaming.  AAA developers need to stop making games by committee (or whatever they are doing).  Stop doing day one patches.  Stop with the loot boxes.  Make smaller games that are simpler rather than dumping billions into the production and fidelity of skill trees and set pieces.

The PS5 Pro is out now so it's too late.  The PS6 will already suffer because of it, just like how the PS5 is suffering because of the mid-gen bump of the PS4 Pro.  The cycle repeats and they wonder why they are losing money.  The games will continue to look less impressive if we do not allow the PC hardware to outpace the console.  By constantly keeping up with the PC - which is an unwinnable race - you destroy your own market for a small term gain in profit.  
Why would you buy a PS4 now?  All those games were remade on the PS5 with better graphics!  So the PS4 as a generation becomes pointless, and uncultured.  But then you flip it and ask "Why buy the PS5 when all those games are on the PS4 at a cheaper price?"  The PS5 has no games!  So you fall into this trap where the PS4+5 are the same thing, same controller, same games with slightly better graphics.  The PS2 is unique, the PS3 is trash, the PS4+PS4Pro+PS5+PS5Pro is a blob.  The whole PS5 generation the journalists complained that the cross platform PS4 ports were holding the PS5 back well. I HOPE YOU ARE HAPPY NOW!

Conclusion

To me it seems that the PS4 by itself caused the entire cross gen overlap of remakes that caused the failure of the 9th gen. All the games that were released cross gen look relatively the same and feel the same because the pro consoles bridged the gap(unnaturally) between generations. I don't know if I have any solution to this problem.  I have been avoiding this modern gaming scene since the wii-U came out and this PS5Pro doesn't look any better.  Maybe GTA6 will change it?  Or should I dust off my copy of San Andreas on the PS2?  Should I jump to the Xbox360?  All I can say is just stop, please stop.  These Pro-consoles should be discouraged at every street crossing.

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