Why You Shouldn't Buy a PS4 or Xbox One

After 8 years of incredible advances in technology, amazing games, and stupid consumers buying lazy, unfulfilling products, the next generation of video game consoles is upon us! The Wii U, the PS4, and in just a few hours, the Xbox One will be out and available for purchase! While the Wii U has been out for about a year, right now all of the interest is undeniably in Microsoft and Sony's new systems. Why...well...who knows? I'm not even sure myself. This is gonna be a really dumbed down piece compared to my usual reviews and other pieces on games. I'm not targeting super-informed gamers or anything, I'm talking

to the average Joe who wants something to play the new Call of Duty on. The premise of a new console launch is always exciting and it's easy to find yourself getting caught up in the hype. After seeing Killer Instinct and Dead Rising 3, I was admittedly ready to hop on the Xbox One bandwagon and pick one up myself. But thinking about it rationally for a bit, I came to a different conclusion: blowing $500+ on this thing the year it comes out would be the stupidest thing I could possibly do.


First of all, $500 is steep for a new console. And I mean, STEEP. Add in taxes, fees to play the console online, and other controllers, and you've tacked on about a hundred dollars extra right there, not even including purchasing any games. Maybe it makes sense; it's a big deal when a new system comes out! You've gone 6 or 7 years since investing in a new console, it's only natural that it feels like it's time to buy another one. But look at this: The PS3 was $600 at launch in November 2006. In July 2007, 8 months later, it became $500. The following November, a model with less space was introduced that was only $400. In August 2009, a brand new model, the PS3 Slim, was introduced, for only $300. The price on older PS3 models were also dropped by $100 each. Let me spell it out for you: by waiting a few years, console prices drop drastically. In some cases, these drastic price drops happen sooner rather than later; the 3DS had $80 shaved off only 5 months after launch.

Prices drop, new models are introduced, and suddenly it makes a lot more sense to buy a console than it did before. You could buy the PS4 at launch for $400 today, yeah, but you could get an updated PS4 with more games available for $100 less a year and a half from now. Let's take a look at the PS4 launch line-up! First of all, a lot of these titles are available on a console you probably already own. You could buy a PS4 to play Call of Duty: Ghosts, or Battlefield 4, NBA2K14, or Assassin's Creed IV...or...you could buy them on the system you already own?! Yes, I understand, the graphics will be marginally worse, but are slightly more high resolution graphics really justification for people to blow $400-$500? So what do you get for buying this new system you don't get on your old PS3 or 360? I mean, they have to have SOMETHING new, right? A reason to buy this new console over playing your old PS3, or a reason to buy it over the Xbox One? Well, yeah! They have exclusives! ...two of them.

Well I mean, maybe it's a quality over quantity thing, right? Maybe they put all their focus into these two games so that they could be the absolute best they could be and lead the way for many excellent and polished games to come! These games must be the greatest, most fun inventions Sony's developed for many years! I can't wait to play th-

...
Welp.

That's not to say the PS4 will never have good games. I mean, hell, the new InFamous is coming out next March. There's Drive Club, too. Oh, and they teased a new Uncharted game! Hell, there have even been rumors about a PaRappa the Rapper 3! Obviously there are going to be lots of other excellent PS4 games as well in the future. People are naturally expecting all the PS3 heavy-hitters like God of War, LittleBigPlanet, and Ratchet & Clank to make the transition down the line, and Sony owns plenty of other interesting franchises (Twisted Metal, Sly Cooper, MediEvil, Ape Escape, Jak & Daxter) that would be excellent to see return on their new console. My question is, why wouldn't you wait for these games? Unless you're a huge InFamous fan or something like that, do you really have a reason to buy a PS4 this year, or even in the next 6 months?

The answer is no, you don't. The VAST majority of PS4 games that have solid release dates or are confirmed to be coming soon are also going to be on PS3 and 360! You don't actually need to buy a PS4 to play Watch Dogs, or the new Strider, or even Metal Gear Solid V, you can get them on the console you have right now at the cost of slightly prettier graphics. But like I said earlier, these graphics take a HUGE chunk out of your wallet, so why buy a new console when these are the kind of games you're going to be playing for the first few months?

The Xbox One launch line-up is a bit better off. A sequel fans have been clamoring for in the form of Dead Rising 3, a modern-day reboot of a classic fighter series in the form of Killer Instinct, and other games like Ryse and Crimson Dragon (though their critical reception so far would suggest they aren't exactly of very high quality). We also know of several cool games coming in the future like Sunset Overdrive. I'll be honest, that's a pretty solid line-up, but $500+ solid? Hell no! Think long-term, people. What is Xbox One going to offer you in the future? We know of a couple of good launch titles and a couple of good games coming in the future...but again, YOU CAN PLAY MOST OF THEM ON PS3 AND 360! Even the critically acclaimed Titanfall is also coming to Xbox 360 and PC! Why spend $500 to play games YOU CAN ALREADY PLAY. Yes, there will be more games in the future! But do you know what else there will be in the future?

SYSTEM UPDATES.
NEW MODELS.
PRICE CUTS.

WHY WOULD YOU JUMP THE GUN AND SPEND $500 ON THIS SYSTEM NOW WHEN YOU CAN BUY IT A YEAR OR TWO LATER FOR MUCH CHEAPER WITH A MORE STABLE OS AND A MUCH LARGER SELECTION OF GAMES AVAILABLE.

I DON'T UNDERSTAND PEOPLE.

I get that there's an audience of people who just want to have something to play new games on for the next 6 or 7 years and figure that they might as well get it out of the way. I get that. But trust me, by mid-2015 they'll both probably be $100 cheaper at the very least. And by 2017 I'd be genuinely surprised if they weren't about half the price they are now. Paying $400 or $500 right now is a lot of money that you don't have to spend! That's not even accounting for all the online fees you'd need for PS+ or Xbox Live over the course of owning these systems. But what will you do for the next few years without the new console?

Play half of its library of games on your PS3 and 360. Bang. Brilliant.