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Cross-Gen games/late-gen games

Jubenhimer

Member
When a fancy new next-gen gaming system comes out, It's usually expensive, hard to find, and often doesn't have many exclusive games available yet. It's really hardcore gamers who buy next gen systems in their launch window. Lots of people still hold on to the predecessors of these consoles until the successors get more must-have games/come down in price. Hence Late-Gen and Cross-Gen releases, a way to extend the life of a previous generation platform with more games, thus making sure previous owners of the console still have something to play even as the new console is moving along.

I know people seem sick of games still coming out on previous gen hardware, but it's a practice that's been going on for years. Even as the Super Nintendo came out, Nintendo was still releasing plenty of games for the original NES with the last first party NES release, Wario's Woods, coming out in 1994, the same year the PlayStation was released in Japan. Sega continued supporting and releasing Genesis games even as the Saturn stumbled its way through the market. And speaking of the PlayStation, Sony is known for supporting their consoles for long periods of time. The same year the PS2 came out, Spyro: Year of the Dragon, Legend of Dragoon, Final Fantasy VX, Threads of Fate, and many others were released, and the system still kept getting games until 2005. The PlayStation 2 itself lasted an insanely long time, one of its biggest exclusives, God of War II, was released just a few months after the PS3 came out, and its final game overall, was Pro Evolution Soccer in 2013, the year the PS4 released. The PS3's most recent game release was just last year with Shakedown: Hawaii, and even then, many big titles still kept releasing for it until at least 2016.

Remember when Nintendo was still putting out GBA games even as the Nintendo DS was released? Remember when everyone was ranting about the 3DS continuing to get first party games until 2019 when the Switch had already been out for 2 years? Even Microsoft supported the Xbox 360 for at least a few more years after the Xbox One released. I find late-gen games and cross-gen titles pretty cool TBH. It shows that the platform holder isn't just giving up on the older hardware just because something new is out, and they're a nice alternative for gamers who still don't have the money for next gen just yet, but still want a reason to keep playing their older systems until they're ready to upgrade.

It's only recently that Cross-gen titles and late releases became more prominent as development for big titles are much more expensive and time consuming these days, so it only makes sense to release on consoles people already have until the adoption of next gen systems becomes more ubiquitous. It's especially true for indies, who often don't have the money to make next gen exclusive experiences at launch, so starting work on last gen, and upgrading them for next gen systems is ideal. I think what annoys people is that more cross-gen releases means less next-gen exclusive experiences at launch, and that's a fair point. The PS4 and Xbox One gen didn't really start getting going until late 2015 at least. If its like last gen, then cross-gen games will die down eventually. It's just going to take longer than people would like.
 

MrFunSocks

Banned
This narrative that Sony has always supported their consoles after they release a new generation needs to stop because it’s just not true. Third parties releasing games on the previous consoles does not mean Sony are supporting the console. God of War 2 and GT6 are pretty much their only first party games released on a console that had a successor released already, and that was just because of their release dates and development time.
 

ReBurn

Gold Member
The concept of generations in consoles is becoming outdated and the 3 year refresh cycle instead of 6 years makes more and more sense as time goes on. If Microsoft and Sony implemented a low/mid/high paradigm where the newest console played games on max settings, the next oldest played on mid settings and the next oldest console gets the lowest settings console games could follow a more PC-like trajectory. People could get a more powerful box more often if that's what they want. Only support 3 models and let Older ones go obsolete as new ones release. Then they really never have to worry about cross gen complaining because everyone is playing the same games. Games could come with you as you buy newer hardware and you never have to pay for upgrades. I'd love it.
 

Jubenhimer

Member
This narrative that Sony has always supported their consoles after they release a new generation needs to stop because it’s just not true. Third parties releasing games on the previous consoles does not mean Sony are supporting the console. God of War 2 and GT6 are pretty much their only first party games released on a console that had a successor released already, and that was just because of their release dates and development time.
Sony still marketed and manufactured their consoles for years though. The PS2 was till in production until 2012 for example. If you want to get technical, Sony themselves also continued releasing MLB The Show and PSP ports for the PS2 until 2009.
 

T8SC

Member
prince-we-know.gif
 

MrFunSocks

Banned
Sony still marketed and manufactured their consoles for years though. The PS2 was till in production until 2012 for example. If you want to get technical, Sony themselves also continued releasing MLB The Show and PSP ports for the PS2 until 2009.
That's very different to what is happening now though, which is why it is irrelevant and needs to stop being brought up. Selling hardware that keeps selling is vastly different to continuing to make all of your games for it for 2-3 years.
 
The concept of generations in consoles is becoming outdated and the 3 year refresh cycle instead of 6 years makes more and more sense as time goes on. If Microsoft and Sony implemented a low/mid/high paradigm where the newest console played games on max settings, the next oldest played on mid settings and the next oldest console gets the lowest settings console games could follow a more PC-like trajectory. People could get a more powerful box more often if that's what they want. Only support 3 models and let Older ones go obsolete as new ones release. Then they really never have to worry about cross gen complaining because everyone is playing the same games. Games could come with you as you buy newer hardware and you never have to pay for upgrades. I'd love it.
No, that's not how console market works. What You are saying would mean the developers would have to support Xbox 360 Specs in 2021.
 

01011001

Banned
The concept of generations in consoles is becoming outdated and the 3 year refresh cycle instead of 6 years makes more and more sense as time goes on. If Microsoft and Sony implemented a low/mid/high paradigm where the newest console played games on max settings, the next oldest played on mid settings and the next oldest console gets the lowest settings console games could follow a more PC-like trajectory. People could get a more powerful box more often if that's what they want. Only support 3 models and let Older ones go obsolete as new ones release. Then they really never have to worry about cross gen complaining because everyone is playing the same games. Games could come with you as you buy newer hardware and you never have to pay for upgrades. I'd love it.

we oriignally had a 4 to 5 year cycle, which was disrupted by the PS360 generation...

SNES: 1992
N64: 1996
GameCube: 2001
Wii: 2006

Xbox: 2001
Xbox 360: 2005

so in a way, it's back to normal again if we get a ~4 year cycle
 
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Hydroxy

Member
Anyone think Persona 6 will come out on PS4 as well?
Yes it should depends on when it comes out. If within the next 2 years then sure otherwise probably not. Persona 5 came out in 2016 on PS3 so its certainly possible. Am actually more disappointed that Persona 5 did not come to Vita even though it could have handled it fine.
 
Cyberpunk 2077 proved that making ambitious AAAA game a crossgen is a big mistake. Fortunetly for sony, games like new god of war, grand turismo and even new horizon aren't revolutionary at all. GOW ragnarok is clearly more of a expansion for gow 2018 than a full scope sequel. I think cyberpunks fail, made many developers rethink, if it's worth for now to develop ambitious open world crossgen productions. That's why we need to prepare ourselves for at least 3 years of old asset sequels like ragnarok or simple and not revolutionary gameplay mechanics like in new horizon..
 
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ZywyPL

Banned
The concept of generations died the day consoles moved to x86. That being said, PS4/XB1 ware already outdated and underpowered the day they launched, so they are indeed seriously holding up the devs, but watch the cross-gen period after PS5/XSX lasting even longer.
 
Cross gen, x86 based gaming has destroyed console generations.

In PC gaming there was never really generations and now we're seeing it on consoles. This idea that all you have to do is have dynamic resolution and disparate framerates is not the heart of next generation gaming.

You can just reduce the resolution and frame rate and play FFX or Metal Gear Solid on PS1 and these came fairly soon after the launch of the PS2. There was no way you were playing Uncharted on PS2.

We're still getting 8th generation games 9 years later...

We're going to see exactly how scalable these games really are and the easier they scale the worse they are in terms of pushing next-gen forward. Can't believe God of War, Horizon, and GT are cross-gen. When have we EVER seen this from first-party? Maybe Breath of the Wild but that was because the Wii U was a failure. At this point, I think we know for a fact that cross generational design with 9 year old hardware is definitely holding back next-gen games.

I think it is obvious we're going to hit diminishing returns, but it seems like Sony and Microsoft are really pushing for diminishing returns. I wished that console gaming would have taken the best parts of PC gaming and left behind the worst parts, but it's completely adopted the worst of the worst.
 
I hate this practice but it is what it is.

Only console I've ever bought right at the start of a gen was Xbox Series S and I've since gotten rid of it. Only reason I also got it because i killed my PS4 and I hated it when it was running (loud and hot AF).

I'll patiently wait until Xbox and PS can give me a reason to buy either next gen console with some actual next gen games and non of this cross gen BS.
 
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