Welcome to the decision matrix

The back of my brain keeps saying get a ps4 lately. But the front keeps saying there are not any ps4 system sellers for me.

So this post is me figuring out which console I actually want for the next generation. I’m kinda reluctant to have ALL OF THEM!!!!, I don’t want to return to the days of a massive stack of consoles dominating my living room.

Nobody seems to have any backwards compatability, so the tempting backcatalog of a lot of funky little pretty indy PS3 excusives, as well as stuff like Okami, is not going to be a factor in the PS4. If that did exist it would pretty much be a no-brainer.

Stuff I have coming from Kickstarter:
Hover. Open-world Jet Set Radio. PC, Mac, XBone, PS4, Wii U.

Night In The Woods: whimsical 2D spooky metroidvania, PC, Mac, PS4, possibly others but it’s hard to tell.

Hyper Light Drifter: 2D turbo Zelda. PC, Mac, Linux, PS4, Vita, Wii U, Ouya (snicker).

Shantae, Half-Genie Hero: 2D hair-whipping festival. All the consoles.

The Fall: PC, Mac, Wii U.

So basically the Kickstarter vote is a mild push towards the PS4; I was perfectly happy playing the first part of the Fall on my computer.

XBone ($350) exclusives that interest me:
Sunset Overdrive. This looks like the bastard child of Ratchet & Clank, Jet Set Radio, and Saints Row. Building my own crazy-ass character then going rail-grinding with a bunch of absurd weapons? In a colorful world? Yes please this is my happy place.

Scalebound (2015): You are a dude and that is a major strike against it for me – I have realized that I am basically done with big-budget 3d games that require me to be a dude, I spent thirty years pretending to be one iRL, I don’t need to keep doing it in video games. But you are a dude who has lots of dragon friends and fights lots of other dragons, plus it is from the people who did Bayonetta.

Cuphead (2015): Side-scrolling platform shooting, done in the style of Fleischer cartoons. Will also be on Steam, but it seems to be Bone-only for consoles, which is really where I prefer to do my gaming. (And who knows if there’ll be a Mac version on Steam.)

Ori and the Blind Forest (2015): Looks like a very very pretty 2D platformer. Not a system seller but it looks like it could be a nice bonus.

Wii U ($300) exclusives that interest me:
Bayonetta 2. IT’S A GAME ABOUT BEING A SUPER SEXY WITCH WHO KICKS ASS.

Also there are a few games that are kinda in the ‘eh I guess’ level for this but basically it is Bayonetta, I give zero shits about Nintendo’s own characters except maybe if the new Zelda is really really really pretty.

PS4 ($400) exclusives that interest me:
I don’t think there’s a single PS4 exclusive that would sell me the system! There’s some kinda-maybes – From Software’s next game, which basically looks like ‘Dark Souls in Victorian London’, the utter nostalgia fest of a Shadow of the Beast reboot, reissues of a few interesting indy PS3 games (Unfinished Swan, Flower, Journey, etc), but do all of these bits of mild interest plus maybe Night in the Woods win?

(Hmm, also Transistor is a PS4/PC only…)

The XBone definitely wins on exclusives right now.

The PS4 is, from what I can see, generally doing better on framerates and resolution. So the next question becomes, what does the cross-platform landscape look like to me? Answer: lots of games where you are a gritty grim dude doing gritty grim things. And eventually Saints Row 5 (or maybe not, apparently sr5 DROPS THE CHARACTER CUSTOMIZER?) (It’s also worth noting that my projector only goes up to 720p, so the PS4’s ability to do 1080p is kinda useless.)

Also I just asked Jeff Minter what his platform plans are, yes that is a factor. “Ps4/Morpheus”, he says. Well that’s a vote for the PS4.

edit. On the gripping hand, the 360 and PS3 came out in 2005/2006, it has been eight years since the last new systems. I got my 360 in like 2012. I don’t think it’s out of line to imagine the new machines sticking around for a decade, and myself buying whichever of Bone/4 I don’t buy now about five years down the line. And maybe even getting a WiiU when I find one used for like $50 next to a copy of Bayonetta 2. Sorry, Nintendo.

(And for fun, here is a rough list of the different generations of video game consoles, and how long they lasted. The start and end dates are about the middle of the release years for each wave.)

odyessy gen0: 72-75 3y

o2/pong gen1: 75-78 3y

2600/intellivision/coleco gen2:78-83 5y

The Crash: 83-86 3y

nes gen3: 86-90 4y

snes/genny gen4: 90-94 4y

ps/n64: 94-2000 6y

dc/ps2/gc/xbox: 00-05 5y

ps3/x360/wii: 05-13 8y

ps4/xbone/wiiu: 13-?