Switch 2, PS5 Pro, Next Xbox: The State Of Console Gaming | Spot On

I completely skipped PS4 & PS5. Never looked at any Nintendo Switches or any XBOX consoles. Pretty much skipped the lot. I did jump on a 256GB Steam Deck at first launch but honestly, hardware-wise, apart from the Steam Deck, I just haven't bothered with consoles for a considerably long time. I have a really powerful PC, so that's kept me in good stead for quite some time. I dunno, there's just something about the last decade of console gaming that all just felt a bit meh for me. I have a PS3 collecting dust on a shelf, along with my Oculus Quest 2. That had a lot of potential but the VR market has taken a nose dive & I doubt very much I'll ever switch either of those devices back on again.

I'm looking for a massive leap in hardware to get me interested in console gaming again. The incremental upgrades don't really do it for me, so I'll just meander along & wait until that quantum leap (literally) in tech happens & start saving basically. We just don't have killer games anymore either. I remember literally buying a Pentium 256 MMX waaaaaaay back in the day, just to play quake. Everything was just so exciting back then. The massive leaps in visuals when all the Voodoo cards came out & it was just an awesome time to be a gamer. Not sure what's happened to me over the years but I'm just not that enamored by it all these days. getting older, no time to play games really.

This guy looks like he just got out of bed and went straight to do the show, without brushing his teeth or brushing his hair. I wonder if he owns a hairbrush, because he never seems to use one. He also talks a lot, because Lucy James has to fight to get a word in.

Holy crap y'all. We found the last two Gamespot employees!

I love the fact it’s called Spot On. Like there's no debating their viewpoints. They're just completely accurate.

I do hope this pricing trend PlayStation is trying to set stays with them. Consoles were always the "accessible" path, that's the point. If we want the best, we play PC.

I have little doubt PS is trying to set up for a $700+ PS6. I can afford it, but I won't pay it. Hoping Xbox and Nintendo go the other direction.

There's no games apart from Stellar blade, ffvii, black myth Wukong, Warhammer space marine 2. We have great Devs that can't get work because of some silly nonsense going on

I just hope it has an OLED screen, but knowing them they'll milk it as much as they can and release an LCD version first and OLED later. Who knows, maybe they'll have two versions lol.

PS5 is bad because the ecosystem is not airtight, and nobody should be paying for cloud saves. They have timed exclusives, but I think the direction most people are leaning towards is PC and Steam. Why wouldn't they?

Free online... free cloud saves -- more games overall to choose from. Preservation ain't bad here. Nintendo? YUCK. The way they preserve games is so trite, hypocritical and disgusting.

Yeah, the Switch 2 being iterative isn't unprecedented for Nintendo. The 3DS was a very iterative console compared to the DS touch screen + clam shell design. 3DS was basically a DS 2. Also if you go further back, the GameBoy Color was a GameBoy 2. Even on the home console side, the SNES was the natural evolution of the NES, it's not like it did anything weird.

A third Switch would be unprecedented though. They've never had 3 consoles in a row without some kind of fresh idea, form factor or control scheme. It'll be interesting when we get there. I'd love if they made a big return to the home console space now that they have momentum, but I think staying in their comfort zone for another generation is wise.

Tech-wise, we're in a bit of an odd era. 4K screens are becoming standard (at least in the TV space), but consoles still struggle to render games at native 1080p, because we haven't stopped pushing for higher graphical fidelity and big seamless open worlds. On home consoles, we have AI hallucinating most of the pixels we look at. I find that sad.

So even if Nintendo came swinging with a console that was more powerful than the PS5 Pro, it still wouldn't be able to handle native 4K either. Only PC has that privilege right now. So I think it's better for Nintendo to keep focusing on art style and crisp native 1080p graphics instead of punching above their weight class. Perhaps in another 6-8 years, 40+ Teraflops hardware won't be as expensive and Nintendo can return to console gaming to create the OoT-style Zelda of our dreams, brimming with wonderful detail.

No, i do not think Indiana Jones is the game which turns things around for Xbox. Mainly because it is also out on Ps5 in spring 2025. And also because it does not seem like the kind of game which gets huge. I think what Xbox has going for it is the game pass ultimate which now for the first time gets you the latest call of duty game. It might be appealing. And then the 2025 line up with a lot of promising games, but a lot of them in the sort of same genres. Western rpg s or action games, mostly in third person.


Xbox has a lot of exclusive games coming up and deserves a but more success. But if many of the games are also available on PC, then why buy an Xbox right?

A portable Xbox device? A tablet? No i do not think so really. Mainly because a portable xbox device could not natively play games with the same level of graphics and resolution, so it would be kind of a step down. Would people want to play an inferior version of a AAA game on a portable Xbox? I do not think so personally. And they would need to adjust AAA games to have them work on inferior hardware too. Or maybe make unique games built for their portable console from the ground up (like DS and Wii were two different systems wth different games). I think they might not have a lot to gain from it.

They could just do an xbox - branded PC. Like a Steam Deck. As a side product. Which runs windows instead of some Steam OS. But then they are just a seller of a regular pc. And i do not think there is much profit for them in doing it. Then it becomes sort of a hardware play. Well, i guess if they bundle it with PC Game Pass they could expand their number of subscriptions. But not much other synergies in just selling a portable pc essentially. It gets their brand out to a bigger audience. But it also gets confusing because Xbox is a unique platform so if they start to brand a portable pc as an Xbox, it might get confusing.

They could name it something else. X Deck.

Microsoft now has Bethesda and Activision Blizzard and they are moving ahead and might be aiming to make a stand in 2027 when the next wave of consoles arrive (except for Nintendo who has a console coming much sooner). The current generation is a win for Sony. But the year after the next two years, Microsoft has a fighting chance because they have so many strong franchises and developers now. They just need to bring it all together in a nice way and maybe skip a series S style console and have a competitive price and alunch line up of games. Maybe even bundle next Xbox with a game or two, or bundle it with plenty of game pass.. I feel like they are on the right path. They aquired a lot which makes them in a strong position, now they just need to leverage the aquisitions in a smart way and get their games to result in strong hardware sales.

And if they fail and their next console sells in low numbers, they would still be in a quite nice position as just a game publisher for PC and Ps5. And growing in the cell phone arena too.

We might see even more aquisitions as well. I think generally something might need to happen in order for a company to get in some trouble before an aquisition is on the table. And the owners needs to want to sell. Right now most companies are not in a place where they aquire, they seem to be in a place where they cut costs and fire people (or let them go, as one should put it). But in a few years or even next year depending on how the general economy evolves, it might shift back to an environment where aquisitions are on the table again.

It is a bit weird because there is no cheap console except for Switch Lite and Xbox Series S. Maybe Xbox Series S is selling okay but the big seller seem to be PS5 which is expensive. Sony is way ahead of Xbox even thouggh maybe they do not deserve it. I think Sony had a stunning 2020 on Ps4. Then the launch and chip shortage made PS5 consoles just fly off the shelves in 2021 and 2022 regardless of exclusive AAA titles. But in 2023 and 2024 Ps4 sales should have declined if you look at it logically. But Xbox did not have much exclusive games in 2023 except for Redfall and Starfield and maybe a few more. There were not a lot of reasons to choose Xbox either. Redfall kind of failed too. In autumn 2023 Sony got a big hit with Spider man 2 and they also had hits with god of war and horizon on Ps5 before.

but 2024 has been kind of slow for Sony and the big exclusive titles has been astro Bot and then some third party titles like Final Fantasy VII, Stellar Blade and the hit game Wukong which is mostly a hit in China, not as much in the west.

2024 could have been a turn around year for Xbox, except Xbox is too far behind as it is. But things are looking fine for xbox in 2025 and 2026 leading up to the necxt generation.

Maybe GTA 6 could be a game which makes ps5 owners upgrade to ps5 pro if GTA 6 looks a lot better on PS5 pro. But Ps5 Pro might just bee too expensive even for hardcore players with money to spend. Why spend money on Ps5 pro when you could save them on Switch 2?