Opinion Piece: 8th Generation PS4, Wii U, Xbox One SEVEN Years Later

A year has passed since the launch of Microsoft’s & Sony’s offerings have come out to add to the Wii U in the 8th generation which a year has passed since all three have been on the market together. As someone who’s owned all three.

I’m going to look back at all three systems and where they are going, I would of course like to hear your thoughts on the 8th gen systems.

Wii U:

Xbox One:

PS4:

Final Thoughts:

The admin team and I thought that mas's post might be better suited to the GNamer Community forum. (Balladit: Yes, "the admin. team". All one of us who aren't you. )

My only question is this: we voted Pikmin 3 the best game of the Wii U's first year. Why isn't that in the Metacritic Wii U Top Ten?!

ZeroJones wrote:

My only question is this: we voted Pikmin 3 the best game of the Wii U's first year. Why isn't that in the Metacritic Wii U Top Ten?!

Skylanders appears to have caused a malfunction in MetaCritic - they must have taken a lot of reviews from Dipshit Gamer into consideration.
Having said that, there are a lot of decent games in that top 10; for the purpose of a couple of %s I can see that list being about right. (With Pikmin in, natch)

Ah yes, Dipshit Gamer.  Featuring Vernon Kaye, Phil Fish, that bloke who sent Gabe Newell death threats, and most of the Internet.

To repeat the comment I made in the Wii U news thread, about the Wii U two years on:

I wrote:

I'd probably give it a B- myself.  It has one 9/10 big game so far in my eyes, in MK8 (possibly another in Bayo 2, and I'm aware that I didn't like Pikmin 3 for its genre), and two downloadables.  But the eShop aside, I seem to have fewer games for it at this point in its life than any Nintendo console apart from the N64 (but they were bona fide classics, mostly).

Lots of potential too, at this point, but it'll be interesting to see what remains next year. If we assume that Zelda makes it, along with XCX, that doesn't leave huge amounts. Starfox, I guess.

Pikmin 3 had 87 like Shovel Knight but slightly lower user score of 0.2 point's that it's number a 11 and skylanders is a 83 on PS360 but 79 on PS4 and no Xbox One reviews.

But if we ttok it out of the Top 10 and moved everything up one, I think that's a great 10 games there.

Ah, Skylanders. My 9-year-old cousin loves it to bits and spent a good portion of my parents' 60th birthday celebration telling me all about the plot of the last one.

In other thoughts, I would have hoped that the Wii U's review breakdown would outstrip that of both of the other consoles. Nintendo have had a year head-start and, although it's better than the One's, the PS4's is probably better. Is that worth a slight concern?

Yes, I'd say it is. Nintendo effectively wasted a year's headstart on the competition. The Wii U could and should have capitalised on the "first of the new gen." thing, and have a healthy lead on both other consoles, both in terms of titles (which they arguably do) and sales (which they definitely don't).

Still, all the launches seem to have been lacklustre this generation. It's just that Sony sold theirs better.

What Balla said games wise the Wii U is better but sales why there not great really and that's why at one point people laughed at it.

balladeer wrote:

Still, all the launches seem to have been lacklustre this generation. It's just that Sony sold theirs better.

THIS.

It's pretty telling that a year on that some of the folk who bought ps4 on launch aren't happy with their purchase & I can't blame them to be honest as Sony promised all this stuff but didn't fully deliver.

I'm quite glad I waited until a few months ago to buy mine as the wait for the big games coming in 2015 isn't so bad, I just hope those can deliver.

masofdas wrote:

What Balla said games wise the Wii U is better but sales why there not great really and that's why at one point people laughed at it.

I really do hate that mentality of "if everyone isn't buying it then it must be bad" it's the same for other mediums too & it just simply isn't true.

Yep it is annoying about the whole if it isn't the main stream they it sucks.

On PS4 I am pleased with mine and the only things we didn't get was DriveClub at launch and had to wait for a year to get a version that didn't work properly and The Order was delayed but what people were saying was great at preview events so sooner it's delayed and is a good game then rushed.

I'm happy with mine also so far but I wasn't just talking about the games on ps4 it's more about certain system features the most recent one being share play where they hype it up to be this massive social game changer that can be used with any game & then it arrives and it's nothing more than a glorified demo session that only works with certain games.

They really did just piggy back off the DRM disaster that Microsoft had but they can't do that for the entire lifespan of the console.

Well next year looks great for the PS4 and this event in December could help a lot but that's only something core gamers will know about and might get dripped back to some of there's friends on social media etc but not casual's like Sony says they want.

It was always going to be a glorified demo as you put it even when they showed it back in Feb 2013 but is annoying that some publishers can decide not to have it work for there games.

Also Microsoft's arrogance like if you can't afford a ONE buy a 360 didn't help them either.

mas wrote:

It was always going to be a glorified demo as you put it even when they showed it back in Feb 2013

That's not how they sold it though and that's my problem with it.

Pretty sure they said about it being timed but like at E3 2013 when it was announced you had to have plus to play online it was slipped in during a bit when everyone was still clapping that you could play used games.

I'm redoing my thoughts etc but for year 2/3 of the 8th generation.

Wii U:

Xbox One:

PS4:

Final Thoughts:

Be interested on everyones thoughts now 2 or 3 years on, will Balla still say B-

Triple Post

gJones posted something yesterday that got me thinking as this gen for PS4 and Xbox One at least is coming to an end.

I've had a PS4 since launch all the way up to the PS4 Pro, which I will look to sell moving on to PS5. The Xbox One umm well you all know I've had numerous of those but now game primarily on my Xbox One X which I will be doing right up to the launch of the Series X.  

That now with 7 years past us, which one of the two would I recommend and some general thoughts.

PlayStation 4

The PS4 may have one of the best libraries on a console with something like 4000 games, which it has quite a few exclusives be it indies or the weird sort of exclusive by default Japanese stuff. Then you have the first party which you have 6 of the Top 10 on Opencritic being on PS4, going by critical feedback.

You could also take into account PSNOW which has hundreds of PS3 game on it, that looking back you'll have plenty to find and VR as well.

Looking forward might be a tad different as Sony will drop the PS4 almost right away in terms of support when the PS5 arrives, sure you'll get 3rd party as a EA aren't going to ignore that install base.

Even though I think Sony will drop games support, I can see them cutting the price of the PS4 and selling it as a budget system which has 4000 games on it which includes all these bangers, it worked for the PS2.

Xbox One

The Xbox One and why I've had so many is that for a long time it was just like a PS4 but with less and had the opposite problem of the Wii U where that only got 1st party the Xbox One only really got 3rd party.

Since Spencer has taken over this has changed it still has a smaller library still, Japanese support is still mixed but its value is the difference due to Game Pass and 3rd party games often are cheaper on Xbox One than PS4.

Which also brings me to the future as the Xbox One SAD and X have been discontinued, also I'd think One S will be as well soon as Series S is real that unlike Sony where it still tries to sell you a PS4 (Nintendo also done this with 2DS) new for cheap. Is that game support will still be on the system for a few years and I wouldn't bet against always with XCloud.

Thoughts

I would normally say go where your friends are as well but if you're picking up one of these now that might not matter, then cross-play and cross-gen play it is changing that even this soon might not be a thing and I can play on my Series X and someone on here a PS5 another Switch but still enjoy multiplayer together for Apex Legends.

You got things like the UI and Controller but that is subjective.

So I think it comes down to PS4 has the bigger library, more diverse games due inides & Japan & VR, first party that is highly praised but looking ahead it is short lift for what's to come to PS4.

Where Xbox One will give better value as you can play OG & 360 games, access to 200+ games via Game Pass with new ones for the next few years, and cheaper games as well but smaller library of games with the best stuff being available elsewhere and I don't mean Halo on PC I mean Metal Gear Solid V is on PS4.

So which one do you recommend?

It's a hard one as if I gave you £250 sent you in town, you'd come back with more games for a Xbox One and still quality ones but mainly 3rd party but you'd also get a 4k UHD player.

But if you went into town with the same amount for a PS4 you'd come back with less but what you have be some of the highest rated games around.

If you sent me into town with £250 I'd come back with a PS4 and no games, unless there's a bundle deal on.

I'd take the PS4 personally - there are far more great games. It's a bit like the PS2 of this generation, most gamers have one and it benefitted from a wealth of Japanese exclusives. Game Pass is a great idea, but my Internet is terrible so would be a pain having to wait for them to download.

For £250 though, I'd probably get a Wii-U and every game for it.

Yeah it is a lot like the PS2 but with good games

It's a difficult one as I'm getting both next gen and I doubt I'll buy games at launch for the Series X because of Game Pass that's what sold me with this recent showcase. Where I'd be getting a PS5 for Spider-Man, Horizon 2, Ratchet etc

PS5 now very much how I see Nintendo now for the exclusives.