2. The New Hardware Came Too Soon
WikipediaYou'll notice that this list has been more about why your previous generation console is still awesome, and less about why the new consoles are disappointing. We've covered that before. But it's important to touch on a technical aspect which may affect your decision to hang on to your Xbox 360 or PS3 - the technology available while developing both the Xbox One and PS4 simply wasn't sufficiently advanced to deliver the massive jump in performance many were expecting. It was a serious conundrum, and both companies have valid reason for pushing out their consoles now even though the hardware is comparatively unremarkable when held up next to our expectations. Already people have been talking about consoles as a dying breed in the face of mobile gaming, casual gamers happily prodding away at their iPhones and iPads instead of coughing up for a proper gaming powerhouse. PC gaming is also making serious inroads on console territory of late. The time it would have taken to wait for things to improve dramatically could well have rendered console gaming an archaic idea. Two years would give us another 20% or so, while a four year wait to take things to 40-45% beyond the Xbox One or PS4 would have been unacceptable. Not an easy situation.