1. 10 Reasons To Stick With Your
Current Console
http://www.gamebasin.com/news/10-reasons-to-stick-with-your-current-console
The new consoles have had some time to settle in, find their feet, and start the lengthy process of
battling for our cash. It was a far longer wait than we’re used to – there are kids playing Xbox 360
games now that were shot out of the womb when it was launched… and they are already pwning
your sorry ass online. A 2005 launch for Microsoft’s console, and a year later for the Playstation 3,
marked the start of an incredible run in the gaming industry. By comparison, the Sega Dreamcast
became irrelevant in a weekend. The Atari Jaguar and 3DO were forgotten before the launch party
streamers and balloons had settled. So yes, the 7th generation of gaming consoles has been
something of an anomaly. Not only because the console overlords (and the publisher underlings
who suckle at their teat) dragged the generation out as long as possible, but also because the
gaming public seemed not to mind. Traditionally around the 5 year mark we start to tire, we start
fidgeting and whining. This time, we just kept buying. Last year both consoles still sold in big
numbers, even though we were sitting on the brink of a new generation. That shows incredible
staying power for these formidable machines – even more impressive considering the start that
both had. Many would suggest that Sony stumbled badly with the PS3 launch and Microsoft’s
offering was all too inclined to suddenly turn itself into an expensive grey paperweight. They stood
the test of time, and earned a place in almost 200 million gamers’ hearts between the two of them.
With that legacy behind them, and now that their replacements have sauntered onto the playing
field, it almost feels sad to have to bench these two veteran consoles. But does that have to be the
case? Not necessarily. Obviously millions of gamers will be chomping at the bit to fill a briefcase
with money and throw it at Microsoft or Sony in exchange for one of their fancy new systems, but
there is life left in these old dogs yet. So, while we decide which (if any) of the eighth generation
consoles will see our cash, let’s take a look at a couple of reasons why you needn’t rush into it…

2. 10. The Hardware Is Still Impressive
It says a lot about the effort put into the Xbox 360 and PS3 hardware that they are still relevant so
many years later. The constantly evolving operating systems and user interfaces across both
consoles played their part in keeping things looking and feeling fresh, but the underlying hardware
is the foundation for everything else to build on. The seventh generation made a substantial leap
from the consoles that came before it, something which both Sony and Microsoft have struggled
to achieve with their latest machines. Both consoles handled the hardware question in their own
way, creating similarly powered systems but with considerably different architecture under the
hood. The Xbox 360 was considered the every‐mans console when it came to development
procedure – from the start, developers were pushing quite a lot out of the hardware – while it took
longer to unweave the Cell technology which carried Sony’s system. Now, some seven years later,
the wizards who make the games that we love have got it all figured out; each time we think they’ve
pushed these consoles to their limits, they squeeze more magic out of them. Spend a day with The
Last Of Us or wandering around San Andreas and you’ll see just how far we’ve come. The bottom
line is that your “old” console still has a lot of bite to go with its bark, so there’s no reason to put
them out to pasture just yet.
9. A Stream Of Free Games On Tap

3. Ok, that headline is a little misleading. To be fair, these free games require a membership fee, but
if you take your gaming seriously then you will want a membership regardless of the free games.
In which case they really do become an added bonus. Beta access for some of the biggest games
on the horizon, the ability to try full games before you buy, sizeable discounts on store purchases
and more, there is a lot to love about either a Playstation Plus or Xbox LIVE Gold subscription. For
Xbox 360 gamers, a Gold subscription has always been almost essential since you need to be a
member to play online. But with the new Games With Gold program – surely conceived to compete
with the impressive value of the Playstation Plus premium system – you’re getting a whole lot more
than before. So, whichever console you own, your subscription now effectively pays for itself
thanks to a constant stream of free games available to download. Surprisingly it’s not just Barbie’s
Putrid Playhouse and Kinect Dominoes Championship either… We’re talking about games you
actually want. Super Street Fighter IV, Hitman: Absolution, Sleeping Dogs, Dead Space 3, the list
goes on. And it keeps going on as long as you’ve paid your membership fee.
8. Great Deals On Previous Generation
Classics

4. Here’s a scary little math problem to solve: count all the games you’ve bought for your Xbox 360
or Playstation 3, and then multiply that by the average price for games at launch. What are we
looking at, around $50 a pop, give or take? Put that all together and look at the answer. Frightening,
isn’t it? Now click over to your favourite online retailer, and have a gander at the prices that these
games are going for now. Not the newest titles, of course – publishers will push for the big bucks
until the very last game hits the shelves, so the latest releases will always be crazy expensive – but
the hordes of amazing games that have come out over the past years for these consoles. The
budget bins are quite literally overflowing with top notch titles, huge savings on brilliant games
that may have slipped through the cracks. This is the time to snap up a couple of serious bargains.
The tail end of a generation is when we start seeing all the Game Of The Year Editions being
pumped out, and collections where you get a couple of titles from one popular franchise all
bundled together. For the collectors, now is your opportunity to pick up sought‐after leftover
Limited Edition box sets and so on, those once ridiculously pricey sets with the figurine and sew‐on
patch and other genuine imitation plastic bits and pieces. Whatever you’re into, you’ll find a
whole lot with your name on it, going for a song.
7. There Are More High Profile Games On The
Way

5. Budget bin treasures aside, the future release schedules are still dotted with a number of massive
titles on the way for previous generation systems. Naturally we’ll be hearing far more about the
Xbox One/PS4 variants, but you’ll notice that plenty of these high profile games will have a little
Xbox 360 or PS3 logo tucked away in the corner of the marketing material. Often their presence on
the legacy consoles is a huge selling point – the new consoles have sold well considering the
timeframe, but it will be a long time before they can compete with the install base of the last
generation. And if you’re a publisher, in this industry of tight margins and insane development and
marketing costs, you need to shift volumes. Right now the only way to do that is to slap your bigger
games on as many consoles as possible. Hell, sometimes even the Nintendo Wii U gets a chance.
2014 has a couple of heavy hitters lined up, annual feasts like Call Of Duty and FIFA, a new
Battlefield, Far Cry 4, and the eagerly anticipated Destiny to name a few. This is hardly the release
schedule of a dead console. There are signs of life all the way into 2015 too, and while it’s to be
expected that things will taper off fairly quickly from next year on, that’s still a solid lineup to keep
your ageing console alive.
6. Your Old Games Are Pretty Much Useless
With A New Console

6. There is some sadness that comes with the end of an era. Just think about the hours you’ve spent
with that PS3/Xbox 360 controller gripped tightly in your hand. The hours spent shooting people,
scoring goals, winning races, all while that trusty console (ok, trusty isn’t entirely accurate when
looking at the early days of the Xbox 360) whirrs gently next to your TV. Now think of wrapping
that bad boy up and stashing it in a cupboard to be forgotten. A sad thought, but one made even
more depressing since once you’ve resigned your old console to the archives of life, your existing
game collection becomes instantly useless. It was a big hit for us when the console creators
revealed that the new consoles wouldn’t be backwards compatible. This meant we were forced to
hang on to the old consoles if we wanted to play the hundreds of brilliant games we’ve collected
over the years. So you may as well sell your games too. Not a pleasant proposition. There is light
at the end of the tunnel though, as cloud services could make it possible to play last‐gen titles on
current‐gen hardware… Just not with the discs you’ve spent a bazillion dollars. Technical or tactical,
that they didn’t find a way to make it possible right out of the box feels like a significant misstep,
and another reason to keep that black (or white) box you’ve grown to love.
5. All Your Friends Are Waiting Online To
Kill You

7. Once you’ve blasted your way through the lazy single‐player campaign in the latest Medal Of Duty:
BattleHalo title, it’s time to fire up that multiplayer mode. For many, that’s where the heart of the
game lies. No one is going to win an argument claiming that people buy a Modern Warfare of
Battlefield title for the campaign. Tightly scripted action, nefarious Soviet or Middle Eastern
mercenaries, and exploding barrels, that will keep us entertained for a while (long enough to unlock
the achievements at least) but four or five hours later we want to turn up the heat. And that means
we want to shoot real (digital) people in the face with assault rifles. Of course you can flick on your
Xbox One or PS4 and get that new game spinning in the disc tray, but at this stage in the game
you’re unlikely to find many of your friends on the battlefield. Multiplayer gaming is a social event,
by its very nature, and it’s far more fun when playing with people you know – it maximises
teamwork and minimises foreigners talking disrespectfully about your mother. So, with over 80
million users on either last‐gen console, it makes sense that if you want to keep things social, that’s
still the place to hang out.
4. Revisit That Stack Of Great Games
You’ve Neglected

8. We’ve covered the upcoming blockbusters, and we’ve discussed the plethora of awesome games
you’ve probably missed over the years (with almost 2000 games between the two consoles, you’re
bound to find enough to keep you occupied for the foreseeable future). But what about that pile
of games you already own, those boxes collecting dust on the shelf at home? We all have games
which were all the rage for a while but were eclipsed by the “next big thing”, and retired to the
game cupboard, saved for a rainy day. That rainy day has come. You know you didn’t explore every
nook and cranny of Elder Scrolls: Oblivion. You may have forgotten about that one shooter with
the boss you just couldn’t kill, but he’s still lurking in your collection waiting for you. What about
those Xbox LIVE Arcade or PSN titles that you downloaded because they were cheap but soon set
aside to make time for a new Metal Gear Solid? They’re all still sitting patiently on your hard drive
or floating around in the cloud. You haven’t finished Super Meat Boy. And you’re (most probably)
lying if you say otherwise.
3. Xbox 360 & PS3 Bundles Are Dirt Cheap
Right Now

9. We’re looking at reasons to keep your Xbox 360 or PS3, but what if you don’t even have one yet?
What if you’re new to gaming and are weighing up your options? Your gut may be telling you to go
big and pick up something with an eighth generation shine to it, but it doesn’t have to be as
straightforward as that – there are a couple of valid reasons to go back a generation to dip your
toes into the world of gaming. As you would expect, all of the other reasons listed here explaining
why you should keep your current console still ring equally true when it comes to justifying a last‐gen
purchase right now. Cheap games (and lots of them), great new games on the horizon, a
bustling online community and huge market for even cheaper used games – you can’t really go
wrong, and newcomers will be suitably impressed with the hardware on offer too. What really
makes seventh generation consoles a great place to start, though, is the severely cut price tag.
Compare current prices to what they cost at launch, and it’s enough to bring a tear to your eye.
Cheaper, and better too – newer models are quieter, cooler, use less power and are more reliable,
not to mention sleeker and prettier. Plus you can grab one with an extra controller, free games,
even free premium memberships thrown in for a fraction of the price. You’re running out of excuses
to still not be a gamer.
2. The New Hardware Came Too Soon

10. You’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.
1. It’s Too Early To Decide Which Console To
Go For

11. And this is where the fanboys suit up, load up, and come out to play. Fact is, we don’t know which
way things are going to go. There are still too many variables at play, and it’s just too early in the
game. As Microsoft’s Phil Harrison said, the sales war is a marathon, not a sprint. Right now Team
Xbox will be sweating, make no mistake – not only is the PS4 outselling the Xbox One, but just
about every head‐to‐head comparison of cross‐platform titles sees Sony’s machine coming out on
top. Framerates, screen tearing, depth of field, we’re seeing a lot of wins for the PS4. Again, it’s still
early days. Microsoft has backtracked on the compulsory inclusion of Kinect with each Xbox One,
and this could change things in two ways: Firstly the price, with the console now significantly
cheaper, and finally in line with PS4 pricing. Price parity is essential – many gamers don’t see the
Kinect as good enough reason to shell out so much more cash. Secondly, developers now have a
good few percent more power at their disposal as the Xbox One doesn’t need to keep resources
aside for the Kinect. It might not be enough to surpass the power of the PS4, but with some clever
programming we could start seeing some Xbox One wins in the direct comparisons. Console
exclusives also play a huge part, so you need to be sure that your console of choice has the titles
you most want to play. Why is it important to worry about which console wins the race? It’s not
just vitriolic fanboyism. Lower sales means less enthusiastic support from publishers and
developers. Obviously as long as it’s relatively close we will keep seeing most big games coming to
both consoles, but if the gap widens enough things can change. Don’t believe that? Think about
how many proposed Wii U titles were postponed indefinitely (read cancelled) when publishers
realised they wouldn’t bring in the cash. In this regard, it makes sense to hang on a little – a new
console is an emotional choice as well as a logical one, so many will follow their hearts regardless,
but it may be wise to see how things develop over the coming months. In the meantime, keep that
Xbox 360 or PS3 spinning happily… you have enough reasons not to bin it just yet.
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