Three Reasons You Should Wait To Buy a Next-gen Console
At the beginning of January, Sony announced they had sold over 4.2 million PlayStation 4's worldwide since the console was released in November. Around the same time Microsoft revealed they had sold over 3 million Xbox One's. If you believe the numbers at vgchartz.com , the most up to date numbers are 4.7 million PS4's to 3.3 million Xbox One's. Regardless of which system currently is selling more units, it's obvious that next-gen consoles are selling like hotcakes.
Buying a next-gen console right now could end up being a mistake, though. Here are the top three reasons you should wait to buy a next-gen console:
Reason 1 - Price
Right now the PlayStation 4 retails for $399 while an Xbox One will cost you $499. This is pretty much a swap of current generations launch pricing where the PlayStation 3 originally sold for $499 out of the gate while the Xbox 360 20GB model had a price tag of $399 at launch.Let's be honest, most people just aren't financially comfortable enough to drop half a grand on a video game system at the drop of a hat (not to mention the money spent on games, an online subscription, and additional accessories like extra controllers). The price barrier is probably the biggest reason that many gamers will end up waiting on a next-gen console. If you are patient enough, prices will eventually be cut into a much more affordable range.
So how long exactly are you going to have to wait? Let's take a look at the current generation consoles to determine that. Less than six months after launch, the PlayStation 3 got its first price cut, making it $100 cheaper. The Xbox 360 received a price cut (between $20 and $50 depending on the model) around the same time which ended up being roughly one and a half years after its launch. Once again, this was actually a role reversal from the previous generation. The original Xbox cost $299 when it launched in November 2001 and then got a $100 price cut six months later in May 2002. The PlayStation 2, on the other hand, launched in October 2000 and did not get a price reduction (also $100 off) for about a year and a half. It seems Microsoft and Sony keep swapping pricing strategies each generation.
Prices kept falling as years went by. When the PlayStation 3 launched in 2006, the 60GB model cost consumers $599. You can currently get a 500GB PS3 bundle for literally half that price at $299. The same can be said of the Xbox 360. When the 360 was released in 2005, it cost gamers $399 for a system with a measly 20GB of hard drive space. Now you can purchase a 250GB model for around $249 (without Kinect).
If the trend set by the previous two generations of gaming holds true for this one, the price of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One consoles should be cut anywhere from six to 18 months from launch and could be as much as $100 cheaper than current cost. In the case of video game consoles, waiting literally pays off.
Tags: Xbox One, PlayStation 4, xbox one buy now or wiat, ps4 buy now or wait
It's good to see some people with some reasoning here (except one guest). Running out to by the next-gen at launch is a fool's errand...I'm in no rush.
My only fear is that as publishers will rush and try to force obsolescence of 360 and PS3 by not making anything for it while they pump out next gen titles. Call me out of it, but that doesn't seem to have been the case last time, or even the time before that. PS1 slowly went away, PS2 hung around most of PS3's life. Xbox had a good couple of years it shared with 360.
yeah, i'm waiting. and i don't mean to sound like one of those annoying anti-console people, but pc's are way better than consoles, especially with my gtx titan. hell even when i just had one gtx 760 it was way better. if i can get a game that a lot of my friends aren't getting and it is available for pc, i get it for pc. my consoles are used more for gaming with my friends, not hardcore gaming. graphics wise, cpu wise, storage wise, basically yeah, pc dominates, its why people should invest in a pc rather than these overpriced consoles.
I jumped from PS2 to PS3 rather quickly because there was backwards compatibility (at least for the first iteration or so) and because of definite enhancements to graphics (HD), storage (internal hard drive), media (PS3 doubles as a Bluray player), and other features that were clearly a generation above (same going from PS1 to PS2). The jump between PS3 and PS4 is not so great though I am jealous of the CPU and GPU combination and supposedly improved interface.
This is the first generation of consoles since 1990 that I have no interest in buying.
I just bought a PS3 (a month ago). $250, 250 GB, and it came with The Last of Us. Plus, I got a few great games for less than $15-$20 each.
Wait even longer; smart people. Next-gen is a joke ATM. Let them drop the prices, work out bugs, release cooler-running CPU/GPU's, and let developers actually make games that push the new processors.
Plus, if you like RPGs, the wait for next-gen RPGs is a long one... Nothing really until the last quarter of 2014. I enjoyed an X-box, a PS2, and a PC for a long time while waiting. There are plenty of games; so unless you are really hardcore (read: rich, and have spent 1000's of dollars as well as 1000's of hours playing in the past several years) into video gaming; there's no rush.
I bought Wii U, PS4 and the Xbox One...WORTH IT!