Why I am Passing on the PS5 and Xbox Series X…FOR NOW

For many gamers, this is the week that you have been waiting for. All the hype over the past few years has led to the day where the masses will finally have a next-generation video game console in their possession. The Playstation 5 (PS5) and the Xbox Series X have arrived and with it, gaming now takes it next step forward. It’s hard to believe how far the industry has come just in my lifetime alone. Part of me thinks that I should be excited at the emergence of the next generation of consoles. But at present, I’m mainly indifferent to it.

To all of you that will be enjoying your new system this week, I hope that the PS5 and Xbox Series X is everything you’ve hoped for. I just will not be joining all of your on your new adventure. This is not based on whether or not the new consoles are legitimately quality systems. Without trying them out for myself, I’m not qualified to make that judgment. I’m just not one that believes in purchasing a new console when it is first released.

I’ve made my last several video game console purchases well after their release dates. This includes the Playstation 4, Xbox One, WiiU, Playstation 3, and Xbox 360. My Nintendo Switch was a gift from a friend in 2019, two years after the system’s release date.

The three main benefits I’ve found in having patience with purchasing new systems are savings, competency, and content. Starting with savings, the longer a consumer waits to purchase any available product, the likelihood of its purchase price going down increases. I use the term “available” because once a product is no longer readily available, it can gain value simply from being more difficult to attain. The price of the PS5 and Xbox Series X will likely have dropped by this time in 2022 if not already in 2021. A basic rule in consumerism is that waiting longer typically means paying less.

I look at consoles similar to how I view games. Let me explain. When games are released, they typically will have bugs and glitches that will be addressed through patches over time. This means the most competent and working version of the game is more than likely not the one a person purchases on the release date. There are cases where updates and patches end up doing more harm than good, but the goal of the adjustments is to create a better working game. This takes time. With the new consoles, I want to give Sony and Microsoft some time to work out the initial bugs with their products and for game developers to gain more experience in creating games on the platforms.

While I applaud both Sony and Microsoft for making sure there will be launch titles to keep their customers occupied in November, I enjoy having hundreds of games to select from at any given time. Because I’ve accepted from the beginning that I would never be able to fully keep up with the pace of the gaming industry, I don’t spend my energy trying. There are an innumerable amount of games from every generation of gaming that I have never played. God of War, Horizon Zero Dawn, Nier Automata, Dragon Quest XI, Max Payne 3, and many other such classics are games that I still have not played to this day. I have plenty to catch up on and in the meantime, the PS5 and Xbox Series X library will grow. When I do finally make the switch to the new systems within the next couple of years, there will be an assortment of games to choose from at that point.

Those of you who have the new systems, enjoy yourselves and feel free to share your experiences. In the meantime, I will be tracking the progress of the two new consoles and gathering as much information as I can. The graphics look incredible and I hope that the developers are committed to having the gameplay of their titles match the spectacular visuals. We are now entering into the next era of gaming. Yet for me, that means taking my time appreciating all the goodies that have brought us to this point.

Happy next-gen gaming.

-TVGA