‘This has been the worst video game console generation ever‘

A Reader’s Feature argues that the current generation is the worst there’s ever been and that Microsoft and Sony are neglecting their duties.

We’re close now. For all I know, as I write this, the Nintendo Switch 2 may already have been announced. If it hasn’t then hopefully we’re only a few weeks away from it happening. I know you can’t predict Nintendo, yadda yadda yadda, but at the very maximum we’re six months away from a reveal and probably much, much less.

And oh boy is it needed. Sony and Microsoft are so useless and out of touch it’d be funny if it wasn’t so sad. Especially as both now seem to be fully in next gen mode and all they’re thinking about is their new consoles, and not the fact that their current ones are a disaster area.

Oh, your console sales are falling? I wonder why that might be! Everyone else in the world seems to know but apparently not Microsoft and Sony. Apparently to them the idea of releasing good new games is something that has never occurred to them, so instead we get Redfall and Concord.

Things started off fine this generation. Xbox seemed to understand the mistakes they’d made with the Xbox One and Sony had a great line-up of PlayStation 5 games. A few too many cross-gen games maybe, but not all of them were like that and the exclusives they did have – Demon’s Souls, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, and Returnal – were all great.

Then the number of new games started to slow to a trickle and most of the ones we did get were still cross-gen. It still wasn’t a disaster though, until Microsoft started flashing its cash and Sony decided that single-player games – the exact reason the PlayStation 4 had been so successful – were the exact opposite of what they were going to make from now on.

After that, sales mysteriously* started falling for both of them and, at the same time, they both suddenly decided, all of a sudden, that games were too expensive now and so their big plan to cope with this was… to not make any more games anymore. Or at least that seems to be Sony’s plan.

They’ve both been terrible this gen but at least Microsoft has got the excuse that they’ve never been on top. Sony should know better than this though, they should be the old masters that no longer make schoolboy errors, but instead they’re acting like clueless idiots.

The worst thing is there’s no end in sight. Xbox has some decent games out this Christmas but it’s obvious none of them are going to sell, which means their future is now tied to Call Of Duty and being multiformat. They’ve got a next gen console coming out but what’s the point? Do they really think it’s going to buck the trend of constantly declining sales?

Sony’s situation is even worse, because they still seem to be in the denial phase. Concord has been a massive failure and we still don’t know what they’re going to do about it or live service games in general. We know about nothing they have coming out from now on (the only rumour is of a Days Gone remaster – thrilling!) and yet they’re already talking about the PlayStation 6!

I really can’t take seriously anyone that says this isn’t the worst generation ever. Yes, there are still good games being made but no thanks to Sony or Microsoft. Good games have always been around but in the SNES or the PS1 or the Xbox 360 era you didn’t have both companies acting like clueless buffoons and threatening the stability of the entire industry.