The next generation of gaming consoles is coming in full force very, very soon. Nintendo released their next-gen salvo a whole year early with the Wii-U, which came out Nov. 12, 2012. Sony and Microsoft, the two top dogs right now, are going to set their new consoles loose closer together, with the PS4 coming out on Nov. 15, 2013 in the US and Nov. 29, 2013 in Europe, and the Xbox One is coming out on Nov. 22, 2013. For us living in the great archipelago of the Philippines, though, we may be getting them probably a couple weeks after stated release dates.
People who own current-gen (soon to be last-gen) consoles and people who have never owned a console before are thinking of jumping right in the deep end of the next-gen pool and buy a PS4/Xbox One right at launch. A bunch of people from the international forums I follow have pre-ordered their systems already. BUT HOLD YOUR HORSES! Let me tell you why it may be a good idea to hold off on that and get a PS3 or 360 if you don't have one yet.
Here's why buying a PS3 or Xbox 360 now or even a few months after the release of the next gen consoles is still a viable idea.
We actually just got one! It's white!
Rich Existing Game Library
The PS4 and Xbox One will have backwards compatibility, but not the way you'd want it to work. You can't just pop in your old PS3/360 disc in. (2018 EDIT: With Xbox One, yes you can just pop them in now) You'd have to stream your old games through cloud services like Gaikai for Sony and Azure for Microsoft. While that's pretty cool, there are a few concerns with that. You have to consider things like server locations, latency, service availability, local net speed, and possible extra costs.
Streaming games means all the computations will be done on a computer somewhere else in the world, which means your input travels through the Internet and into the servers, reflects the actions you decide to take within the game as the streaming service tries their best to send it back to your display in the quickest possible time. And considering the Philippines isn't exactly up to par with the rest of the world in terms of Internet speed or reliability, that kind of service for PS3/360 games might not be ideal.
And unless you had all the time in the world to play all the brilliant games that came out for a generation that lasted 7 years, you should still be able to take advantage of the massive existing library for both platforms. Here's a list of all the PS3 games, and here's a list of all Xbox 360 games. And even if you can't find the disc in retail, most of them are available digitally anyway.
Image from here.
Few or Zero System-Selling Game Launch Title
Once the systems launch, in my opinion, there won't be any must-have system-selling launch titles. There are a few notable exceptions, of course, like PlayStation 4's Killzone: Shadows Fall and Xbox One's Dead Rising 3, but they're not enough to get me to drop $400 on launch day. Call of Duty: Ghosts and Battlefield 4 will have next gen counterparts, which will be available on day 1, but current gen will also support them. Same goes for Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag and Watchdogs.
Here's a list for the PS4 launch titles, and here's the Xbox One's list. Anything tickle your fancy?
Hardware Fixes/ Improvements
Remember these?
Yeah. I was actually a recent victim of YLOD. And that was a slim unit, too. You have to remember that the absolute shittiest PS4 and the absolute shittiest Xbox One are going to be the ones that launch this November. Once people get their hands on these consoles and people start putting them through their paces, with the help of the Internet, the entire world will know what shitty hardware failures these companies are trying to sell to us this time.
A lot of people only felt confident enough to buy an Xbox 360 only after the Jasper chipset came out. It required 12.1 amps instead of 14.2, which reduced heat and therefore 3RL/ RRoD failures.
However, it is probably worth noting that due to the PS4 and Xbox One having a more PC-like architecture, and with all technology getting thinner and more powerful, the chances of hardware mishaps like the 3RL and YLOD are slim. Still, better use all those pre-orderers as our collective guinea pigs.
Lower Pricing/ Used Market
Like with most electronic goods, when newer versions come out, previous models get cheaper and cheaper until they're phased out. This is less true for gadgets who have new versions coming out as often as once or twice a year, but the last time a Playstation or Xbox came out, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and George W. Bush were both still in power. Prices are going to go down. Maybe it won't be so much for the first few months, but it'll dip once demand starts thinning out and next-gen consoles become the standard.
There is also a breed of people who will start selling off their old gadgets just as a new version is coming out. This is to gain enough liquidity to afford the new version and to be able to let go of the aging device before market prices start getting really low. All you have to do is be patient as those second-hand deals are going start flying on Sulit.com and Ebay.ph.
Oh, it's also interesting that the Playstation 2 only stopped getting manufactured earlier this year.
Better Deals Down the Road
When the PS3 launched, I couldn't bring myself to buy a unit because I just couldn't justify it myself to me. A 20GB unit went for $499 and a 60GB unit went for a whopping $500. They sold for roughly Php30,000 here, which I found ridiculous for a game system even if it was the cheapest Blu-ray player on the market. The 360 was a little more forgiving, selling at $299 for a system with no hard drive, and $399 for one with 20GB HDD and a few bells and whistles.
The slim model, which was a vastly improved system, came out in 2009 - 3 years after the original "fat" one. And that one sold for $299 with a 120GB hard drive. I got mine for Php13,000 only, which is almost half of what the original system went for. I bet if you're patient enough, you should be able to hold off long enough for the initial price drop, around a year after release.
Take, for example, the Xbox 360, which first received a price drop in August 2007, a little under two years after its November 2005 release. This is probably to combat Sony's $100 price drop in July 2007, which is less than a year after its November 2006 release. Reference, right here.
Friends and Online Play
Know if your friends are going to switch right away. If your friends aren't making the jump, doesn't it make sense to just keep playing and having a good time with them on whatever system they're currently on? With an early upgrade, you'll probably have to play with people from far away for the first few months, depending on the market's acceptance.
This isn't so much of a problem for me since I make friends as I go along, but I bet next-gen games would be full of early adopters and not enough mass-market people. We might have a hard time finding games with good enough ping.
TL;DR
If you're thinking of getting a PS3 or Xbox 360, whether it's your first time to get the system or if you're replacing a damaged one, go for it. Wait a year before you jump into next-gen, just to make sure it's worth it.