‘What is Next-Gen Anyway?’- A Guide for Thoughrougly Frenzied Fanboys

We’ve seen 4k/60fps, we’ve seen raytraced lighting and ridiculously pretty textures – but if you believe the chatter on forums, we still haven’t seen next-gen.

Why? Because armchair experts and fanboys would rather water down the medium with bitching than spend even a second getting excited. It’s happened all over again with the Xbox conference this week. The most rabid in our community have declared it ‘Not Next-Gen’ and so the question is: what even is next-gen?

The answer will upset some people.

Next-Gen and the art of disappointment

Microsoft are correct when they talk about generations being watered down. Gone are the days where your first look at a next-gen game is the most impressive thing you’ve ever seen. You’ll never have another Sonic Adventure moment. You’re never going to stare, open-mouthed, analysing trailers just for the enjoyment of seeing them again.

And the reason is simple: because PCs exist. You can froth at the mouth, talking about the magic of the SSD and all of that nonsense, but the reality is that in terms of sheer graphical processing, everything possible on the next-gen consoles has already been possible on PC for years. There are tech explanations and even examples on YouTube that you can go look up right now.

The very notion of generations becomes about leaving behind the old tech and starting on something more powerful. Microsoft claimed it didn’t need to, an idea that took a bashing this week with the Halo Showcase. I’m not convinced it’s an entirely fair argument – Halo’s graphical style was underwhelming for some despite being cross-gen, not because of it – but that’s a discussion for another day.

Instead, Halo perfectly showcases the issue that I think some are having. Fanboys are ruining next-gen before it even begins, because their expectations are just far too high.

This started with the idea that if Microsoft had a 12TF GPU, that Sony must, obviously, have a 13TF GPU. That stood to reason, until it was proven untrue.

But genius Mark Cerny didn’t focus on the area where Sony seemed weakest compared to its competition, and so the conversation changed.

Dreams and an SSD

The pressure got piled onto the SSD. Storage became the deciding factor of the next generation, despite nobody knowing the impact it was going to have. The Unreal demo couldn’t possibly play on anything else (nonsense) unless it was completely downgraded (nonsense), and if it could, well JUST IMAGINE WHAT PLAYSTATION WOULD BE ABLE TO DO.

And then Sony’s conference came along and it did little to showcase the power of the SSD. It was pretty, some of it was stuff we couldn’t have possibly done before, and it was mostly stuff worth playing – but was it next-gen?

Sony fanboys said yes. Xbox fanboys said no. Gran Turismo was ripped apart. Horizon was declared in-engine rather than gameplay and therefore null and void.

The pressure turned to Microsoft. The same happened again. Halo was ripped apart. Everything was declared in-engine and therefore null and void.

In both cases, this isn’t taking away from valid criticism. Neither conference truly sold the next-gen devices, and the launch window isn’t looking healthy. At this point you’re buying on faith, you’re buying on the prospect these companies are selling. That’s fine, just don’t say you’re buying on the games. If you want to buy a likely $500 console on the basis of a Spider-Man semi-sequel or one Halo title, please also give to the Mat Growcott Foundation for Floudering Frogs. It’s in desperate need of your donation.

What is Next-Gen? – Here Be Babies

Fanboys, hold onto your blankies. Here is the hard truth, the shocking moment of revelation that will tear your worlds apart: next-gen is what we’ve seen. Next-gen is exactly what we’re getting.

Next-gen is hidden loading screens. Next-gen compromises for 4k/60FPS. Next-gen is prettier and faster than what we’ve got now, but that’s it. When people said “What magical new experiences will SSDs allow that just aren’t possible on current-gen machines?” and the answer was a big fat “I don’t know, but I’m excited to find out”, that should have been a warning that what we’re getting is more of the same. Other than jumping from one place to the other, the might of the internet couldn’t come up with a single interesting idea that wasn’t just a giant gimmick.

And this lack of a jump isn’t a problem. The sooner we realise that, the more excited we’ll get. I love better graphics. I love faster loading times. Every time I boot up Shadow of the Tomb Raider or Final Fantasy 7: Remake, I feel like I’m already in next-gen. That’s going to get better? Fantastic. I’ll take both consoles, please, and keep the masterpieces coming.

But what we need to do, as a community, is stop hyping up ideas console makers just can’t possibly match. The dream is dead. Go look at some videos of gorgeous looking PC games and be happy that we’re finally catching up to that. The vast majority of PC gamers don’t have rigs powerful enough to play games as well as the consoles. Everybody will have easy, relatively access to powerful hardware.

Because for all the thumb sucking, for all the tantrums, for all the concern trolling, there is one thing that those complaining the loudest have yet to answer. They know what isn’t next-gen, but they can’t put into words what is next-gen. They can barely use words, so I understand why they struggle.

For the most part, these people don’t actually believe what they say. They’ll buy their console of choice regardless of if it meets their impossible standards for their rival bit of plastic, because those standards only apply to the device they’re not going to buy. It’s as simple as that. If Sony had showed an hour of Goodbye Volcano High, the company’s fans would still have bought it. They’d probably have found ways to explain why Goodbye Volcano High is the standard upon which the whole of next-gen is based upon.

And so, here’s my recommendation. Dear reader, if you take but one thing from this article, let it be this. Can we please stop feeding the trolls? Can we take away the power they have over this conversation? Can we stop letting them artificially inflate what next-gen means? Because when nothing is next-gen, next-gen loses its whole potential.

And I’d rather be excited about potential than looking towards mountains Microsoft nor Sony are able to peak.