The “PS4 Pro” and “Xbox S” Are Not Good for the Economy: Here's Why

We’ve seen it all now folks. From cell phones to computers, tablets, and even videogames, being screwed by our own sense of progression has never been more evident than now. Now before you dismiss this entire article, let me get across my few swift points to further capture your interest.

PS4 was released November 15th, 2013 following closely on it’s heels was the Xbox One releasing on November 22, 2013 (In the good ol USA) however, Xbox 360 was released in November 22nd 2005, the PS3 November 17th 2006.

Essentially what this means is that there was no “upscaled” console between these years, an average of 8 years for both console lives.

In contrast, the PS4 Pro was released November 10th 2016, and Xbox Scorpio slated for an early 2017 release, a mere 3 years after the initial launch of this generation’s consoles.

Here’s the problem -

“Are the new consoles worth it?”
Yes and no. While a lot of people are still putting forth footage for the units, it’s undeniable that the PS4 Pro does feature double the power and processing speed which would help tremendously in some cases, also enabling 4K upscaling (while no game apparently has true 4K yet) while these features are nice, they are not entirely necessary. New videogames will feature a setting to allow for the 4K upscaled version with better load times, but if you don't have the new console the setting will not apply. The Xbox S will be doing something similar additionally. These are very nice reiterations of our current consoles by all means - but I think they could’ve waited. Part of me speculates it is an economic ploy to double up on their money, purposely releasing the inferior consoles first and soon after saying “Oh hey, we just developed a better one, but too late!” something to the effect of being slapped in the face for taking a hot cookie off the oven pan supposedly not able to realize an even tastier cookie would be coming out of the oven soon after.

“How does this affect us?”

Well you see, what you are doing is essentially endorsing corporations to continue to screw you into upgrading to the newest and brightest console on the block. While the features are plenty worth while, if you are already a previous owner of these consoles like myself - I doubt you would want to spend the same amount just for a half-gen upgrade. When these  bad business practices get supported we begin to see something close to “Which neighbor has the better car?” scenario, while we cannot possible be happy with what we currently have, the market yearns for us to have more. When you buy (again) these upgraded units only 3 years later, you have sent a message telling that business that they made the right choice, while really it is impartially just splurging and not a necessary upgrade, now we have endorsed the right for a .5 gen release of consoles (similar to Nintendo and the “New” 3DS) but the buck doesn’t stop there.

“What does this mean for the future?"

My point is, even after reading this article it will not stop people from continuing this endless cycle. Now that we have supported this kind of habit, it will continue to appear further down the line. Economics is corrupt and videogames are no exception, however I do hope I was able to somewhat give you a brighter picture of what is going on here. It will continue with all things and quite honestly it reminds me of people upgrading to the newest phone only after having theirs for some short time. However, again this is not necessarily how it needs to seem as the upgrades are not entirely bad news - but it is disconcerting.