Ten Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Buy A PS4 Or Xbox One Just Yet

Tech giants Sony and Microsoft have been going head-to-head for years now in the battle of the consoles, and their latest efforts — the PS4 and Xbox One, respectively — are fighting hard for your delicious consumer dollar since being launched just in time for the Christmas rush last year. But should you take the plunge, and update your gaming set-up? After months of extended play-time with both consoles, I’d have to say… uh, no.

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1.  No good games (at least until Destiny‘s released)

Microsoft and Sony’s shiny new ‘next-generation’ consoles have been out for six months now, and it’s a pretty damning indictment that the only app I use on them regularly is Netflix. Sure, Breaking Bad is good — even on the second play-through, Heisenberg is a consummate badarse — but if my PS4 could speak, I’m sure it would say something like, “Why do you never play games on me? You promised me you were a gamer.” I’d answer that Destiny comes out on September 9, so until then I’ll stick with Walter White. At its PS4 launch event, Sony described the console as “the best place to play…”, but so far it’s just the best place to play movies (and even that’s questionable).

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2. They’re still pretty damn expensive

Luckily, I’m a journalist by profession, so I can definitely afford pricey new consoles [cough!]. Others, however, aren’t so fortunate. The PS4 clocks in at $549 and the Xbox One at $599, and that’s not including the yearly subscriptions to Playstation Plus and Xbox Live, which are mandatory if you want to go online (they cost $70 and $80 a year, respectively).

In the last few weeks, some attractive new bundles — including extra games and subscriptions — have started making their way into stores, and Gumtree and eBay are slowly starting to fill up with people who want quick cash instead of hulking Netflix boxes, but chances are there’ll be a price drop by Christmas this year, so it’d be better value to get onboard then.

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3. Old consoles are still good, and provide better bang-for-buck

Last-gen consoles Xbox 360 and PS3 are still on shelves, and they’ve only recently hit their stride in offering extremely high-quality games (see: The Last Of Us, GTA V) that push the boundaries of what the consoles can do technically. Rockstar’s GTA V — which has sold over 32.5 million copies worldwide since its release six months ago — boasts a bigger map than Red Dead Redemption, San Andreas and GTA 4 combined, and takes over two real-life hours to walk from one end to the other. These much-loved parent consoles also still have huge numbers of online players and far deeper catalogues than their new installments, meaning FIFA 2011, 2012 and 2013 are all at your disposal depending on what mood you’re in.

Plus, don’t forget about motherfucking Goldeneye. What can compete with Goldeneye?

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4. Real-life graphics are better

Take a look outside. I’m not sure exactly what the resolution is, but I’m pretty sure it’s far better than that of the PS4 or Xbox One. It also supports glasses-free 3D (you know, depending on whether or not you need glasses).

Xbox one graphics are trash lol

— Paul Milly (@K1NG_M3) May 6, 2014

For more information on ‘Outside’ — a free-to-play MMORPG developed by Deity Games, and the most popular game with 7 billion+ active players — check out its subreddit.

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5. iPads and mobiles are taking off

Flappy Bird might be dead, but that doesn’t mean mobile gaming is — in fact, far from it. One of Steve Jobs’s most underrated legacies has been the proliferation of mobile phone games — the advent of the iPhone brought with it millions of free or cheap apps and games, and while most are shit, some are definitely not. Baldur’s Gate, Max Payne, Bastion and Dead Space are just a few that are available in the palm of your hand that are just as good (if not better) than their console counterparts. And why lug around a hefty 3.2kg Xbox One when you can get a 450g iPad Air for the same price?

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6. Virtual reality is just around the corner (or, buy an Oculus Rift right now!)  

Most of us were understandably disappointed with ‘virtual reality’ in the ’90s — Nintendo’s Virtual Boy was bad (really bad).

But the late-mail is good: virtual reality’s finally taking off, and it’s available right now. Oculus — the team behind the ‘Oculus Rift‘ virtual reality headset — was recently purchased by Facebook, meaning it won’t be long till we’re poking and tagging and taking selfies with each other in virtual reality space. This ‘next-gen’ of consoles is suddenly looking very ‘ex-gen’ already, huh?

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7. Do you really need this kinda thing in your life?

Online gamers aren’t exactly Shakespeare, but they can be romantic, I guess?

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8. They can’t cure cancer… yet

‘Folding@Home‘ is an extremely complex scientific tool used to help solve computational problems related to protein folding research, in a bid to one day help cure Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Huntington’s, and many forms of cancer. It uses your computer’s unused processing power to complete these problems… and it’s only available for PC, Mac, Linux, and PS3.

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9. There’s still no clear-cut winner, so wait until there is one

Each console has only been out in the wilderness for six months, and so far there’s no clear-cut superior option (there is a loser — your wallet!). Sales of the Xbox One and PS4 remain relatively tight, and buying one now would be like betting on the AFL grand final during the pre-season nothing games. Hedge your bets! The best device — or even just the one that has more games you want to play — will make itself apparent in due course.

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10. The ‘Steam Machine’ is coming

Steam Machine is Valve’s upcoming lean, mean, gaming machine. It runs SteamOS, boasts a controller with two touchpads, and will blow the Xbox One and PS4 out of the water spec-wise. It will play every single game currently available on Steam (over 3000 at the time of writing), and will ship sometime this year — just in time to show Microsoft and Sony how it’s done. All hail Valve director, King Gaben.

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David Swan is a Melbourne-based writer and is the Associate Editor of tech news site, iTWire. He also writes for FasterLouder and used to work in a bird costume at kids’ birthday parties. Follow him on Twitter here.