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How desirable will the 7th Generation Systems be to collectors?

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bikingjahuty: For those of you unfamiliar with what is included in the 7th console generation, it includes the XBOX 360, PS3, and Wii. I am curious to see what people's opinions of this are seeing how I feel like systems from the 6th generation, with maybe the exception of the Dreamcast, only had a modest jolt in popularity among collectors outside a few choice and rare titles. I excluded the DC because I feel like it got the full on collector hype just like the Genesis, SNES, and NES. The Gamecube almost reached these levels, but i feel like enthusiasm for the PS2 and XBOX was fairly mild overall. That leads me to wonder what kind of enthusiasm will exist for the 7th gen systems when they become harder to find and considered to be more retro. Here are my personal predictions of the three 7th gen consoles and their future among collectors. Wii: Above Average Enthusiasm. I feel the collecting scene for the Wii will mirror the enthusiasm of the Gamecube fairly close, mostly because it's a Nintendo console and also because it has a lot of excellent 1st and 3rd party games for it. Sure, the motion controls are fairly controversial and there is a TON of shovelware for it, but there are also a ton of great games mixed in that I think will make collecting for the Wii very appealing, especially to Nintendo fans both young and old. PS3: Average Enthusiasm. There are a ton of great games, many of them exclusives, on the PS3, but sadly I don't see a huge collecting scene emerging for the PS3, much in the same way the PS2 has a lot of worthwhile games, just not nearly as many collectors vying for them as you'd think. I'm sure there will be those $100+ dollar games for the PS3 someday that every collector and their mom will know about, but as for those who really go after them, that will be a much smaller group imo. So to paraphrase, I see the PS3 being about as collectable as the PS2, maybe even slightly less. 360: Below Average Enthusiasm. Don't get me wrong, the 360 was an excellent console and also had a lot of good exclusives on it, however, just like the original XBOX, I don't think the crowd who generally games on XBOX consoles is really the sentimental type to go back and replay their favorite games from yesteryear. However, given the cultural icon the 360 was to the gaming industry, for better or worse, I can see it having a slightly more enthusiastic collecting circle than the original xbox, which still to this day never really left the ground in terms of being a collectable console. Sure, the original XBOX has those sought after games, but the amount of people who actually prioritize getting these is very small. I can see the 360 being about the same, maybe somewhat more collectable, but not by much. What are your thoughts on this?

burningdoom: I think it will simply because it's the last generation of consoles that you can play right off the disc, without updates. While there are exceptions with certain games that have game breaking glitches that have to be fixed via update, those are far and few in-between. PS4 and Xbox One require online verification to play most-disc based games. That's going to be a problem when there's no more online service for XBox One or PS4 in the future.

bikingjahuty: --- Quote from: burningdoom on October 04, 2018, 12:44:03 am ---I think it will simply because it's the last generation of consoles that you can play right off the disc, without updates. While there are exceptions with certain games that have game breaking glitches that have to be fixed via update, those are far and few in-between. PS4 and Xbox One require online verification to play most-disc based games. That's going to be a problem when there's no more online service for XBox One or PS4 in the future. --- End quote --- Those are all great points and I've thought about this issue a lot. This is changing the subject slightly, but I think what may happen with some 7th gen games and certainly a lot of 8th gen games is certain versions, specifically later versions of certain games being more collectable. While I loath greatest hits releases, mostly because of their almost universal ugly color scheme, they almost always have the most up to date and patches versions of specific games. For those games that don't receive greatest hits, assuming the game was relatively popular, the game will receive reprints that sometimes include on-disk fixes to glitches and bugs. And then there are those games that do not get updated, at least on disk, and yes, once the online support ends for these you're left with a paper weight. I think that maybe the later version releases of these games will be the ones to look out for, with release info being a guide as to what version of the game you're buying. This might only be somewhat important for the 7th gen consoles, but could prove crucial for 8th gen. It should be very interesting what 8th gen collecting looks like in another decade or so when the servers for them go completely dark.

seether: I don’t know about collectors but I can see some players gravitating toward them due to no game installs and no day one patches. I’m certainly less excited for next gen knowing that 100GB+ installs are already here, 4K textures will be the target and consoles have largely lost their few advantages over PCs. I can see a world where next gen games are $70, take at least 80GB to install and require an expensive system with only 1TB of space. It wouldn’t surprise me if Microsoft and/or Sony adopted streaming for the next gen (in light of what the install size of 4K games would be) and subscription services (in light of what the price of 4K games would be). PS3 and XB360 are really the last traditional put a disc in and play off the disc systems. I had a 360 all of the 7th gen and it sounds like a jet engine now. If next gen sucks I’ll stick to PC and consider picking up a PS3 which I haven’t owned before. Cheaper games, faster install, no patches needed.

hexen: There will always be a market for collecting any game system, but comparably I think it will be among the weakest for a few reasons. The first reason is that this is the generation where graphics reached a virtual plateau. I'm not saying the newer generation hasn't improved the graphics, but each successive one takes a smaller leap forwards and this is the first one I think it was hardly noticeable. This gives it much less of a definition compared to the previous generations that have very unique era-specific looks. It could be reasonably argued this maybe even occurred in the previous generation by some, but I personally see it as a 7th gen thing. The next is one of practicality - the systems of this generation SUCK when it comes to the longevity of the console's life-span. The 360 is of course notorious for bricking itself, and I think the PS3 isn't too far behind with the yellow light. I don't know anything specific about the Wii having major problems, but it woulden't surprise me if it did. Systems from the late 70's are still working fine today because of their simplicity, but because of the complexity and just longevity being an afterthought, I think this gen will die even before some gens 20 years their senior. This could be argued to make them more desirable, but their ubiquity will probably keep people from thinking of it before it starts to become too late. As for my personal thoughts on them, I'd be most interested in the Wii because I don't know of any specific time-bombs in it's build, and because Nintendo systems are always just the template for collecting. It's library is also like 70% shovelwear which is kind of interesting in a retrospective way, though it just annoying when it was new. Try play some random Wii shovelwear sometime, it's often a hilarious time. Choosing between the PS3 and 360 is difficult, but i think I'd put 360 over PS3. I think the Xbox is one of the worst non-failure consoles ever, they should have just renamed it Halo-machine because I think the brand would have died without it, and the Xbone is basically continuing it's legacy of mediocrity in a new time where console gaming is bordering on obsolete. However, the 360 was the absolute winner of the 7th gen in my opinion. It was the most ubiquitous console at a time where consoles hit their peak with a lot of good franchises, benchmark-setting online functionality and a pretty great controller. I'd like to collect more for it even now... if mine hadn't red-ringed a few years after I got it like every other damn one... if only it's internal design matched it's other lofty achievements. I called out the Xbox for being a Halo-machine... but the sole reason I bought my PS3 was to be a LittleBigPlanet machine. Maybe my favorite new franchise from the era, but I wish so bad it wasn't a damn console exclusive. I didn't do much else on my PS3 except for a lot of PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale which was a great Smash alternative they coldly killed because it wasn't as big as Smash (which is impossible), which miffed me a lot. Now Cloud is in Smash when he should have been in PSASBR and it's not outside the realms of possibility Crash Bandicoot could be in one day, making Smash a better PSASBR than PSASBR, which is funny in a sad way. There just weren't many unique games I cared about for PS3, and any multi-plat I would surely get on 360.

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