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

[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]

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.

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.

[pizzasafari]

Weirdly enough, I'm suddenly finding myself having a lot more fun than before playing the PS3 since the PS4 generation started. I'm not sure why, it just feels really good to play all of a sudden for some reason. Maybe because it's close in technical quality to PS4 games but without as much of the faffing around. I think it's probably gonna be a main focus for me, at least, so I'll probably be buying a lot more PS3 games. As for other people, hard to predict, but once people who grew up with the PS3 become the new collectors I don't see why it wouldn't be a collectible system in the same way the PS1 and 2 are.

Xbox 360 I haven't really cared about at all since getting my PS3, the Wii I've never liked.

[dreama1]

You might be overestimating the Xbox Brand. The prices have risen for the original xbox. It's hard to find some of the exclusives for a cheap price.

[marvelvscapcom2]

I'm mostly basing my answer off of their current popularity among collectors and nostalgia lovers.  It's a good tell tale sign looking at the current market of Wii, PS3 and Xbox 360.  I for the most part agree with everything you said. 




Wii - B    It's nintendo lol.  Anything with the big N on it someone, somewhere will want to buy and love it like a new born child.  I already know at least 3 friends going for full Wii U and Wii sets.  That love the console very whole heartedly.  Nintendo seems to always retain more replay value and collectbility for the sole fact that they make single player masterpieces and PS3 and 360 make disposable first person shooters and tons of online only filler that people will forget about in 10 years.  Now totally but a good portion.   Do I love PS3 and 360 way more?  Definitely.  But Wii will always have way more nostalgia among kids.   


PS3 -  C-     Honestly, it has so much filler.  So many cross platform games.  So many games that either got remastered on PS4, were already on PS2,  or got replaced by bigger better titles in the same franchise like all the need for speeds, call of dutys, maddens and racing games.   It's gran turismo franchise fell flat compared to the PS2 ones. 1 good sly game was also on Vita.  A lot of cool collections.  Games like Uncharted got a remaster, so did god of war, last of us and all the heavy hitters.    It's only main niche and why it will be a C- is the JRPGs it does have.   Many want them and will collect them.   It does have many exclusive RPG quality.  But not enough to compare it to many of consoles.


Xbox 360 - D+    It's a odd phenomenon that I can't explain.  Xbox is always my favorite during the moment.  But later on when 10+ years pass.  I like collecting Nintendo and Playstation slightly more.   I just don't find it collectible.  I really try to get into collecting 360 and it just seems like not as fun and soulful as collecting playstation and Nintendo.  Can't put my finger on as to why.    But maybe i'll change that soon.  I do love it very much .   

[sworddude]

I agree in terms of retro collecting for the original xbox

wii is already somewhat collectible more so than original xbox by allot. xbox might be somewhere at the very bottom in terms of people collecting older games go if we would exclude xbox 360 and ps3.

Not to mention xbox sales weren't that great in the past it did almost as bad as the gamecube, allot of xbox games even in terms of the more common games have way less supply of games and can be tough to find at times. even though the rare games have way less supply than the rare games on gamecube or ps2 etc wich go for way more there are just way less collectors and many of the rare games except for a select few aren't that pricy as a result even if they happen to be pretty good. also the excellent exclusives wich are uncommon at the very least aren't that pricy compared to the other consoles.

it also doesn't help that the og xbox library in general isn't that great and pretty small in terms of excusives wich might be the main reason why there are way less collectors for xbox than there are for ps2 and gamecube.

xbox 360 will be at the very bottom as far as collecting goes, but I would not put much distance between ps3 and xbox 360 to be honest. Those generations with pretty much every game having a collectors edition steel book editions, multiple versions of normal games etc etc, These systems where made to collect while in the past it was to play and not to collect in the slightest with pretty much only 1 single normal version of a game, special editions where rare to non existant except if you would live in japan in wich case there where allot more CE even for the older games. I'm pretty sure supply for the xbox 360 and ps3 will be plenty compared to the people wanting to seriously collect for the system.

[dreama1]

We'll know for sure by 2030.

[oldgamerz]

The only thing I don't like about the 7th generation is the fact that the  automatic patches for the games may no longer be available much longer (time of post 10-4-2018)

[98dgreen]

Xbox and PS2 haven't peeked yet.

[emporerdragon]

When it comes to the 360 vs. PS3, the 360 does have one major advantage: forwards compatibility. Currently, about 550 games from the 360 library are playable on the Xbox One, and that list includes almost every major non-sports IP for the system. This makes the game's overall lifespan in the public eye longer and helps keep some of the demand up. We saw that in the previous generation too, where the original Xbox games that were playable on the 360 held value better than ones that weren't (and again recently, where the original Xbox games made playable on the One saw a jump in value).

So, while the system itself may not be collectible, the games will still be.

[hoshichiri]

We'll know for sure by 2030.

THIS- I honestly think it's even still a little too early to make the call on PS2 and OG Xbox... these are systems not even 20 years old yet, and it seems like prime time for nostalgia is closer to the 25-30 year mark. Right now is the window for PS1 to try and knock Nintendo down a peg, but the Big N's got their nostalgia game down pat, & I'm not sure the PS1 classic on its own is gonna cut it. Plus, I feel like the PS1's window is a little off due to all the backwards compatibility- heck, you didn't lose it until the PS4 came out! It's hard to build nostalgia for games you never had to give up. As a result, I kinda think PS1 and PS2 will end up 'hitting' around the same time. Even though you could still use PS1 on PS3, it wasn't terribly well advertised & given PS2 didn't work I think more people made a clean break then.


Anyway, for Gen 7... I think Xbox 360 will do better than expected, as Microsoft's little sprinkles of partial BC will help keep interest up more than full BC could have, like some bizarre nostalgia appetizer. However- they're gonna have to go full-out at the right time with BC, either through a separate console or adding to whatever the current Xbox is, becuase the machines themselves aren't holding up so good. That red-ring reputation isn't gonna do the 360 any favors as it ages.


PS3 I think will fare a bit worse, due to being overall less popular in the day, and- more importantly- remasters. So many of the big games on PS3 have seen PS4 collections & upgrades that it's going to hurt its chances for viability in the retro scene. Unless there's a hefty bunch of hidden gems & exclusive b-tier titles to be discovered later on.


The big winner is going to be the Wii, hands down. While not necessary, many 360 & PS3 games still had patches to download. Not so for Wii, which means games will always work as remembered. Wii used external SD cards for memory, meaning there's an abundant supply of it out there (as opposed to 360's proprietary drives) and it's easy to install (unlike PS3's internal one.) And lastly- the Wii had a massive install base. Meaning there's a lot of people out there whose first gaming console was a Wii. That's the kind of thing that's gonna stick in your head until you're in your 30s/40s, looking to rebuy your youth & share it with your kids. Wii's gonna be big someday.

[burningdoom]

I don't understand why everyone thinks XBox 360 will be the least desirable of the generation. I would have given that to PS3.

XBox 360 has a much larger library of games, and it had a much larger user base. So more people played more games on 360 than they did PS3.

And of course Wii is Nintendo. We all know Nintendo consoles become collectible, even if they bomb (Virtual Boy).