Topic: Where are the next gen games?

We’re now almost 8 months into the lifecycle of this new console generation, and the amount of next gen content available is basically… non existent. I understand times are changing and the technological prowess and innovation that previous generations offered is a thing of the past, but the lack of content thus far has really been disappointing. Yes, I love GP and the way the Xbox team is positioning themselves for the future, but is one big budget exclusive or triple A title too much to ask for 8 months into the new generation? Outside of maybe ACV or G5, which look only slightly better than the previous games, I’ve yet to find myself impressed by any of the newer titles out there. With each previous generation there was always 1 or 2 launch/early release titles that at the very least fostered some excitement. This was more of a rant that anything but I can’t be alone in feeling slightly disappointed that the $500 machine I bought has yet to be taken advantage of in any meaningful way outside of some FPS and Res boosts to older games.

PS5 to a lesser extent is slightly guilty of this as well but I have a feeling had the pandemic not basically shifted everything over into the following years both scheduling and development wise, we might've gotten to the point where we could reasonably expect solely games for next-gen a lot sooner.

That isn't to say I'm not concerned about Microsoft's output though. At best it looks like a good chunk of their first party content is years off from even being showcased in gameplay, and even the Bethesda acquisition hasn't really done anything so far to really remedy that since Starfield is likely next year, but both Elder Scrolls and especially Indiana Jones are a long ways off. Say what you will about Sony and their recent revelations about GT7 and God of War being cross gen, but I feel like they'd be in a way worse spot for people to complain had the PS5 not gotten stuff like Demon's Souls, Returnal and Ratchet & Clank that were solely developed for it within the launch window.

Assassin's Creed Valhalla looks significantly better on the Series X than any of the previous Assassin's Creed games, but you're not wrong about actual new gen exclusive content on the system so far. It's unfortunate that we have to keep waiting. The pandemic messed things up a bit, but there are games coming even this year. Most of them are smaller games like The Ascent, Bright Memory Infinite, Psychonauts 2, etc., but some of them could end up being highly enjoyable at least even if most of them end up not being AAA caliber. Obviously there's Halo Infinite, which hopefully ends up being good like it really needs to be.

There's a lot riding on their E3 showcase on Sunday in my mind. Yes, the waiting sucks, but if they have a really good show and show that us being willing to wait isn't just blind faith and it will look to be well worth it. There's still games to play now between Game Pass and cross gen games, and I have not been bored one bit so far, but the excitement has to turn into something more substantial now. A really good showing from them on Sunday would go a long way to killing the whole narrative of empty promises and us having nothing to play, even if we have to continue to wait for a lot of these titles.

I hope all of that made sense.

@stancratcha5 Never forget the very fact that you will be able to play Halo Infinite at native 4K60/120fps with Quick Resume is “next-gen” enough since even most PCs are not able to do it let alone the last gen consoles. I don’t know why people keep on forgetting that and keep on falling for certain marketing narrative goalposts. It’s all about the feel that you get while playing on a next-gen console.

Even though I don't have a Series X, I feel like the reason for why I would get one today is simply to play the games that I already own much smoother and with better visuals, which will lead to more enjoyable gaming experiences. But it is true that Microsoft has been lagging behind in the exclusives department. At the same time though I think people are getting more fed up because they're hearing what Sony is offering with PS5 compared to Xbox. However, it's an undeniable fact that Microsoft has more studios that are going to deliver plenty of first-party titles compared to Sony. The games are coming and once they start, they won't stop coming because Microsoft wants titles to come out for Game Pass on a regular basis.

So think of it like this: Microsoft is gearing up for a more planned out and systematic approach for their game releases compared to Sony. Right now they're in a phase where they want to transition out of typical game releases where you will have to wait months before a new first-party game comes out. They're doing this because their current approach isn't compatible with their primary business model, i.e. Game Pass. They'll keep acquiring more studios so that they can be sure that new first-party games will arrive on Xbox and specifically Game Pass with very short intervals compared to the competition. Their actions speak for themselves, because as many people would ask: why doesn't Microsoft stop acquiring more studios? Aren't the ones they have now enough? Well apparently not because they need studios to have games ready to be released as other ones are working on their games in order to make Game Pass as appealing as possible. It requires a lot of planning but ultimately, this will yield much better and more consistent results compared to PlayStation.

It is indeed frustrating to have to wait for next-gen experiences but at the same time, I think the wait will be worth it in the end. One can hope that something will be announced at E3 and shadow dropped, e.g. Psychonauts 2.

@Senua I think if Quick Resume was more reliable (worked with more games) and didn't have so many problems out of the gate, it would be an even bigger deal. Some people likely shrugged it off and moved on after hearing about all of the problems people had with it. It might have swayed more PlayStation people to switch if it was in better shape then.

Obviously they've improved it since, but it's still not where it needs to be. I rarely use it for what it's true intention is (the system says I am using it with basically every game if I pull up an app while I'm playing the game), which obviously would be to turn off the system in the middle of a game. The one time I truly needed it was yesterday and it failed me, as it doesn't work with ReCore even though the game was listed in the Quick Resume queue group. I had to go to work and it didn't autosave in the middle of what I was doing yet, so I lost a good 40-45 minutes of what I had done.

@KilloWertz Coming from someone who did go with PS5 this gen, I get the novelty of Quick Resume but it honestly doesn't really look like something I'd use that heavily if I had an Xbox

It's a cool as hell feature being able to switch between games like that kind of like apps on a phone or PC but as someone who usually picks a game and dedicates a substantial amount of time to it I see it more like a convenience if anything

I especially can't really picture having like 5 different games on at the same time and constantly switching back and forth between them since that sounds pretty overwhelming for someone like me

I really don't know what you expected from this 'generation' - especially in the first few years. In the past, new consoles were 'not' as compatible with the older generation, but MANY games released on BOTH formats with Visual and/or performance differences. At the start of the XB1 gen, BF4 for example was limited to 24 players on 360 and 64 on XB1 - like we see with the next BF (64 on XB1, 128 on XSX). The Difference was that Companies had to release different versions because they didn't have the option to release an 'Xbox' version with different settings depending on which gen console you played.

Another aspect to consider is the reason why many first party games (in particular) were not released on older generations. The main reason isn't because those games won't run on older hardware with 'some' compromises, its because these companies want you to buy their 'new' hardware and the one thing they can control is their own game releases. Its 'rare' to see a multi-platform release only on new hardware because they are 'not' trying to sell hardware and want to maximise their target audience. Look how far Activision are willing to compromise with Black Ops 3 on last gen. As much as next gen features were touted for Titanfall, that too released on 360 - as did Rise of the Tomb Raider.

Another aspect is Time. Its taking 4yrs+ to develop a AAA game from the ground up. Game Engines are NOT built in a day either to 'change' the way games are built to take full advantage of all next gen features and besides, most games releasing in the next year or so would have started out being developed with last gen hardware in mind. The extra power of next gen being used to 'improve' the overall experience. Just because a game isn't constantly teleporting you to new worlds instantly, doesn't mean that SSD's are transforming loading times, fast travel, increasing object/texture quality and density etc and doing this at higher resolutions and frame rates too. Talking of transporting you between 'worlds' instantly, Titanfall 2's campaign has a mission where you jump back and forth between the past and future versions of the same 'level' - pretty much what R&C do on one world - smacking a crystal to switch between states. Teleporting between worlds is no different from 'fast travelling' - which isn't that fast on last gen but would greatly improve all those games with Fast Travel - but you'd still complain about a lack of 'next gen' experiences even though the game looks, runs, sounds and plays like a next gen version.

To go from 1080/30 to 4k/60 is an '8x' jump. The image is 4x the size and getting 2 frames for every 1 - that's an 8x 'jump' - and that's if you keep 'everything' the same. Increase the Object and texture quality/density, Audio improvements etc, that's a LOT more Data that needs to be transferred in a lot less time - 16.6ms to get all that data transferred and processed, render the frame, process it and get it out compared to 33.3ms at 30fps so the next Gen Hardware is still transforming games even if they do come to last gen hardware.

Games like the Witcher 3, Wolfenstein, Doom etc were NOT designed with Switch hardware and specs at all - but were still ported down with 'compromises'. The Switch didn't negatively impact on the development of these games at all. Its not like 25yrs ago when hardware struggled with 3D so there was a technical jump up - like going from 2 colours to 8 colours, to 32 colours etc or from beeps, to digitised speech to Movie quality full surround sound. Step ups become more 'iterative'.

There will come a time when the number of gamers still 'buying' games (that's the 'crucial' part here) at release for last gen consoles that make even attempting to port a game down not worth the effort. The compromises are 'too much' for the developer/publisher to accept and/or the value of sales to those won't cover the costs. The Developer of 'Scorn' stated that he wouldn't release that game on 'last' gen because they don't want people to experience it at 30fps - that was 'too much' for them but another company could be willing to make that compromise to recuperate more money or feel 30fps is adequate for their game.

Point is, its not always that games can't run on 'older' hardware that make them 'next gen' only, there are numerous other factors involved too - like whether the objective is to sell more consoles or more games, whether or not the compromises to get the game running are acceptable or not, Whether the effort to port the game down is going to be financially beneficial or not etc. Just because a game is marketed as Next Gen only, there maybe numerous reasons why they have decided not to port to older gen too, and rarely (certainly in the first few years at least), its because the old hardware isn't capable.

Its not like last gen can't do 3D so there is a technical limitation, can't do enough colours or the Audio is somewhat limited/lacking. Just because you don't have to have 'hidden' loading transitions, like the 'elevator ride', doesn't mean these will suddenly disappear too - they are also used for Exposition. Elevators exist in real world and I'd take a lift to a top floor instead of having to run up 20 flights of stairs just because a game doesn't 'need' to use Lifts for exposition and hidden loading sequences. Instead of being stuck in the lift long after the dialogue finishes though, on next gen, you can even skip the dialogue altogether...

Going back to the start of this gen, no way Forza 5, Ryse or DR3 couldn't be ported down to 360 with compromises. Forza 4 and DR2 ran on 360 with little difference to the game-play and I bet Ryse could be downscaled too as I don't recall seeing anything particularly 'new' in the game-play. The difference though is that MS, like Sony with Killzone & Knack, want to sell you their 'new' hardware and therefore kept these from older gen to incentivise you to buying their console. Games like AC4, BF4, CoD:Ghosts, Fifa etc were ALL multi-generation. At the start of this, Sony want to sell PS5's but there is no way Demon Souls couldn't run on last gen - it was 'designed' for PS3 hardware and Spider-Man: MM would be too 'lucrative' on PS4 not to release it - besides it was more a 'standalone' DLC. R&C can be knocked out relatively quickly because Insomniac have all those Assets from years of R&C and the game-play mechanics are pretty much unchanged.

I believe they could of made R&C for PS4 BUT the compromises of course would negatively impact on the flow of the game. No-one wants to be stuck in a Rift for 30s or more waiting for the 'destination' world to load in and the fact that this is fundamental to the story would be much more detrimental to the overall experience versus an Open World game with instantaneous Fast Travel because Fast Travel is optional. You can travel anyway on the Map without encountering a single Load so its not 'fundamental' and, of course, its 'normal' for that era of games to have relatively long load times. Its not like PS4 Horizon:FW players are going to feel disrupted by having to wait when fast travelling after having to wait in Horizon:ZD but that is still using the SSD to shift a LOT more higher quality, larger file size Data instantly than a HDD ever could. The image quality is much higher than a last gen GPU could deliver in the same frame times, the Audio is also higher 'next gen' quality...

Its going to be several years before we truly see a AAA next gen game that really couldn't be ported down because its built from the ground up to fully utilise many of the features of next gen. Metro Exodus enhanced edition is 'next gen' only because its lighting is purely RT with 'no' traditional methods used to back up RT. If that came 'first', you could argue that was a game built and designed 'purely' for next gen because its not releasing on last gen - but someone 'could' port it down and add in traditional Lighting effects and release it. Would you then be upset that you don't have 'next' gen games or feel cheated that you 'could' of played Metro on you older hardware?

I'd say that maybe wait until Sunday and then decided if we're missing these games? Naturally it will take time for the games to come out since most titles launching now have been started on prior gen.

Personally I don't care, i just want to play good games. They can be old, new, AAA or indie.

@TheFrenchiestFry I understand both sides to the opinions on Quick Resume. Like you if you had a Series X, I hardly use it. Unfortunately it didn't work the one time I truly needed it because it still doesn't work with every game, which was frustrating and disappointing.

I can understand the other side of it though, like the person who posted right after you. It is a great feature for people who play games in short bursts, especially if that game doesn't have frequent autosaves/save points. It is also a solution to bypass certain annoying loading screens, like in The Witcher 3 where you are forced to listen to narration every single time you load up your game save. Great game, but that was ridiculously annoying and is now solved because of Quick Resume.

Also, like Krzzy said, maybe we should wait until at least Sunday to complain. If they have a lackluster showcase on Sunday, then it wouldn't be ridiculous to do so. Obviously games are still coming regardless, but a lackluster showing would still be discouraging, at least in the short term.

Quick resume is a nifty feature, but hardly groundbreaking. We already had that on the Switch, just only one game at a time. But all I play is one game at a time, so it’s not a huge deal for me. I’m speaking specifically to the software. When friends or family come over and see a shiny new console next to my TV and ask “Let me see some new games.” I literally have nothing to show them. The fact that it’s been close to a year now, and there isn’t a single marquee title to display the technological capabilities of the most powerful console available, and one that is costing MS money with each sale boggles my mind. Again, this isn’t me throwing the towel in or anything, I think the future is incredibly bright. I just find it bizarre that we’re seeing such a lack of urgency with this generation. Obviously a lot of external factors going on, but that excuse is going to start running thin very quickly. We could be on to the RTX 4000 series before Xbox has a competent lineup of first party titles, which will make it an after thought for many gamers on the fence. All that said, I’m looking forward to the second half of 2021 and hope to see some nice surprises.

@IndoorHero I have been meaning to check out Resident Evil. I tried RE 7 on game pass but I can't stand games where I have to run and hide. I like the scares, but I loathe games that discourage confrontation. I've heard 8 is different and more action adventure oriented. Is that true? If so, that may be my next pickup. Game-pass just makes it so hard to justify full purchase price games. ACV and COD both look great but any game that includes previous generations is inherently held back by that hardware. I remember playing Ryse on Xbox One when it released and having my jaw on the floor, and this coming someone who does a lot of PC gaming as well. I'm just hoping that the second half of 2021 offers more next-gen exclusive content.