If you don't think a console is worth buying, don't buy it?

While Yangtze and his perpetual naysaying are essentially anathema to the optimistic approach I try to maintain on this blog, he seems perceptive, well-versed in the medium, and generally spot-on about the mainstream gaming industry/culture. To that end, I couldn't possibly better voice my disdain for the pending step "forward" the console market is about to take than to point you to his post on the subject:

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/columns/extra-punctuation/10300-We-Really-Really-Dont-Need-New-Consoles

If you think the consumer ambivalence to adopt a new generation was specific to Nintendo's Wii U and their casual market, I think you're severely underestimating just how casual most console-owners are. I can't say I've heard from ANYONE that they are looking forward to the oncoming plunge... I can only hope gamers are willing to take a stand and talk with their dollars rather than their forum handles, as I called for in my post about EA. There are thousands of games already out there that you haven't played - don't act like you can't go on with your gaming hobby without the latest and greatest box. I'm ready to skip the next console generation, take a break from upgrading my PC, and enjoy a relaxing ten years immersed in everything I've missed from the SNES, Genesis, and PSX libraries. Hopefully I won't have to, but also hopefully I'll win the lottery tomorrow.

Other console generations have come at times when the marketplace was starting to dry up with ideas, or run into technological hurdles to accomplish those they had. The SNES was starting to burst at the seams with ideas like Star Fox, N64 and PSX looked for tricks like pre-rendered backgrounds to establish the detail their processors couldn't obtain, and the PS2/Xbox/GCN generation started to grind to a halt for more holistic reasons - the desire for a sophisticated online marketplace, social networking, blah-blah-blah. Maybe in ten years (or maybe after E3) this opinion will seem archaic and trite, but I can't see what the next gen is promising that we don't already have. The technology hasn't run its course - we see prettier graphics, better physics, more refined design every year. This generation started light-years before its full potential could be reached, and we're now going to make a jump after traveling a few miles? The last leap was a good one, so this time around, however ill-justified the new consoles are, there will be many blind leapers. That's a nice short-sighted opinion for Sony and Microsoft to take. But if the blind break their legs this time, will they be able to jump again?