Ever found yourself wondering whether or not to sell your “old” gaming console in order to afford the latest generation releases? I’m pretty sure that it’s a quandary every discerning, and more pertinently money strapped, gamer has found themselves in at one point in their lives. You spend anywhere between 3-8 years usually dedicated to one, perhaps two, gaming consoles. You develop a fondness and a loyalty towards it and the brand that produced it. Not only this but you also build up an arsenal of treasured games for it, your personal favourites that you go back to time and time again.
When next generation consoles come out, the opening price is often very high and without a significant financial income most gamers will find it difficult to afford to buy one straight off the bat without making some sacrifices. More often than not this sacrifice comes in the form of a treasured old pal, found in the form of the “old” generation of console. I remember when the xbox 360 came out I decided to sell my xbox in order to afford it and the chances are that when the 720 comes out I will sell my xbox 360 in turn. Did I regret selling the xbox? Well, yes and no. The money allowed me to afford the new console, which I have enjoyed every second of but I did, at least initially, find myself missing the old games I used to play on its predecessor.
I particularly remember being peeved at the lack of backwards compatibility available in the PS3; bizarrely you could play PS1 games on it but not your old PS2 games. Fortunately as the years have gone by and the online aspects of console gaming have started almost to eclipse the offline end of the spectrum more and more classic previous generation console games have been made available for download. Recently we’ve had the HD re-release of the Prince of Persia franchise as well as the old God of War games; both of which I had sorely missed and was thrilled to play through again. Hopefully the next generation will either increase their levels of backwards compatibility, or at the very least release old games online for download more swiftly than they have done in previous years.
Big companies like Sony and Microsoft can’t deny the huge audience base that there is for old, classic and retro games; they have the power to offer their audiences the best of the new and the old with their next generation of consoles. People don’t often purely just want to play brand new games, but like to indulge in a touch of nostalgia from time to time as well. Let’s hope that they bear this in mind with the impending release of xbox 720 and PS4 so that we’re happy to sell our old consoles rather than begrudgingly accepting the necessity of doing so.