OS Roundtable: Following the PlayStation 5 Reveal, Are We Getting Excited for Next-Gen Yet?

[Steve_OS]

Coming off the PS5 event, and our first sampling of sports games beyond the Madden 21...

Written By: Operation Sports

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[creatorsgame]

I am cynical. My gaming these days is almost exclusively sports titles. Off-line franchise mode. Companies have told me and players like me “we don’t matter.” Year after year we are reminded of that and I doubt that changes. Resources won’t be directed toward innovating and improving this area, we will be given a vanilla franchise experience, and while finding enjoyment in it the player will think “wow, you know what they could do to make this game really great?” Players like me are a niche within a niche.

So to the question: no, words like “excited” and “stoked” aren’t in my gaming vernacular anymore. Don’t get me wrong, I will embrace the next-gen consoles. I have been gaming since my first NES back in ‘88 and always found enjoyment experiencing the advancements that come with the next iteration of a console. Surely the graphics will improve as well as gameplay mechanics and AI, but it feels a bit like I’m going through the motions here. I’ll upgrade to a new console, I’ll find some downtime to run a franchise, and I’ll enjoy it. What I won’t be doing is counting down days on a calendar to grab a console on launch or a title on the day of release. If history is an indicator the innovation I am looking for in gaming, and sports gaming in particular, won’t exist.

I would like to be wrong and I would love to be surprised. Time will tell.