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[MaulerX]

Red Dead Redemption 2 on the One X single-handedly made the whole effort worthwhile.

 

[JusticeForAll]

I'd rather have a new gen (with backwards compatibility) then this mid-gen refresh nonsense.

 

[Krathoon]

It was definitely worth it for the One X. It feels beefy. I like the startup video. I will probably keep it for a while and collect some games I missed. You can use it as a Dead Rising machine.

 

[supernova8]

I could see Microsoft doing way better last gen if the gen started with the Xbox One X and PS4 Pro (likely different names, of course). Imagine an alternate reality where Xbox did what they did with the One X from the very start (ie they shut the fuck up about TV, Sports TV, and Kinect and just focused on delivering a stellar gaming-focused machine).

We might have had another Xbox 360/PS3-style neck and neck battle, which would have been great for consumers (competition is always good!).

To answer the other question - I had a PS4 and I just didn't see the point of upgrading to a PS4 Pro. Surely if someone wanted "mowwaaaa powerrrrrrr" (star wars gif) they would've had a beefy gaming PC anyway.

 

[THE DUCK]

For me it was a great upgrade and not even an expensive one, got good money for the regular machines. So glad we didn't have to wait for this gen.

 

[Krathoon]

I had to get one of those collector's item PS4 Pros. They are the translucent purple ones. Definitely keeping that one.

 

[Bullet Club]

The jump between the One and the One X was worth it, so I got one. Very good console.

I didn't think the difference between the PS4 and the Pro was as great, so didn't get one. I'm sure it's a fine system and I wouldn't mind one now.

 

[Esppiral]

I owned ps4 an Xbox One, in the case of ps i found it pointless to jump to the pro, in the case of Xbox one it was necessary to jump to the One X, the base model is weak af.

 

[Krathoon]

Yeah. The One X is more of a step up. I am pretty happy with it.

 

[DenchDeckard]

Playing red dead 2 on anything but a one X would have probably changed my outlook on the game. Absolute masterpiece and worth every penny.

I think both the pro and one X were worth it and I welcome upgrades to the latest machines. They are about to be bunny hopped by PC tech so I hope we get upgrades within the next 2 years.

I could have probably waited after seeing how this gen has turned out but the ssd upgrades have been worth it for both systems.

 

[sinnergy]

I upgraded to one X, loved it.

 

[qiqiqiiq]

I had a PS4 when it came out, and since back then I was mainly playing on PC, I was disappointed with its performance so I sold it, I didn't buy another one until the PS4 PRO came out, I caught up with all the exclusives I missed and it was a decent powered machine, I kinda did the same with the One X, never had an Xbox One until the One X came out, I kinda hope they do another middle gen refresh this gen even though the consoles were already powerful at launch unlike last gen.

 

[Helghan]

I read that only 20-25% of Playstation consoles that were sold was the Pro version. These pro consoles are mostly created for brand purposes to show that you are a leader, and for hardcore gamers. I actually think that's also why Microsoft created the Xbox Series S. They noticed that when you can play a game on 2 different consoles, a lot of people will just get the cheaper option.

 

[JimmyRustler]

Don't know about pointless. It was nice to play many games with better resolution and framerate.

But the upgraded consoles sure as hell diminshed the impact NextGame consoles PS5 and Series X had.

 

[Eddie-Griffin]

"Pointless" is not the right word for it, nor "necessary".

Let's go back to the PS360; consoles ahead of their time, and competition was fierce almost the same as Sega vs Nintendo. The problem? This competition made them run for the hills and status bar was promised even higher with almost to none conversation with developers. We didn't even get real HD games, bruh. It was an alpha test, and we were the guinea pigs in that generation with consoles launched way too early and with a lot of false propaganda.

Companies did their homework and then came PS4 and Xbox One with better hardware engineering, less expensive to them, games with internal resolution at 1080p (for the most part) and basically filling all the promises. The problem? It was the early 4K days, and people wanted 4K content, which was impossible for the PS4 and XOne. Those consoles were launched kinda late to the party for their hardware... and the companies anticipated that, so the Pro and XOX were made. I'm sorry, but the Pro and XOX are the real consoles for that gen

We should have less powerful consoles at 2005\6 and then get the original PS4 and XOne at 2011~2012. The Pro and XOX launches in 2016 and next gen at 2020 (or even a little later... it's not like we have a lot of games for this gen anyway).

What? The original Xbox had HD, 720P wasn't common in 2005 when 360 launched or 2006 when PS3 launched. I don't recall any false promises made in relation to what the hardware can do, outside some of the outrageous Cell claims from Sony.

To say we should have had less powerful consoles in 2005 than the 360 doesn't make any sense. The Gamecube was a looker, and the Xbox was even better with PC features, smoother graphics, and HD support for 720p and 1080i.

The only power you could get in between that and the 360 would be the Wii, which was barely different form the GameCube. Also, Sony and Microsoft launched the PS4 and Xbox One, thinking it was enough of a leap and that there would be improvement over the years. They didn't launch them knowing they would end up falling as far behind as they did.

The only reason why we got PS4 Pro is because Sony was scared that affordable PC's would steal customers that wanted better graphics.

Microsoft completely miscalculated on the Xbox One, they had a slightly better CPU but the machine was weaker than the PS4 in every other way. 720P games had dynamic resolution, 1080p games were 900P, frames rates were often fluctuating and not commonly locked, and they were $100 more expensive than their competitor, after the launch hype from 7 years of the 360 these problems were now well known forcing Microsoft to separate Kinect from the Xbox One, and then later dropping the price $100 below the PS4.

Neither Sony or Microsoft believed they were releasing weak consoles, the only cut they knowingly made to the hardware to prevent loss leader status from the gen before was the Jaguar hardware. ut they had no reason to believe that would cripple both consoles as badly as it ended up doing. They only wanted 1080p and 60fps as the target for the new consoles and that was all that was needed along with new graphical tools to leap over the 360/ps3. They had no idea years later that 1080p would be harder to achieve, and often games would hit 30fps.

Those consoles were put together to prevent people from jumping ship to PC gaming.

The PS4 Pro was. Microsoft just completely miscalculated the Xbox One specs before launch.

they were what the consoles should have been at launch rather than just a midgen refresh
more fun to speculate on if this gen will need midgen refreshes (i think yes)

Will it? At least for the Series X we haven't really seen it use much of its hardware power yet. It does seem the PS5 may be peaking early given how games are starting to upscale to 4K more, and Raytracing seems to put a lot of pressure on the hardware.

That's why this "ray tracing everywhere in real-time" promise Microsoft made for the upcoming Forza reboot is so controversial, if they can pull it off at the 4K 60fps promised then maybe Microsoft won't need a "pro" console this gen.

It was the first time I felt consoles had the visual fidelity of the PC platform. No bullshit.

Yeah PS3 and 360 felt behind still but it was getting there. PS4 Pro and Xbox One X though it was like wow this is like PC graphics good.

360 was stronger than PC for awhile when it was new. The PS3 was also theoretically stronger too, but it turned out their Cellw asn't very good with games in execution.

Looking back?? I’d say pointless. I could’ve definitely lived without ever getting a One X, and just waiting another 2-3 years for next-gen. Kinda feel like devs didn’t really make max use of the increased spec. Had they really done that, would’ve been a different story.

That's the thing that hurt both the most, or one of the top problems with the upgrades. Developers were creating and improving tools that used the base consoles as the standard for development. PS4 Pro was thrown out to the wolves that developers saw as optional, there wasn't reportedly much support for helping developers transition over or an attempt to make the PS4 Pro the new platform standard of development, which resulted in developers producing work that was varying in quality.

The Xbox One X was more developer friendly, but it also fell into the same rut as the PS4 Pro by not pushing it as a new standard. It was marketed as if it was a new console and Microsoft really wanted developers to make use of the One X's power but they still had the One S as the standard of development. But at least we did see more consistent results on the One X than the PS4 Pro, but none of that really mattered when it was only a handful of games on both that really showed the benefits of the upgrades.

The rest were simple thing like, instead of a 30fps game dipping to 20fps in parts of a game it would be a locked 30fps. Maybe the rain effects won't make the game slowdown. Maybe there can be more soldiers to kill on screen while retaining 30fps. These were the upgrades most releases had when developing for PS4 Pro or One X. Neither could drop their prices either, so gradually making them the new base consoles was out of the question entirely, even at launch of the PS5 and Series consoles, the PS4 Pro was still $400, and the Xbox One X was still $500, which explains Microsofts swift decision to discontinue the X. The Series S was stronger and $200 cheaper than the X.

It makes me wonder how low the profit margins were on both upgrades. You would think after 5 years, the PS4 Pro, which is just a PS4 with a bumped up GPU and a slightly overclocked CPU, would have ended up costing $299 by now or less but it's still $400 today if you can still find a store selling it new.

I have a feeling unless Sony or Microsoft wants to take a loss to be more competitive, that we may not see the Xbox Series X or PS5 drop in price at all.

 

[GametimeUK]

Them consoles were super necessary for me. Made gaming on my 4K TV much more enjoyable.

 

[Celcius]

It was necessary. Who wanted to be stick at 1080p?

 

[David B]

A lot of us bought 4K TVs before the PS4 Pro or Xbox One X launched. I did anyway. To have consoles that were 1440p, 1600p, 1800p and upscale to 4K was a good thing indeed.

 

[Eddie-Griffin]

I could see Microsoft doing way better last gen if the gen started with the Xbox One X and PS4 Pro (likely different names, of course). Imagine an alternate reality where Xbox did what they did with the One X from the very start (ie they shut the fuck up about TV, Sports TV, and Kinect and just focused on delivering a stellar gaming-focused machine).

TV sports was just an optional feature. But the Xbox One X wouldn't have been possible, they needed Zen for both the PS4 Pro and the Xbox One X to be possible, no Zen existing, no Xbox One X or PS4 Pro.