...and once the next gen consoles arrive PC will be all but forgotten power wise for the next 4-5 years...and then the cycle will continue and PC will get A game that completely outshines the next gen consoles ala BF3...

A lot of the features and tech is here but it not really present in current games.

I game on PC too and to say that PC is already next gen is to inflate it a bit.

What is true is that the technology is here, both software and hardware it takes to make a significant leap. But Ive seen no developer push out a game yet that mirrors my vision of a next gen game.
What is available is basically more shiny versions of current gen games. But the tech demos from both EPIC and Square enix prooves we are there technically.

Hopefully things will change soon.
Tose who deny that current gen is not severly outdated and have a lot of juice left in terms of technical progress are delusional.

Because everyone can play on a PC can't they? I have tendinitis in the wrist. It's not an option lest I want to have surgery.

Love my ps3 it was top notch and is the best purchase I have ever made.

But in these days it is very dated. It is probably dated when compared to wiiU, saying probably because we doesnt know much about its specs and none of the games shown for it this far have been impressive technically. I mean not next gen worthy, not anything like the UE 4 demo or the Square enix demo.
And WiiU doesnt look like a typical powerful machine.
First of all it is a tiny console, and thus it probably can't house proper hardware with efficient cooling.
Its going to be the most affordable/cheapest of all the next systems.
And it is Nintendo, they quit the tech race long ago.

Next gen needs to come around as soon as possible. The bigger the leap the better, but looking at the timeline both Sony and Microsoft are overdue announcing new consoles.
And I feel like the next consoles are needed for the whole industry. Not only to me and the new Tech demos proves this. I for One would like not only way more advanced pure visual stuff, but better AI, more physics and destruction to make games more believable, epic and cinematic.

Playing Motorstorm at home after buying the Ps3 was just EPIC.
All the details and responses and randomness made the game a winner and I still play it sometimes, for me Motorstorm is a benchmark for how a gritty arcade racer should be done.
Next gen need stuff that keeps blowing our minds.

We've reached a point of diminishing returns in all the areas you mentioned. Next gen should focus on big improvements to things other than graphics, such as AI.

Contractual agreements are not the same as “gentlemen” agreements. If you think that they work with their distributors a month before production then their entire business model is trash. They work with companies like nvidia constantly for building the graphics cards they need. They work with companies that build motherboards years in advance. This is what proper business planning does.

They are not buying components on a whim like a consumer. So again, considering the ram isn’t a singular module and is integrated into the motherboard I highly doubt they wouldn’t have a final schematic that they are supposed to be building around.

If they are delaying production another 3 years then it’s obvious again this is an after though project and is just trying to be responsive to their bad execution they had the last 14 years.

It also isn’t far fetched to use their failure to produce first party titles the last 7 years including the highly anticipated games I mentioned all being cancelled. That they would continue to you know… lie

Yeah with FSR 5 they should be able to offer a much cheaper version of Helix.

Series S is what has killed Xbox Series so... Will they dare?

The factors are largely external. Covid and Russia-Ukraine war causing inflation led to the first price increase in 2022.

Then we get Trump's tariffs increasing hardware prices, AI boom causing a RAM crisis, war on Iran causing a worldwide fuel crisis which impacts the cost of everything.

Gaming doesn't exist in a vacuum. The last few years have been a shitshow and lot of it was definitely avoidable.

LucasRuinedChildhood,

For sure. No disagreement on the external factors doing a lot of this. Where I have to gently push back however is on two fronts:

1. The pandemic definitely caused some issues: asynchronous development was a big issue and really complicated timelines and affected game quality. At the same time, when it comes to price hikes, it's really difficult to know what was genuine necessity and what was taking consumers for a ride. The pandemic brought about "stag-flation" which was increasing prices and stagnant wages, which was a problem caused by supply chain constraints. There was also "Greed-flation", where companies that were slightly affected or had no issues took advantage of the situation and squeezed everyone citing supply chain issues when there were none.

2. It's definitely true that the tariffs, AI boom, and RAM crisis were all things enabled by tech broligarchs throwing money at this caricature of a world leader, one of them being Satya Nadella. I don't think Sony and Nintendo have contributed much to this problem if at all, but Microsoft's Nadella I feel was instrumental in causing every one of those issues. Microsoft as a company contributed to both candidates (though they gave Harris 4x as much if I recall), but Nadella was all in on letting AI run wild. He paid for unregulated AI, and got a war that's not a war (even though Trump called it that at least five times on television) that screwed up helium access. So for me, I feel that one of the players in the gaming industry is a key architect of these issues, and for that reason I struggle a bit to think of it as "external".