Will the Seventh Generation of Consoles go down as the Golden Age of home consoles?

[Baloo]

Since the beginning of COVID I've been getting back into gaming, through my Sony PSP, Nintendo DS, and Nintendo Wii. One of these days I hope to get a BC PS3, but their finicky nature makes it seem that may never happen. But I was thinking: Is this era of consoles going to go down in history as the Golden Age of home video games? A huge number of classic games were minted in this era, where home internet became cheaply accessible for the first time and companies were more willing to experiment with their games and features on their devices. This was before the smartphone as well. Some of the overall features:

--All three home consoles (Wii, PS3, and Xbox 360) had widescale Backwards compatibility. The Wii with the Gamecube and the Virtual Console, the Playstation had its PS Classics and early models had backwards compatibility, and the Xbox 360 could play most Xbox games. Compared to the last two generations, the Seventh Generation really seemed to open up the idea that old games would be easily available for years to come. 15 years later shows that it didn't quite work out that way, but at the time it was a treat to upgrade your hardware and still play all of your favorites, allowing for use of old controllers to boot.

--Free wireless play available for all consoles with online servers. These days, some services have been reinstated for seventh generation consoles through wiimmfi and XLink Kai, but back in the day, it was a treat to go to McDonalds or sit at home and play friends and strangers online at no cost. Today, every major company now requires you to pay a fee to go online, another cheap way to get money from the consumer. There were many a night playing Texas Hold Em on Xbox Live.

--Experimental technology. The Nintendo DS two-screen touchscreen and the Nintendo Wiimote and Motion controls at the time felt like gimmicks. But today, the full catalog shows that a lot of really good games took advantage of the technology and saw the advent of phenomenal games like Wii Sports, pushed great games to new heights, and made otherwise mediocre games into great ones. I particularly look at games like Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune on the Wii. And the Playstation Portable's ability to listen to music, read comics, and watch full blown movies on the go was a good 8 years earlier than by the time everyone got a smartphone. The PS3's ability for Remote Play, the ability for the Wii to download demos to the Nintendo DS (and in a few games, act as a controller) seemed like there was a lot of cool

--The advent of the Digital Store. While this is a two-edged sword, the Virtual Console and Playstation store initially showed that a lot of amazing games that would have otherwise not gotten re-releases saw their way to consoles, including some games that never made it stateside. And because they were digital-only, they were usually sold for a very affordable price.

--Optical, physical media was still around for all consoles. Though some games fell to license hell and never got physical releases, a majority of games for all of the systems had a CD or cartridge-based release. This is compared to today, where it is clear that you only are renting the game versus owning it, and new updates can be pushed at any time

--The renaissance of 2D retro gaming occurred during this era as well. It was at this time classic fighters and brawlers finally got their due with games, which saw re-releases of classic fighters like Marvel vs. Capcom 2, Street Fighter III 3rd Strike, and Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix. We also saw the release of games like Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, TMNT Reshelled, and plenty of classic arcade-perfect port collections from the likes of Capcom, SNK, and SEGA. I think SNK in particular did a great job of making the entire Neo Geo library available with wireless play to this generation of consoles.

--The advent of DLC, before games became known for being more DLC than actual game on launch. The digital store brought along DLC, which was a new concept, and wasn't used to nickel and dime the consumer to pay for things they had already purchased. I'm looking at you, Street Fighter V.

Overall, this era was before we were plagued with streaming services, cloud gaming, ultra-strict DRM, intentionally limited time games (I'm looking at you Super Mario 35), and a general lack of creativity. Sure, things weren't perfect for this era. But if I had to choose a console or two to go with forever, it would definitely be from the Seventh Generation.

What do you guys thing? Do I just have my rose-tinted glasses on? Or will we look back on this era and say, "Man, we don't know how good we had it then!"

[SegaAMD]

For me, video games ended after the Sega Saturn, only with PS2 I felt excited, then I went to the PC and stayed there, until I got an xbox xone and put it aside, becoming a retrogamer once and for all. It's a shame they destroyed something I liked so much, it's a sign of the times. the seventh generation consoles are less bad, it's that scale, the further away from the source the worse.
the peak was definitely the 6th gen imo.

[gamevet]

You’ll have to de-lid the CPU and GPU on those BC PS3s. The thermal compound under the lid on those is drying up after all of these years. I recently redid the thermal paste on my Xbox 360 Elite, and the old compound was as hard as a rock. I have one BC PS3 that will shut down within a minute, because the compound is toast and my original BC PS3 will start artifacting with Gran Tourismo 6. I just run it on my slim instead. It’s really better to play on the slim and use a PS2 for BC on a CRT.



Here was when I replaced the thermal paste on my 360. It looked and felt like JB Weld.

[Leynos]

HELL NO! I have nostalgia for it but it's one of the absolute worst generations overall. There is another topic entirely about the very clear western racism and bias against Asian media of the time. The beginning of the worst DLC practices. Wii while it did give us Xenoblade. The Last Story and No More Heroes. Nintendo was at its worst creatively as opposed to now. I love many games from that era but it was the beginning of the end for me. Console gaming peaked in the 90s. Creatively esp as new IPs and ideas were hitting left and right. 360 era is the beginning of bad DLC practices. Anti-Japanese games attitude. Greedy paid services like online passes. Development became so expensive devs died over a single game and publishers became very risk averse. The beginning of fuck it, ship it broken fix it later, maybe.


Horse Armor. Madden removed features in the PS2 game just to sell it as DLC in 360. That era.

[axel]

I get what you mean about free online play and more experimentation... but in terms of games themselves, the golden age is right now. Look at indie games for example, way more options than ever before. The Switch library is much better than the Wii. I do miss the DS though, I wish Nintendo would make another portable I can actually fit in a pocket.

The one part where I really agree with you is on this licensing crap... within a generation or two I can see there being a push to get all of us onto monthly subscriptions for games, where almost nobody buys physical media and everything is streamed. I don't like it, but since it already happened for music and movies it seems inevitable for games too.

[chilled]

interesting. thanks for the write-up. But, how many Golden Age generations are we allowed to appoint? If, as the name would imply, it's just one, then it must be the NES era, specially considering it was almost singlehandedly carried by that console.
Then there would be a Silver and Bronze generation, (either 16-bit era, or 2600, or PS2 or PS3...)

[redsox2013]

That generation was also "classic" Sega's last gasp at greatness. We had physical releases of popular franchises Virtua Fighter 5, Sega Rally Revo & Virtua Tennis 3 - but the best part was Sega's digital games. Sega took the time to make better than arcade-perfect home versions of Daytona USA, Virtua Fighter 2, Fighting Vipers & Sonic the Fighters. Plus, we also got HD remasters of Outrun 2006 & NiGHTS. Since then unfortunately, Sega has given the better-than-arcade treatment only to Virtua Racing on the Switch, with nothing further on the horizon.

[Black_Tiger]

Emulation isn't real backwards compatibilty. Especially when companies don't give you a free digital copy of every game you possrs a physical copy of.

We already had computer based emulation for over a decade and it was much more flexible.


Horse armor was the beginning of the end. We lined up to get gouged on digital software and in-gane crap and now pay outrageous prices for digital copies of current software and even physical copies ship incomplete.

Seventh gen was the first time consoles lost their charm and unique aesthetics. Xbox and Playstation systems have been glorified PCs in console shells ever since and Nintendo began shipping hardware a generation behind.

I think that N64 aesthetics were a mixed bag bitd and rapidly aged poorly, but they at least had a signature aesthetic.

[Baloo]

HELL NO! I have nostalgia for it but it's one of the absolute worst generations overall. There is another topic entirely about the very clear western racism and bias against Asian media of the time. The beginning of the worst DLC practices. Wii while it did give us Xenoblade. The Last Story and No More Heroes. Nintendo was at its worst creatively as opposed to now. I love many games from that era but it was the beginning of the end for me. Console gaming peaked in the 90s. Creatively esp as new IPs and ideas were hitting left and right. 360 era is the beginning of bad DLC practices. Anti-Japanese games attitude. Greedy paid services like online passes. Development became so expensive devs died over a single game and publishers became very risk averse. The beginning of fuck it, ship it broken fix it later, maybe.

Curious, What are you referring to as the anti-Japanese bias of the 7th generation? I feel like the 5th generation was when JRPGs and Japanese-style games were viewed as not for the West but in actuality was what many really wanted to play.

I get what you mean about free online play and more experimentation... but in terms of games themselves, the golden age is right now. Look at indie games for example, way more options than ever before. The Switch library is much better than the Wii. I do miss the DS though, I wish Nintendo would make another portable I can actually fit in a pocket.

I love the DS library, particularly the Ace Attorney series, Ghost Trick, Hotel Dusk, Last Window, those games just feel like they were primed for dual-screen and really brought the visual novel gametype to respectability and playable.

On this point too, I feel like games were way more affordable to buy games and play them with friends. I love playing Clubhouse Games with my wife, I have two copies and use the DS and 3DS. The exact same game is on Switch but its $40 with better graphics. I am not interested in paying $250 for a Switch and $40 for Clubhouse games to play Othello and Hanafuda when I got a copy of the DS game for $5 and the DS system itself used on eBay for $10.

The one part where I really agree with you is on this licensing crap... within a generation or two I can see there being a push to get all of us onto monthly subscriptions for games, where almost nobody buys physical media and everything is streamed. I don't like it, but since it already happened for music and movies it seems inevitable for games too.

Sadly this is the worst part. Seventh generation is where this all started to collide, when stuff like Marvel vs. Capcom 2, Scott Pilgrim, TMNT Turtles in Time, Outrun Online Arcade, After Burner Climax all got ripped from digital stores and, except for Scott Pilgrim, havent been seen since. Remember the PSN movie and TV show store? Being able to buy a single episode of a show for $2 seems like a treat compared to now where to watch a show you have to subscribe to a monthly streaming service.

interesting. thanks for the write-up. But, how many Golden Age generations are we allowed to appoint? If, as the name would imply, it's just one, then it must be the NES era, specially considering it was almost singlehandedly carried by that console.
Then there would be a Silver and Bronze generation, (either 16-bit era, or 2600, or PS2 or PS3...)

I think this is a good type of ranking too. I'd put the Silver generation as the 16-bit era for sure. I love a lot of the 2D and arcade games from the 6th Generation era, but I think a lot of early 3D games, like Tomb Raider, Virtua Fighter and Burning Rangers have aged super poorly. 6th Generation I feel is where a lot of the game development companies regained their footing.

That generation was also "classic" Sega's last gasp at greatness. We had physical releases of popular franchises Virtua Fighter 5, Sega Rally Revo & Virtua Tennis 3 - but the best part was Sega's digital games. Sega took the time to make better than arcade-perfect home versions of Daytona USA, Virtua Fighter 2, Fighting Vipers & Sonic the Fighters. Plus, we also got HD remasters of Outrun 2006 & NiGHTS. Since then unfortunately, Sega has given the better-than-arcade treatment only to Virtua Racing on the Switch, with nothing further on the horizon.

This is exactly how I feel! I've been having a ton of fun lately with Outrun 2006: Coast 2 Coast, Sega Rally Revo, Virtua Tennis World Tour (thanks, BubsyFan, my Sega-16 Secret Santa!), Crazy Taxi Fare Wars. I want to get a PS3 to mod it and put After Burner Climax and Daytona USA on there, amazing games.

[BubsyFan1]

This is exactly how I feel! I've been having a ton of fun lately with Outrun 2006: Coast 2 Coast, Sega Rally Revo, Virtua Tennis World Tour (thanks, BubsyFan, my Sega-16 Secret Santa!), Crazy Taxi Fare Wars. I want to get a PS3 to mod it and put After Burner Climax and Daytona USA on there, amazing games.

I was in this thread and was just about to leave when I came across this comment. I don't mean to try to derail the thread or anything, but I wanted to give the credit to your other Secret Santa for gifting you that game. Still glad you're enjoying it though!

[WarmSignal]

I'm thinking it's kind of funny you'd espouse such an opinion when I believe you were the one saying you didn't give a damn about modern consoles, or modern games. Unless, the goalpost is being moved and now 7th gen is no longer considered as the dreaded "modern era".

Overall yeah, I think it was hella better than 8th gen, and so far 9th. I kinda think in general the golden era was probably 6th gen simply based on the glut of hardware and triple a software that existed all at once. Three really solid and successful consoles and one really cool one that petered out early. A lot of that momentum did carry over into the 7th gen but so many things of that era signified the beginning of the decline.

[gamevet]

I think that the 6th generation was the golden age of the consoles. You had 4 really good consoles with the Dreamcast, PS2, Gamecube and Xbox. I gave every one of those consoles a good solid year of pretty much devoted gaming and game purchases. I ended that gen with a solid run of online play with the Xbox.

[Baloo]

I'm thinking it's kind of funny you'd espouse such an opinion when I believe you were the one saying you didn't give a damn about modern consoles, or modern games. Unless, the goalpost is being moved and now 7th gen is no longer considered as the dreaded "modern era".

Overall yeah, I think it was hella better than 8th gen, and so far 9th. I kinda think in general the golden era was probably 6th gen simply based on the glut of hardware and triple a software that existed all at once. Three really solid and successful consoles and one really cool one that petered out early. A lot of that momentum did carry over into the 7th gen but so many things of that era signified the beginning of the decline.

Boy you're real cheerful. I still dont really care about a lot of modern games, and considering the price of them I am certainly not interested. I realize that I missed out on a lot of upgraded classics and remastered collections in the 7th Generation on PS3 and Xbox 360 like Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix and all of the SNK collections that were put out. I am also taking an interest in both the Metal Gear Solid series and Uncharted that I never played back on the day. I'd still call myself a classic gamer, but I have expanded my horizons, even if just a little bit.

My main interests are still fantastic gameplay in short bursts, great story, and games that are not overly long. I've never really loved 3D games much at all. I wrote off a lot of games affer the 6th Generation when it felt like most everyone was playing online generic sports games, racing games, first-person shooters, clunky 3D fighters, and 3D open world adventure games like Grand Theft Auto, or whatever other shit Activision and EA would shovel out each year.

It doesnt help that in the post-DRM, digital world where games are streamed and everything is a pay for service that has seen a lot of the games I loved playing growing up go straight to the wayside and not get rereleased. Digital Eclipse and M2 have done great work, but theyre not churning out the collections fast enough honestly.

[Blades]

Boy you're real cheerful. I still dont really care about a lot of modern games, and considering the price of them I am certainly not interested. I realize that I missed out on a lot of upgraded classics and remastered collections in the 7th Generation on PS3 and Xbox 360 like Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix and all of the SNK collections that were put out. I am also taking an interest in both the Metal Gear Solid series and Uncharted that I never played back on the day. I'd still call myself a classic gamer, but I have expanded my horizons, even if just a little bit.

My main interests are still fantastic gameplay in short bursts, great story, and games that are not overly long. I've never really loved 3D games much at all. I wrote off a lot of games affer the 6th Generation when it felt like most everyone was playing online generic sports games, racing games, first-person shooters, clunky 3D fighters, and 3D open world adventure games like Grand Theft Auto, or whatever other shit Activision and EA would shovel out each year.

It doesnt help that in the post-DRM, digital world where games are streamed and everything is a pay for service that has seen a lot of the games I loved playing growing up go straight to the wayside and not get rereleased. Digital Eclipse and M2 have done great work, but theyre not churning out the collections fast enough honestly.

This is why I would much rather be a game designer 30 years ago rather than now. The technology is so much better now, along with the opportunities and the games themselves in a lot of cases, but the players have taken a nosedive and are 50x more close-minded and bitter now. At least there was some semblance of open-mindedness back then, probably because there just wasn't anything to compare to.

Why should I put in the absurd amount of effort it takes to create a brilliant experience, when you have people like this that say "modern games are too expensive/boring/not exactly what I played 30 years ago." Have you forgotten how much N64 cartridges used to cost for what they gave you?? Nostalgia is one hell of a psychoactive drug.

I wrote off a lot of games affer the 6th Generation

[JCU]

Simple answer: Yes.

Long answer: NOA, MS and Sony were firing on all cylinders and it is looked as a great time because the consoles were doing and trying new and different things. Walking into the gaming section of a store was quite memorable to say the least.