Feels weird to be talking about next gen Xbox already, feels like we only just getting the supply issues of the Series sorted.

The consoles have been out for 5 years this year. There are rumours that the next generation of consoles will release in 2027, which would be the usual cycle.

I really think they're at a point of diminishing returns on consoles. PC or steam deck is the better bargain even for the folks who don't have much to spend upfront. the lower upfront cost was what justified the consoles in the first place, for me at least. now they're more expensive than something like steam deck or older PC with midrange GPU.

There's also the fact that hardware costs keep going up, but there's not really a big technological leap between generations anymore. There's little reason to buy into the next generation when the selling point boils down to "Play the same games, but slightly smoother*!"

*If there's enough development time to implement the option to do so