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00:00Think back, if you're old enough, to the launch of the PS2.
00:04What an unbelievable leap in technology that was going from seeing blocky character models in 3D worlds
00:10and thinking this was as good as it was ever going to get.
00:14But then, you see Solid Snake jump from the George Washington Bridge,
00:19and when he looks at you, he looks like Snake.
00:22The Solid Snake you always imagined playing Metal Gear Solid on the PS1.
00:27Or, watching Marcus Fenix take on hordes of the Locusts from the barely there safety of a chest-high wall.
00:33The amount of detail in Marcus, the Locust, and the environments blew our minds.
00:39And lastly, Aloy encountering a Tallneck for the first time,
00:43and realizing you need to climb to the top of that thing.
00:46Now, show me the difference between God of War Ragnarok on PS4 and PS5.
00:52I dare you. And that's only the start of the problems with this generation.
00:57Welcome to Mojo Plays, and today we'll be breaking down why the 9th generation of consoles
01:02is not only the weakest we've had in decades, but also the most underwhelming.
01:07Whatever speech you got rehearsed, get this over with.
01:11You don't get to rush this.
01:13Before we continue, be sure to subscribe to our channel and ring the bell to get notified about our latest videos.
01:19I've been gaming for pretty much as long as I could hold a controller,
01:25but my love for gaming really took off when I got my first PS1.
01:29I'd always had fun playing with my SNES, but this was something different.
01:33The graphics, the games, and especially the storytelling were so much more engaging,
01:38and opened up entire new worlds for me to explore, and I couldn't get enough.
01:43This passion only grew with the release of the PS2,
01:47mostly because I had to start using my own money if I wanted a new game,
01:51and I was enamored with nearly every new game and experience that was released,
01:55willing to try almost anything the system had to offer.
01:59This was the true experimental age of gaming.
02:02Developers were allowed to try out their wildest ideas regardless if they ended up being a success or not.
02:08Not everything was a hit right away, but a lot of those games are still talked about even today,
02:14some over two decades after they were released.
02:17This was the time when we got franchises that are still going strong,
02:21like God of War, Ratchet & Clank, and Halo,
02:24all from developers who were able to not only release new entries in their franchises on an almost yearly basis,
02:31but managed to significantly improve on them with each entry.
02:35This was the generation when developers started making names for themselves.
02:39Naughty Dog would move on from Crash Bandicoot and give us Jak and Daxter,
02:43and then with the PS3, the Uncharted and The Last of Us series.
02:46Insomniac gave us almost annual Ratchet & Clank titles,
02:50and then gave the PS3 a true Halo competitor with the Resistance series,
02:54all while continuing to release Ratchet & Clank bangers.
02:58Wow. I know. So much for clean underwear.
03:04Rockstar was especially prolific during this time,
03:07pumping out three GTA games, Bully, The Warriors, and the Midnight Club series, as well as many others.
03:14Konami and Capcom revolutionized horror in different ways,
03:18with the Silent Hill and Resident Evil series respectively.
03:21RE4 is also single-handedly responsible for the over-the-shoulder perspective
03:26almost every action game uses these days.
03:29The 6th and 7th generation also saw the rise of online gaming.
03:34No longer were you bound to couch co-op or over-complicated LAN parties.
03:38You could play your favorite games with others across the country, or across the world.
03:43Multiplayer modes in traditionally single-player games like Call of Duty or Halo,
03:48and even Gears of War exploded with millions playing every day,
03:52and even forming lifelong friendships with people you'd almost certainly never meet in person.
03:57And, most importantly, if a game didn't sell well,
04:01the studio wasn't immediately shut down,
04:04and oftentimes, developers would even get to make a sequel that improved on the first game,
04:09and made the series a classic.
04:10Ta-da! Live and in person! The one, the only, Deadpool!
04:15Oh, look at you. What about me?
04:17I thought you'd be taller.
04:19Oh well, we just won't use a lot of wide lenses.
04:21Or not, and we just got a bunch of crappy sequels to a crappy franchise because the games were cheap to make.
04:26And unknowing parents and grandparents would buy them as Christmas and birthday presents.
04:31And we all had to sit there and pretend we were excited about it.
04:34Don't lie. You all did it too.
04:36Hey, we agreed on something.
04:38I'm spending a lot of time breaking down previous generations,
04:41because it's important to understand the difference and how we got to where we are today.
04:45Gaming has never been a cheap hobby.
04:48Back in the 90s, cartridges were expensive.
04:51Like, really expensive.
04:53Most new N64 games could cost up to $70 for first-party titles.
04:58The switch to disc brought most games down to a more moderately priced $40,
05:03with some games even being released as cheap as $10.
05:07Shout out to the Spec Ops series on PS1.
05:09This also meant we could get more games released more quickly,
05:13which is how we got multiple Spyro and Crash games in such quick succession.
05:18Gaming was evolving, and this was not only benefiting developers, but gamers as well.
05:23Who doesn't want more great games to play more often?
05:26This trend continued from the 90s into the mid-2000s,
05:29with no shortage of incredible and memorable games,
05:32oftentimes with multiple entries or sequels
05:35and some true gems that would become more appreciated over time.
05:39Honestly, the reason why some games were overlooked
05:42was because there was so much amazing stuff to play in any given year, it was hard to keep up.
05:47The industry was thriving and expanding,
05:50bringing in more and more players every year,
05:52and alongside the growing indie scene thanks to Xbox Live Arcade and eventually PSN,
05:57even smaller teams were able to make their dreams a reality
06:01and get their games into the hands of players everywhere.
06:12The PS4 and Xbox One got off to a slow start, especially the Xbox One,
06:17but eventually players had numerous titles that made the generation feel worthwhile,
06:22with the likes of The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt, Bloodborne, Ghost of Tsushima, Horizon Zero Dawn,
06:27Death Stranding, God of War 2018, Red Dead Redemption 2, and a handful of others,
06:33many of which were brand new IPs.
06:36But if you compare the output of memorable and genre-defining titles compared to the 7th generation,
06:41the list pales in comparison.
06:44Is that it?
06:46You asked for it.
06:49You gotta be kidding me.
06:51Once prolific developers were suddenly releasing fewer and fewer titles,
06:55with some either only releasing one or two during the entire generation,
06:59while others seemed complacent,
07:01continuing to port their greatest successes from the previous generation to everything imaginable.
07:06Yes, I'm talking directly to you, Bethesda.
07:08A mud crab scuttles towards you.
07:09FUS RO DAH!
07:10I didn't catch that.
07:11FUS RO DAH!
07:13I didn't quite catch that.
07:14FUS RO DAH!
07:16You shout echoes all the way to Sovngarde.
07:18This was also where the cracks in the industry began to show.
07:22Gaming became more corporate-mandated,
07:24with nearly every game coming with DLC, season passes, or tacked-on multiplayer.
07:30Anything to keep gamers playing their game, and only their game.
07:34Gaming wasn't for gamers anymore.
07:36It was for the shareholders.
07:38Budgets began to balloon to ludicrous figures,
07:41and a focus on live service and Battle Royale overtook the latter years of the generation,
07:46and managed to oversaturate a budding genre before it even began.
07:50Do you see all that I have done?
07:54Skip ahead to 2020,
07:56and the imminent release of the PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series X and S,
08:00the two most powerful versions of either company's consoles to date, right?
08:05Well, no, apparently not.
08:08The PS5 and the Xbox Series consoles already had an uphill battle,
08:12releasing in a year when the entire world was still recovering from a global shutdown,
08:16which resulted in chip shortages,
08:18making these brand new consoles in high demand and short supply.
08:22Naturally, this incentivized both Sony and Microsoft to walk back some of their next-gen exclusives,
08:28in order to maintain as large a player base as possible.
08:32The PS5 did at least launch with a couple next-gen-only titles,
08:35such as the Demon's Souls remake and Astro's Playroom as a pack-in game,
08:39but after an abysmal showing for Microsoft's flagship series Halo,
08:43the company chose to delay the game by a year,
08:46leaving their shiny new box without a single first-party exclusive.
08:50This trend continued into the next year,
08:53with only a handful of games being truly next-gen exclusive,
08:56and everything else that was originally promised for this brand new hardware
09:00also releasing on the PS4 and Xbox One.
09:03Somehow, these games who were originally only possible on the strongest hardware on the market,
09:08could also be scaled back and released on the previous underpowered consoles,
09:13and side-by-side comparisons of next-gen and previous-gen versions
09:18showed there was barely any noticeable difference between the two,
09:21with many titles that promised 4K 60FPS failing to even marginally hit those benchmarks.
09:27Both Sony and Microsoft released two versions of their consoles,
09:41with both cheaper versions being digital-only consoles.
09:44However, Microsoft, in an attempt to undercut Sony,
09:48made their Series S console not only cheaper,
09:51but also woefully underpowered compared to its big brother.
09:55This has severely handicapped not only Microsoft themselves,
09:59as none of their games feel truly next-gen,
10:02because their scope needs to be scaled back in order to run on the Series S potato,
10:06but it has also crippled third-party developers as well.
10:10Many studios have gravitated more towards the PS5 for their big releases,
10:14rather than limit their scope to release on both the Series X and S,
10:18which is apparently a contractual obligation to release on Xbox consoles,
10:22inadvertently giving Sony a large amount of third-party exclusives.
10:26This is also where this generation has been struggling as well.
10:30Exclusives, and quite honestly, new releases in general.
10:34Whereas with previous generations,
10:36players were spoiled for choice come the big holiday release window,
10:39these days, there's rarely anything to get hyped or excited about.
10:43So far in this generation,
10:45only a couple of Sony's internal studios have released anything
10:48that could be considered a console seller.
10:51Insomniac is single-handedly keeping the PS5 alive,
10:55with the vast majority of Sony's first-party studios
10:57remaining radio silent almost five years into the generation.
11:01It's even worse for Microsoft.
11:03Despite too many acquisitions to count,
11:06the big green box has yet to produce anything that could be considered a must-play,
11:11with some of their biggest titles even now releasing on the PS5,
11:14seemingly to recoup some of their massive acquisition costs.
11:18At the time of writing, the PS5 barely has over a dozen next-gen PS5-only exclusives,
11:24and the Xbox Series consoles have even less.
11:27While Sony's Jim Ryan initially discussed the company believed in generations,
11:32that no longer appears to be the case.
11:34This is in addition to many of Sony's other exclusives,
11:37amounting to nothing more than remastered or director's cuts of PS4 titles.
11:42If we compare where the ninth generation of consoles is to the eighth,
11:46the outlook in the industry becomes even more dire.
11:49While there were of course still some cross-gen games
11:51during the first year or two of the PS4 and Xbox One,
11:54those versions that released on the PS3 and Xbox 360 were almost entirely different games,
12:00with many features and even entire mechanics or levels having to be cut.
12:04The PS4 and Xbox One were released in 2013,
12:08and comparing the same amount of time having passed for the PS5 and Xbox Series consoles,
12:13the number of games is night and day.
12:15There is almost nothing that makes forking over hundreds of dollars for these consoles
12:20that are now considered halfway through their life cycle even remotely worth it.
12:24A majority of Xbox Series exclusives are playable on the Xbox One through Game Pass,
12:29and Sony's recent push for their games on PC
12:32means those without a PS4 or 5 will only have to wait a short amount of time
12:37to receive probably the best versions of those Sony exclusives.
12:41This is only scratching the surface of the audacity of this generation,
12:46with Sony also recently announcing and releasing a mid-gen refresh with the PS5 Pro
12:51at an eye-watering $700,
12:54and with no disc drive or stand, both of which are sold separately.
12:58The PS5 Pro also seems to be finally fulfilling the promises made by Sony for the PS5
13:04during its initial reveal, 4K, 60fps,
13:07no more choosing between performance or fidelity modes,
13:10as well as the possibility of 8K output,
13:13which hilariously was printed on the box of the initial release of the PS5
13:18but has since been removed from the box art.
13:20Nintendo, despite their unprecedented success with the Switch,
13:24is also fundamentally holding back their players as well.
13:27The Switch was already underpowered compared to the PS4 and Xbox One when it released in 2017,
13:33locking diehard Nintendo fans out from the vast majority of third-party releases
13:38and forcing gamers to play these games via cloud gaming,
13:41which is never an ideal compromise.
13:44Thankfully, the Switch 2 is reportedly more powerful,
13:47supposedly the equivalent of the PS4 Pro,
13:50which, considering that most games these days are still releasing for that console,
13:54should give Nintendo fans a lot more third-party options going forward.
13:58The lack of truly next-gen exclusives is only half the problem this generation, however.
14:04The entire industry has become corporatized,
14:07to the point where there have been more layoffs and studio closures
14:10in only the first four years of this generation than seemingly all the previous ones combined,
14:16the video game crash of the 80s notwithstanding.
14:19This has undeniably been the generation of safe games,
14:23with many releases being legacy sequels, remakes or remasters,
14:26or even reboots of older popular franchises,
14:30reimagined for the mystical modern audience.
14:33Video games used to be developed by people who actually loved gaming,
14:37and their love, passion and creativity was on display in the games they created.
14:41Nowadays, video games live and die by their Metacritic scores,
14:45with some developers being denied bonuses if their game fails to reach a specific score with critics.
14:51Publishers telling gamers to get comfortable with not owning their games
14:55has caused quite a lot of backlash, alongside numerous titles becoming digital-only
15:00and requiring constant internet connections even for single-player focused titles.
15:05Everything about this approach to the industry is wildly anti-consumer,
15:09and spits in the face of diehard gamers who are seeing their favorite hobby or pastime
15:14ripped from their hands by corporate greed.
15:16What is it?
15:18The end, or how it begins anyway.
15:21The push for an all-digital future has been met with quite a lot of resistance from the gaming community.
15:27The closure of the Xbox 360 marketplace, the Wii U and 3DS online stores
15:32led to the loss of hundreds, if not thousands of titles that are no longer playable anywhere else
15:38if you didn't already own them before the shutdown.
15:41Sony attempted to shut down the PS3 online store and was met with so much resistance,
15:46they walked back their decision.
15:48With the PS3 currently being the only way short of digging out a PS1 or 2
15:52to experience the majority of Sony's back catalog,
15:55you can't even imagine how much history would have been lost in the PS3's online store closure.
16:00This has also become the generation of publishers and developers pulling an EA
16:05and attempting to tell gamers what they want rather than listening to fan demand.
16:09The frequently used corporate term, if you don't like it, don't buy it,
16:13has become a rallying cry for many games as players have voted with their wallets
16:17leaving many brand new releases underperforming.
16:20The push to label all gamers who don't like the direction of the industry
16:24or how a specific game handles a license or legacy characters
16:28have now been labeled as toxic by publishers and developers
16:32and even the journalists who cover these games.
16:35Are we done with your bad stand-up routine?
16:38Almost, but you always gotta end on your best joke.
16:44Gone are the days when people could simply express their opinion
16:47and thanks to the rise and pressure of social media,
16:50gamers, the ones who pay for these products to keep the industry going,
16:54have become public enemy number one.
16:57Everyone should be entitled to their own opinion whether you agree with it or not.
17:02Do some on both sides of the argument take things too far?
17:05Absolutely, and none of that is ever okay or something that should be condoned in any capacity.
17:11But we have become so far removed from people simply having open discussions
17:15about their own takes on anything,
17:17that what once was a community that brought people together
17:20has become so divisive it might never fully recover.
17:30So what does all of this mean for the remainder of this generation?
17:34It's not in a great place, unfortunately.
17:37Much of the lack of new releases could easily be attributed to the balloony budgets of many games
17:42and ludicrous development times.
17:44Some developers have even left big publishers because the new project the studio has begun production on
17:49could take upwards of ten years to see a full release,
17:53leading to many big name and once proficient developers only releasing one or two,
17:58if any, new games in each generation.
18:01Realistically, any new game that enters production today
18:04won't see market release until the PS6 or Xbox Next.
18:09Coupled with ridiculously bloated staff,
18:11massive overhead,
18:12and multiple studios working on a single title,
18:15there's almost no room for anything new to even get off the ground,
18:19let alone reach the conceptual stage.
18:22With numerous big budget releases not only failing to make a profit,
18:26but also leading to complete studio closures,
18:29while those who mandated the Doom project continue to fail upwards,
18:33the entire gaming industry could be on the verge of another crash
18:37similar to the one in the 80s with Atari.
18:41I'm not gonna do any of that.
18:43Maybe the mug thing.
18:46Deal!
18:47Once prominent developers are forced to churn out soulless cash grabs,
18:51or worse yet, live service games,
18:54for publishers only focused on an endless revenue stream to keep their investors happy.
18:59Activision is especially guilty of this,
19:02folding multiple studios into the Call of Duty machine
19:04who were instrumental during the Xbox 360 and PS3 era,
19:08giving players some of the best experiences of that generation.
19:11Even indie developers,
19:13once championed by gamers for their innovation,
19:15have devolved into almost nothing but Souls-likes,
19:18Metroidvanias,
19:19cozy games,
19:20or even live service titles.
19:22And while there's nothing inherently wrong if you're a fan of these genres,
19:25and there have been some absolute bangers,
19:28much of the innovation and experimentation
19:30seems to have left even the once up-and-coming indie scene.
19:34I understand, at the end of the day,
19:36video games are a business,
19:38and they need to make money to continue making games.
19:41But when no one wants the product you're selling,
19:43then something is inherently wrong with the system.
19:47Rather than doubling down,
19:48the industry needs to rediscover what made gaming so lucrative in the first place,
19:54the feeling of discovery, innovation, experimentation,
19:57and a true love for the medium.
19:59The pursuit of the uncanny valley
20:01will never outlive a fun game
20:03with a creative art style and solid game mechanics.
20:06There's a reason the retro gaming scene has exploded in recent years,
20:10and it's due in large part to the nostalgia gamers have
20:13for the good old days
20:15when gaming was all about the fun of gaming itself.
20:18We absolutely love video games of all kinds
20:21and only want the chance to have even more to play.
20:24But if this generation is any indication,
20:27the best days may well and truly be behind us.
20:32Trust?
20:34Trust.
20:36Do you think there's still hope for this generation of gaming,
20:39or is it too far gone to be saved?
20:42Share your thoughts in the comments.
20:44Did you enjoy this video?
20:45Check out these other clips for Mojo Plays,
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