I realize that this is somewhat of a crazy question to ask, as there are a million factors that come into this kind of decision, but bear with me. Here’s the deal: my grandmother-in-law gives me a couple hundred dollars every Christmas to buy some things for myself (she’s too old to go out shopping anymore). I have been considering purchasing an Xbox 360 with this money.
My thought is that the system is much more reasonably priced now and, having played NONE of the existing library, there are several years worth of fun games waiting for me, likely at good prices since they’re not new. (I can probably borrow some games from friends that they are done with, as well).
The wrinkle in the plan, of course, is that they’ve announced the next gen Xbox for next Christmas, so they’ll be phasing the 360 out soon. If I buy it now, can I still get at least 3 years of playing out of it with used games and whatnot, or will the 360 games disappear once the 720 (or whatever they’re calling it) comes out?
Notes about me as a gamer that might be handy to know in offering your advice:
[ul]
[li]I am a “casual” gamer in the sense that I don’t have a ton of time to play anymore; 1-2 days per week for an hour or two if I am lucky. That said, I’ve owned just about every system starting with the TRS-80, so I am not a dilettante :p[/li][li]I don’t play online with strangers and don’t plan to.[/li][li]I’ve been enjoying the Wii as my only gaming system since it came out. (I had an Xbox and PS2 before that).[/li][li]I like some first-person shooters, but that’s not my #1 thing. I enjoy lots of different kinds of games. Not a fan of racing simulators.[/li][li]I’m not sold on the WiiU right now and am not considering PS3.[/li][/ul]
Whenever the new system is released, it’s likely going to cost upwards of double, if not more, than what you’d pick up a 360 for right now.
360 games will definitely not disappear immediately following the release of the next generation, or anytime soon; the last new game for the original Xbox was released in 2008 (the 360 was released at the end of 2005). And the used game market, as well as services like Gamefly, can keep old games in circulation practically indefinitely.
Wait what? They have? Cite? How have I missed this? Are you SURE? Everything I’ve heard is just useless “The next Xbox is coming soon! Probably in 2013 but no promises!”
Frankly, unless there’s some real information about the NeXBox that countermands the following stipulations, I think the 360 is going to remain the better buy for a while:
Next Xbox will probably be expensive (>$400) OR (possibly AND) not much of an upgrade, really, in terms of processing power.
Next Xbox will launch with an extremely limited library.
Next Xbox will probably be even more of a “multipurpose entertainment device” than the 360.
I personally view the end of the console cycle as the perfect time to buy an “old” console because A) A lot of the BEST games for a console come out towards the end of its life, as people have figured out how to get the most out of the system B) There is, as you mentioned, a huge library of good stuff out there, frequently available for very cheap C) The console itself is compartively inexpensive, especially compared to its upcoming successor.
The ONLY other option for you, really is “upgrade your PC to gaming spec and play games on it instead”. There are things to be said for this, but if your PC is a laptop, as so many peoples’ are, or if it is more than about 3 years old, this isn’t really an option.
I think it’s a fine time to pick up a 360. It sounds like you have interest in one, and, much as people would like to claim otherwise, FPS games are by no stretch the only titles (or even, the only good titles) on the 360 - it’s home to a LARGE variety of varied software, including some very strong offerings that still aren’t available anywhere else.
So yeah. Look around for a good bargain, but go for it.
As I recall, they continued to develop PS2 games for several years after the PS3 came out simply because the market penetration was so deep that it remained profitable. The Xbox360 and PS3 have been out for an unprecedented seven years and will be eight before the new model comes out. That’s a whole lot of consoles in houses and I expect you’ll see Xbox360 new game development continue for at least your three year window (not even counting existing titles new or used).
We bought one for our 12yo twins. (For Xmas, so shhhhh.) They had an Xbox and a Wii, both of which they still play, but most gaming in this house is done on PCs. Even though the 360 is well-matured and likely to be superseded in a year or two, it has an immense library, games are available inexpensively (both new and used) and it’s not going to function any less well once the 720 or 1440 or PS128 comes out. They’ll get good, solid fun out of it proportional to the cost involved.
Given that the Xbox360 you purchase will have the same processing power as one made seven years ago, I would assume that the next gen version should have a lot more.
I would also be surprised if it wasn’t backward compatable for Xbox360 games.
It really depends on your financial situation. Do you want to wait another year until the new console is released? Or are you ok dropping a couple hundred bucks on an Xbox360 and games, knowing the console will be obsolete next year (although the games might not be)?
I know someone who works for a company that makes games for consoles. They have had a developers model of the NexBox for at least half a year now so they can make one of the games that will be released at launch.
I don’t know how much difference is between a developers model and a finished product but they have already made a playable demo and have showed it off to some official people.
So it can’t be that far off and a year from now for a Christmas launch sounds reasonable.
If it goes like the original Xbox, new games will stop appearing on the Xbox 360 pretty quickly after the Xbox 720 (or whatever they call it) comes out. And they’ll stop producing the Xbox 360 console pretty quickly as well. But if you are interested in catalog/used games the Xbox 360 has by far the deepest & cheapest used catalog of all the current systems. (Wii catalog is crappier, PS3 more expensive, and not as deep). Probably only rivaled by using the money to build a gaming PC and having the whole catalog of old PC games available.
I’d put money on the Xbox 720 coming out next christmas time, or at the worst q1 2014 because of some really big unforseen delay in manufacturing.
Edit to add, games in active development for the Xbox 360 probably port pretty easily to the Xbox 720 - unlike Sony/Nintendo, Microsoft programming interfaces between consoles (& PC too) doesn’t usually change drastically because they base it around DirectX (DirectX - Wikipedia)
Given that the Wii U, which just came out, and was viewed by many folks as “maybe a bit too expensive” is scarcely more than 25% more powerful than a 360, and the fact it took YEARS for the current console generation to recover from their initial pricing…difficulties, I think it’s an incredibly safe bet that the next Xbox is going be either only incrementally better, or hilariously expensive, and the latter is likely to be a kiss of death in this economy.
My #1 rule for new consoles is to NEVER expect backwards compatibility, because, lets face it, backwards compatibility has been all over the board in the past generation.
You have a really strange definition of “obsolete” and you are definitely acting under the painful misconception that even if the OP waited a year, that the cost of the new system would be remotely comparable to that of the older one.
The PC has been mentioned as an option, allow me to make a simple pitch for it:
Upgrade to your PC + a HUGE library of games on PC (Steam sale) = $$
New, budget gaming PC + a HUGE library of games on PC = $$$
Old console + a HUGE library of games on console (even after bargain hunting) = $$$$
Of course, a console and only a handful of games will probably match up with a PC upgrade nicely, but if money is the issue, I’d consider the PC. Of course, if money is NOT an issue, I’d consider the PC too.
Hmmm, Op did mention he didn’t play many games, in which case, yeah go for the 360.
As for the 360 becoming obsolete… well I wouldn’t expect more than some crappy ports from next gen titles after about a couple of years.
If you don’t want to have this chat, then why do you persist on having it? How about you just stay quite, and we can both get on with our lives.
Steam Xmas sale is coming up. So is the Amazon xmas sale, so is the Origin xmas sale, so is the Gamefly xmas sale. This is why I brought up, and why I thought it would be relevant, because odds are, even with such sales for console games, the retail side of things just can’t hold a candle to what digital sales can do.
So yes, if he upgraded his PC/bought an entry level gaming PC he COULD clean up in the number of games he can purchase in the near future. I make no claims on the price of his favorite games in a couple of months, but the Steam valentine’s day sale is just around the corner…
If you do get one, don’t cheap out on the 4GB version. Go for the version with a harddrive so that you won’t run into any issues and so that you have the option of playing lots of the indie games on XBLA.
Yes, good call. I’m looking at the 250GB. My biggest issue right now is, if I do get one, the best deal is the holiday bundle they are pushing (at Best Buy etc. and on Amazon), which includes some racing simulator in which I’m totally uninterested. So I’m going to keep looking. I appreciate the input, everyone, particularly regarding the life expectancy of the system.
