this post was submitted on 23 Aug 2024
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At launch the 360 was on par graphically with contemporary high-end GPUs, you're right. By even the midpoint of its seven year lifespan, though, it was getting outclassed by midrange PC hardware. You've got to factor in the insanely long refresh cycles of consoles starting with the six and seventh generations of consoles when you talk about processing power. Sony and Microsoft have tried to fix this with mid-cycle refresh consoles, but I think this has honestly hurt more than helped since it breaks the basic promise of console gaming -- that you buy the hardware and you're promised a consistent experience with it for the whole lifecycle. Making multiple performance targets for developers to aim for complicates development and takes away from the consumer appeal
Between last generation and this one, though, we're at the point where consoles are more like prebuilts. Games have performance targets, it's up to users to decide when they feel like an upgrade. The only difference is that games (usually) won't release for models that can't run them well, compared to some people who try to squeeze out every frame they can from their 10-year-old potato PCs, though every now and then you still get a Cyberpunk 2077 on consoles.
But there's a reason why some games still target the PS4 in 2024, because if you're a small-budget indie game that doesn't need the full hardware of the PS5, why not? Since you don't get locked out of older stuff when you upgrade anymore, which enables newer stuff to keep releasing on older systems, anyone can hold on to a console until they run into a game worth upgrading for.