This gen still has some fight in it
But were not ready for the next-generation! While we understand why Nintendo needs to get things moving with the Wii U (what with HD and all), there are plenty of reasons valid ones, at that to fear the next-gen, and to stick with the current era of gaming for just a few more years.
Developers know how to use the current tech
That was then, and now these memories have faded into the past. Developers have learned all of the tricks to getting games running perfectly between all of the different consoles, meaning were seeing shorter load times and less framerate issues. These problems are becoming less and less regular, and a new generation could essentially set us right back to square one.
Games still look better every year
Every year we get a new example of the power of the current generation. Until sequels cease to look significantly better than their predecessors, we dont think were going to see an immediate need to upgrade consoles; from the looks of things thats still a few years out.
Digital is exploding
Developing a downloadable takes a fraction of the time and money of creating a AAA console release, and it can be done without a huge publisher backing the product. Only in the past year or two have we seen developers really taking advantage of this, with Microsoft and Sony both welcoming downloadable games with open arms, and even offering full titles as downloadable on the day of release. Speaking of...
We still havent heard how our digital purchases will transfer over
Of course, we hope were wrong - but until the big console-makers explicitly states that our digital games are safe, were going to assume that the issue's still on the table, and we really dont want to risk losing those (or having to break out our last-gen systems every time we want to play a downloadable game).
The first few years of next-gen are notoriously weak
There have only been a handful of launch titles in the history of gaming that actually hold up. For every Halo and Super Mario Bros. there are a dozen games like FantaVision or Perfect Dark Zero, which serve primarily to show off the systems hardware without any actual substance backing them up. New consoles usually mean gimmicky mechanics, trying desperately to prove their validity in the next-generation by using every single mechanic the new era of gaming lends them.
Series like Madden usually have their weakest entries early in new generations, and this current era were in where every year is full of amazing, must-play games would be essentially reset. Why go back to the stone age? Lets keep playing amazing games every year and skip over that awful lull for a little longer.
We havent seen a solid reason that new hardware is necessary
Weve yet to see a single, solid reason why this generation needs to end and the next needs to begin. Were sure there will eventually be one something that tells us that we need to empty our wallets and buy a new game but right now we havent seen it, so its hard to get too excited.
The economy sucks
Releasing new, expensive consoles when people arent interesting in spending money could be catastrophic. We already saw the 3DS flat-out fail at $250, and were in the process of watching the Vita suffer the same fate. Odds are, Sony will eventually drop the price, making it more affordable - but were not sure any of the next-gen systems could launch at a low enough price to make it worthwhile, especially during these trying economic times.
Then again...
Check back tomorrow when we examine all of the reasons we're totally ready for this generation to be over.
But if you need more pre-E3 news now, check out our predictions for Microsoft's press conference and our list of our 51 most anticipated games of E3 2012.