What We Played Presents: What Next-Gen Console Will You Buy?

Given the week we’re having, we thought we’d take a week off from asking you what you’ve played, and instead ask that searching question – What Will You Buy? Of course we mean what console you’re going to get, not what you’re off to pick up from Sainsbury’s in the morning. Now that we know the prices, and the release dates for both the Xbox Series X | S and the two versions of the PS5, which have tickled your fancy? All of them? None of them? Are you going to laugh into the sleek fan recesses of your RTX 3080? Let us know!

Obviously, with pre-orders for some things already having been and gone, there’s also the potential that you’ve valiantly failed to secure what your heart desires. Hopefully those that wanted a pre-order have managed to get one.

Predictably, I’m probably picking up an XSX and a disc-y PS5 (and the Oculus Quest 2 for good measure), but then again, I write about games, and frankly these will keep me writing about them for a good seven years or so, so that’s probably a pretty good investment. I’ve also pre-ordered Demon Souls, as it looks incredible, and am slightly interested in Destruction All-Stars. My launch title for Xbox Series X? Well, that’ll be Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. Yes, I know.

Aran is getting a PS5 with disc drive and the XSX, because he can afford to do both for the first time. “I’m going all in this gen. My games will be Spider-Man Miles Morales, GoW2, Deathloop, The Falconeer, FFXVI, Halo Infinite, and so many more. I’ll also jump onto Xbox Game Pass to catch up with titles I have missed so far.” Hold on a sec, I don’t think most of those are coming out this year!

Jason will be getting the PS5 at some point, but “if it wasn’t for this job I’d be getting the Xbox Series X or just upgrading my PC. Unfortunately, I’ll need a PS5 for work, where as the Xbox Series X|S, despite being amazing value, isn’t essential because of my PC.

It’s also a PS5 with a disc drive for Tom Lord. “The slate of exclusive games at launch and upcoming games for 2021 are exciting to me. That’s it. The games. I buy the box for the games and Sony’s appeal to me more. Strength and depth. Spider-Man and Sackboy are two that pique my interest for day one, and looking forward to Gran Turismo 7 at some point.

Ade won’t be going for either at launch, since they cost, you know, money, though money is slightly less of a thing though if, like Tom Hughes, you go for Xbox All Access with the XSX, to buy yourself some time before looking at the PS5 next year.

Nic B will be picking up the full-fat PS5 at launch so he can play Resident Evil VIII, Spider-Man: Miles Morales and FFXVI (Again, I hope he knows they’re not all at launch…). He tells us “the price of games means that, overall, in the long term, the disks will probably save me money. I’ll probs grab an semi-skimmed Xbox once more games are announced; it looks like a good console, but there’s just not enough for me right now to justify the spend.” He’ll have to watch out that Drea doesn’t come round and steal it.

Steve meanwhile is carrying on with his plan to pick up a decent GPU for now as that gives him the most flexibility and doesn’t need more space. “I will pick up a PS5 for the exclusives but that’ll be in a while when I’ve built up enough trade-in from current gens. Can’t trade my PS4 as it has a broken eject sensor (electrical tape home fix ftw) either. So I’ll be playing WiiU and 3DS games this autumn and then trading them. Will go full fat as the just digital tax will really mount up. Series X is mostly redundant for me as I’ll be PC gaming and it’s another box to find space for.”

Tuffcub is going for a full fat PS5, but he says “I must say for the first time ever, the Xbox looks tempting. However, I spend the few hours a week gaming time I have on Destiny 2 so I don’t have time to play hundreds of other games, if i had more time an Xbox and Game Pass would be on the list.”

It’s also full fat PS5 time for Jim, who also said, “I will no doubt get an Xbox Series X at some point though I can’t imagine that will be for another couple of years. As always, it comes down to the lineup of games, as good as Microsoft have been on the service side of things. Final Fantasy XIV, Ratchet & Clank, Spider-Man: Miles Morales, and God of War: Ragnarok… like a lot of people I don’t care about the box itself or the cutting edge innards, I just want the console that has the best, most diverse catalogue of next-gen titles.”

Reuben is another going for the big boy PS5 because “I’m all about that” – so not paying extortionate digital game prices then? He continues “I’ll be getting the Xbox Series S down the line, but that isn’t a priority. In terms of games, I’ll be getting Demon’s Souls and Miles Morales at launch, and am looking forward to the Playstation Plus Collection to play some of those PS4 games I missed. Long term though, I will happily sell my body for Final Fantasy XVI and that is not a joke.”

Gareth is going to see if he can scrape together enough for some flavour of PS5 somehow for launch, but they’re not cheap, so “One day in the distant future, when we are no longer worried about viruses, cars can fly, and I’ve got money, I’ll own both.” And Nick P has managed to snag a pre-order for a full PS5, with Demon’s Souls and Spider-Man Miles Morales looking “chef kiss!”

Miguel wasn’t interested in new consoles yesterday – and rightly so. After the Monster Hunter Direct he said, “I’m prepared to simply buy another Nintendo Switch and play Capcmo games until the heat death of the universe. But besides that, I’m definitely leaning more toward the PS5. I already have a beefy PC that I’m also hoping to upgrade with a 3070 (aaaand a new power supply and new processor, woof) so I can play all of the big interesting Xbox first-party stuff on my PC just fine. Plus with a PS5, most of my friend group primarily plays on PS4 so thats where almost all of my multiplayer gaming happens.”

And finally, Tef will be getting and disc PS5 and Xbox Series X because he kind of has to. One pre-order is in, another will come on Tuesday, but truthfully, if money, space, games, graphics power and everything else weren’t an issue, he’d quite like an Xbox Series S, because it’s pretty cute.

What about you? Did you get a pre-order in? Or are you waiting for the Xbox Series X | S ones to go live on the 22nd? Or just sitting out the start of the next generation? Let us know in the comments below.

Written by
TSA's Reviews Editor - a hoarder of headsets who regularly argues that the Sega Saturn was the best console ever released.

10 Comments

  1. Full fat PS5 for me too, although it looks like i’ve missed out on getting one on launch day i’ve placed a deposit anyway as that allows me to pay it off bit by bit. I just hope stock can be replaced quickly. I almost didn’t bother with a preorder but decided in the end that i want to be able to utilise the console for as much of it’s intended lifespan as possible.

  2. Still hoping the situation will be the same as with the PS4 and I’ll pick up the full PS5 sometime around release. Can’t see the being much of a shortage after they’ve got the free publicity from pre-orders selling out.

    And a Series S might make a good second option next year.

  3. I’ve luckily managed to preorder my PS5 from Amazon. After refreshing each and every site where preorders were sold. I went for the disk version. My first games will be Spider-man Miles Morales because I am a huge Marvel fan. And a few multiplatform games like Watchdogs 3 and Cyberpunk. Games I am looking forward to in the future are Resident Evil, God of War, GT7 and Horizon 2.
    I will get a Xbox Series X later when I can afford it really can’t justify getting both at the moment and nothing shown so far for XBSX has really made me excited for the console.

  4. I’m going to try very hard to sit this one out for a while, like until PS5 slim/pro if possible. Just can’t justify being day one like I have at every other PS launch… there’s nothing shown so far that screams must have, and as Horizon 2 will be coming to ps4 anyway there goes the need to buy any time soon.

  5. It’s the PS5 with 4K drive for me, although I’m not totally sure which games I want to buy at launch yet but I’m extremely excited for Horizon. Some homework is necessary.

  6. I really can’t get passed the value of gamepass. Apart from original Xbox I’ve had both every generation (gaming vice) so likely to do the same but initially it’ll probably be Series X on monthly with Ultimate then pick up full fat 5 after a while when price down. I don’t get that much time for gaming these days so the high quality of gamepass scratches my itch big time. PS Plus Collection doesn’t look as good in my view.

  7. I absolutely loved my PS1, PS2 & PS3, but I’ve found the PS4 to be mostly disappointing. So much so that I’d actually given up on gaming for a year. But then we got a Switch and my love of gaming was fully rekindled. It has shown that, for me at least, lower power doesn’t matter if you have excellent and varied games. As a result, I won’t be buying a PS5 (or an Xbox), but will almost certainly pick up the next iteration of the Switch whenever that arrives.

  8. I learnt from my mistake not pre-ordering a PS4 back then. Now I’m just too old to queue at 5am at launch day and still not getting the console I want, then not being able for a couple of months to pick one up as all shops were out of stock. At the end I went to a Sony store and got it really overpriced, including some games I didn’t want.

    This time, I preordered the PS5 at 2am after the show this week, and got the confirmation today that I’ll get it on launch day, which saved me an awful lot of hassle. It’s a disc version, with a second controller and the remote. As I got an internal 2TB disc in my PS4, I may do a similar upgrade early on with my PS5, if possible.
    I don’t really like the looks of it, but I’ll hide the console away somewhere.
    Game wise, I’ll catch up with the Plus games we get, Days Gone, God of War, The Last Guardian, etc, and with my PS4 backlog, simply enjoying stable frame rates and not spending days of my life looking at loading screens.
    With regard to PS5 games, I’ll decide closer to launch what to get. Usually, with games, I wait for prices to come down, but Demon’s Souls looks very good, and tempting.
    Maybe I’ll get an XBX later on at some point, but the only game over there that tempts me at all is Flight Simulator.

  9. A PS5 preorder is in, but a bit nervous after the recent calculations. I’m thinking Spider-Man for definite, yet to make up my mind on other games, and have the juicy Plus collection to go through. Waiting for the Next gen editions of Cyberpunk when they are ready

    I wouldn’t mind a series X or S, but logically there’s nothing it will add for a while yet on top of the PS5

  10. Ps5 for me but I missed out on the pre-order. Series X seems like a beast but I’m in it for the exclusives and struggle with at asymmetry of the Xbox controllers (my hands are symmetrical ?). can’t think of a single reason why anyone would go for the series S. It’s underpowered and lacks a drive but I’m guessing it will sell like hot cakes when it goes on sale at $225 on Black Friday.

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