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Thread: When, if ever, will PS4, XO, Switch be considered "retro?"

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    Default When, if ever, will PS4, XO, Switch be considered "retro?"

    Its hard to imagine games looking much better than they are in 2019. Even if the hardware allows for higher resolution, more detailed textures, etc. the manpower still needs to be there. I dont know how video games compare to movies in terms of time and money but I read that a single frame in the movie Frozen took 132 hours to render.

    I think the technology is being greatly underutilized at this point, only because itd take years and years to produce a game that really pushes the PS4 and XO to their limits. Remember what most games looked like on the SNES compared to Donkey Kong Country? Or how most PS2 games looked compared to Gran Turismo 3 and 4? In some cases, it's hard to believe they are on the same platform.

    Anyways, I really think its at the point now where the technology is plateauing. Music media essentially reached its peak with the compact disc. No one looks at a CD in a jewel case made in 1991 and goes "oh wow, that's so retro." But look at how people view movies and games produced in that same era.

    Even today, PS2, Xbox, Gamecube games dont look retro to me despite being almost two decades old. The snapcases and optical media dont look much different from today and the graphics arent leaps and bounds behind the games of the newer generations. Much better obviously but nothing compared to the differences between the N64 and the GameCube.

    I dont know what can really be considered retro about todays games in 20-25 years. You can only put so many buttons on a controller, only have so many pixels on the screen that are discernable from one another.

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    I dunno, I think there are plenty of people who would consider music CDs retro. Or at least outdated and obsolete.

    The current systems are already being pushed to their limits, considering many games can't manage 60fps. Many of the same games can be run on PC, and as long as you have a PC that's more powerful than the PS4/Xbox One (which isn't difficult or terribly expensive to obtain), you can run those games with better graphics and better framerates than the home consoles can.

    Me, I'll consider any system and its games retro once said system is off the market and not a part of the current gen. But everybody has their own idea of what "retro" means.

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    Jeans have been made out the same material and probably manufacturered exactly the same way for decades, yet I'm sure there are many jeans you would look at and say are "retro". Bell bottoms for an obvious example. So even if all we had going forward was current gen systems, then the games going forward would continue to change, until today's gameplay, mechanics, UI's, etc... start to feel antiquated.

    For example, for a while there, it seemed that every 3d platform game had objects just floating in the air that you were supposed to collect. Some people would probbaly consider that concept to be "retro".

    As far as technological advanements, Moore's Law is still going strong. Games will continue to get bigger and systems will contiue to have better graphics and advance in ways we can't begin to guess.

    Another example is AI. Past generations AI in games can feel "retro" compared to today's games. There will come a time when people say the same thing about today's games.

    There are alread companies working on the ability to speak naturally to AI characters and have them respond equally naturally, realistlically, and in character. At that point, they'll basically be holodeck characters.
    "Game programmers are generally lazy individuals. That's right. It's true. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Since the dawn of computer games, game programmers have looked for shortcuts to coolness." Kurt Arnlund - Game programmer for Activision, Accolade...

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    To me anything past PS2 is never going to be vintage or retro, it's just going to be old and outdated. PS2 is right at the cut-off and at times barely feels vintage either.

    Just look at computers, Windows XP machines are about 15 years old and they aren't thought as vintage or special, they're just old. Most cars from the 1990's aren't thought as anything special either, 1970's and earlier are vintage. You might as well be asking how long it will take stereo equipment produced around 2005 to be considered vintage, it just won't.

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    When I worked at a game store I heard a couple people refer to PS2 games as "retro". And a mom told her kid "this is what i had as a kid" referring to the GameBoy Color. That made me feel old

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    I feel that it is hard to call something retro unless it exhibits qualities from a specific era. Like with Genesis games, you have that "Extreme Attitude" you would often see in the 90's. NES games will often have "Totally Rad" sytles to the games, whether it be through in-game text, box art, characters etc. Not to mention those are all on formats that don't exist in the same manner as they used to. There is more to it than just my examples above. With PS2 vs PS4, is there really much that stands out other than DVD Vs. Bluray or SD Vs. HD? Maybe manuals were more the norm and no online patches for games.

    When you look at things like box art, slang used by in-game characters, character design, game design. I don't think there has been drastic enough of a change to really view PS2 as retro yet, I can't imagine when PS4 would become retro. Obviously there are many exceptions to what I am showing here for my opinion. If anything, maybe games that were created before the indie game/digital age could be considered the new retro, but I'm not sure we've had enough years of what we have now go by yet. I'd like to see other's opinions as it is quite interesting, and it the answer is truly in the eye of the beholder.

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