unpopular-ish opinion: 7th gen is where consoles peaked

(this is a reupload of my blog from my old long gone SpaceHey account found on Web Archive)

if you don't know what the hell generations mean, 7th generation consoles are PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii. with that info, straight into what i mean:

7th gen consoles were the last to be these versatile entertainment centers that had a lot of personality and love put into them. as well as technical genius behind them, even if PS3's architecture was inpractical, it was still a very cool thing, it was original. not even starting on how 7th gen took own takes on motion controls - Wii's pioneering Wii Remote, Sony's not really original PlayStation Move that later became foundation for Sony's VR system, and of course, Microsoft Kinect - a great technology that unfortunately never was put into a good use by third party developers... the UI (even the current Xbox 360 dashboard that i'm totally not a fan of), the multimedia capabilities, the games, the technology... somehow the 7th gen was that perfect fusion of all the best stuff! also not even starting on hacking scene, jailbroken 7th gen consoles can do miracles - a jailbroken PS3 can be made almost fully backwards compatible with PS1 AND PS2 even if it's a Slim/Super Slim console! so much to do with a hacked Xbox 360, PS3 or Wii!

8th gen is where it went downhill - PS4 and Xbox One are just PCs in disguise, multimedia capabilities got nerfed, and Wii U failed miserably sales wise (it didn't fail at all in personality and innovation tho imo), hacking scene is just meh, there's not that much demand in hacking and modding the 8th gen (aside from the same Wii U), but there still were great games that defined the 8th gen and made it sorta memorable. Switch is just souless comparing to previous Nintendo generations (don't get it wrong, it still has personality and innovation to it, it's a great system comparing to what we have in PlayStation and Xbox camps today, but it is much weaker in terms of personality than previous Nintendo systems imo), but has great stuff in terms of games.

9th (current) gen is a f***ing joke. PS5 has zero notable native games (PS4 games with patches do not count), as well as having an incredibly ugly and impractical design, as well as having zero multimedia capabilities aside from streaming and maybe blu-ray, as well as hacking being limited to 60 FPS unlocks for PS4 games, and as well as being a PC in disguise AGAIN. Xbox Series doesn't even attempt to hide that it's just a gaming-only PC in an uninspiring box that looks like a mini-fridge to hold booze in.

while 7th gen is still fondly remembered and still loved (and tbf, 8th gen too!), 9th gen just... exists... kinda. with nothing exciting to offer. even PS5's controller gimmicks just made me yawn from the start, controller gimmicks on Sony consoles was always something that devs and Sony themselves just forget about halfway into the console's lifespan. 

so, yeah... here's my incoherent rant about consoles getting more and more boring. console gaming really became just easy mode for PC gaming rather than something standing on it's own and having it's own charm...