Keep releasing games for last-gen, say gamers

The news that God of War Ragnarok, Assassin’s Creed Mirage and (potentially) Capcom’s Resident Evil 4 remake would be coming to last-generation consoles as well as the Xbox Series X and PS5 has led some to question whether developers should stop releasing games for older systems – and focus entirely on newer machines.

Using YouGov Direct, we asked console gamers in Britain and the US – defined as those who rack up at least an hour of console playtime a week – about whether it’s time to leave the Xbox One and PS4 behind. In both countries, most said developers should continue releasing games for the previous generation (US 70%; GB 75%), with just 14% saying that developers should exclusively focus on the new systems.

This holds true even if you narrow it down to gamers who own a next-gen console (US 71% vs. 15%; GB 63% vs. 26%).

So when should developers stop releasing games for last-gen machines? Well, ask gamers in Britain and 15% will say immediately or in the very near future (e.g. within the next year), 41% will say they should keep releasing games for Xbox One and PS4 but stop doing so by mid-2024, and a third (32%) say they should keep doing so indefinitely. Crucially, this doesn’t change too dramatically if you filter by current gen gamers: in Britain, 23% say they should stop releasing games for the previous generation soon, 46% say they should stop doing so a little further into the future, and a fifth say they should simply keep releasing them (20%); in the US, this is 11%, 55%, and 27% respectively.

While we’re nearly two years into this console generation, it’s not too hard to find reasons why gamers might feel this way: supply chain constraints have limited consumers’ ability to buy a PS5 or Xbox Series X, the pace of development has slowed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and – with inflation rising across the world – a new console, and games to play on it, might be seen as an extravagance by some.

YouGov data can further explore the reasons why gamers might want to hold on to the previous generation of systems for a little while longer.

Methodology

US

YouGov polled 2,500 US adults online on 20-21 September between 22:24pm BST and 12:03 BST. The survey was carried out through YouGov Direct. Data is weighted by age, gender, education level, political affiliation, and ethnicity. The margin of error is 2% for the overall sample. Learn more about YouGov Direct. 

UK

YouGov polled 2,500 British adults online on 20-21 September between 22:24pm BST and 2:05pm BST. The survey was carried out through YouGov Direct. Data is weighted by age, gender, education level, region, and social grade. The