We don't often go tit-for-tat here on XDA, but I think it's worth doing sometimes, especially when I can offer a positive perspective. There's so much negativity around, why not look on the brighter side?

To be clear, I'm not trying to diminish my colleague's complaints about this current console generation. I largely agree with him, which is why this list won't be me going through all of his reasons and trying to come up with specific counterarguments to them. Instead, I'm going to offer five of my own reasons as to why I think this console generation is actually going pretty well.

5 For once, I have everything at my fingertips

With or without a designated update, I'm not at a loss for something to play.

I know I said I wasn't going to be going through each of my colleague's complaints and offering counters to them, but I will be doing it for this point and one more down the line. On the one hand, yes, cross-generational releases only extended the previous-gen and made things confusing for players. I understand why so many would feel it unnecessary to buy a PS5 or Xbox Series console at launch.

But on the flip side of that, upgrading to the current console generation, for the first time in a long time, doesn't mean entirely losing the game library you previously had. Anything you might want to play on your brand-new console from the PS4 or Xbox One era is playable, right from the get-go. There are upgraded versions you have to buy in some cases, and while I don't love that they ask you to fork over more money in the first place, many of these upgrades are only $10. For the price of lunch, I have can stomach getting an upgraded version of a game I was already intending to replay on my new console.

And then having the new console means I can buy all the new, current-gen-only games. Everything is here for me, and I just don't see that as a big problem. It was a problem how it was marketed. Former president of Sony Interactive Entertainment Jim Ryan definitely put his foot in his mouth when he tried to tell us all that there would be some kind of generational divide, but I don't see it as a massive problem that I can play all the games I want from the previous generation, and the current generation, on one device.

4 The games from this generation have been all-timers

Games from the current-gen have come out swinging since 2020.

Each console generation has its fair share of excellent games, and this might be recency bias, but the games from the last five years have been nothing short of spectacular.

Elden Ring, Baldur's Gate III, Returnal, Metaphor: ReFantazio, 1000xResist, OlliOlli World, The Quarry, Alan Wake 2, Armored Core VI, Lies of P, Hi-Fi Rush, Helldivers 2, Animal Well, Black Myth: Wukong, Tekken 8, Astro Bot, Resident Evil Village - all of these are games that have come out within this current console generation. They are, of course, not the only games that you should have checked out within the last five years, but the reality is we've been eating well when it comes to games for this generation. If you've played these games on current-generation consoles, then that's a bonus for you as you've gotten an even better experience than you would have playing on a previous-generation console.

Some of the games I listed are brand-new IPs, others are new entries in established series. I don't feel like I'm at a loss for either, and I've always known that if you want something new, betting on the big, triple-A studios to give that to you is not the gamble you should make. Indies are where you'll find something new, exciting, and innovating, and that remains true this console generation. 1000xResist and Mouthwashing both pushed storytelling further in video games, while Animal Well and Balatro set new gameplay highs in their genres. There are things to complain about from this generation, and I'm not saying we haven't been getting a lot of remakes and remasters for PS5 and Xbox Series devices. But the brand-new games far outnumber the remakes, and the new games we're getting, are absolutely spectacular.

3 The graphical standard on PS5 and Xbox Series X is pretty great, actually

Console hardware will technically always be behind PCs, but I don't think I care as much this time around.

I know that consoles will always fall behind a PC in terms of what you can get out of it performance-wise. The best PC will always beat the best console on the market, because the best console usually doesn't even come close to the best mid-range PC. I'm reminded of that every time I watch a Digital Foundry video. But it doesn't make me want to throw my consoles out the window in exchange for a top-of-the-line PC.

I grew up playing games on consoles, and came to PC gaming later in life. I love the options my PC affords me, but I'm a console player at heart, which means that I've grown used to just dealing with graphical and performance issues a game could have, or just a lower-quality resolution and framerate experience because I have no other option. Maybe that's why I don't exactly see an issue with what's possible on PC versus what's possible on console, or maybe it's just that, when I got into PC gaming, the first thing I understood was that PCs could go further than any PlayStation or Xbox I'd ever buy can. By design, consoles are outdated almost immediately, in terms of hardware advancements. And yet, I can turn on my Xbox Series X or PS5 and play practically every modern game available on those devices, at a solid framerate, often 60fps, often at a 4K resolution. Even if I should, I don't want for anything more than that.

And sure, I admit that if I was given the chance to try out a suped-up PC for a week, with an all-access pass to try any game and see how it compares to playing on my console, I don't doubt that I would be blown away by how amazing it would look. But the fact of the matter is that the consoles this generation have reached a new threshold that satisfies the basic graphical and performance bars I would have them hit. And I know I'm not alone in that feeling.

2 Console exclusivity is dying, and players are enjoying the benefits

There's nothing good about a game arbitrarily being unavailable for some players.

Since it was Nintendo versus SEGA, every console maker has used exclusive titles to pull players over to their platform. It's still the name of the game for Nintendo, who will probably never release a Mario game on any console that isn't called 'Nintendo,' but for PlayStation, and especially for Xbox, the game has changed.

We have classic Xbox series games coming to PlayStation, and while we're probably a while off from getting PlayStation games on Xbox, we do have nearly every first-party PlayStation game making its way to PCs. It's better that we have more options about where we can play games. If you don't want to spend hundreds of dollars to buy a whole new console just to play one game, for the majority of games, you don't have to. Buy a console if you want, or build a PC, and with choice, you'll be able to play all the biggest games in the industry. It's a significant change to the industry that many players, myself included, grew up with. But it's not one I'm complaining about.

1 Load times are gone, and I couldn't be happier about it

Getting into a game takes no time at all.

The removal of load times was a major talking point back in 2020 when these consoles were being showcased and before we all got our hands on them. I believed these consoles would be faster, but I wasn't really prepared for just how fast they would be, and how quickly I would immediately be spoiled by the fact that getting into any game, on either my PS5 or Xbox Series X, takes no time at all.

Sure, when talking about the entire console generation, this feels like a small aspect to shout out. But I think it only feels small if you don't have years of memories of all the times you sat in front of your TV for what felt like forever, just waiting for a game to start up. If you don't have memories of not being able to jump into a game for a quick session before you had to run out of the house, because too much of the time you thought you had was taken by your console starting up and the game taking way too long to load.

Again, maybe I'm settling when I should be asking for more, but these consoles are as fast as I could ever want them to be, and I think it cannot be overstated just how much getting rid of load times has changed my experience as a console player.

All the bad about this generation doesn't devalue the good

There is a lot to complain about this generation. The fact that the price of hardware, games, and services has all gone up astronomically, instead of going down. The onslaught of live service games that are seven years late to the party, followed up by the same short-sighted executives who greenlit those projects making more short-sighted decisions by laying off talented developers by the thousands for the last few years.

So much about this console generation and this period we're in with the video game industry makes me worry for its future. But that doesn't devalue the good things about it, and the elements of it that are keeping me going.