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Next-Gen Console Watch
Next-Gen Console Watch
Author: IGN & Geek Media
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Since the early days of gaming, players have debated which console reigns supreme and how to build the ultimate high-performance gaming PC. Each week, Next Gen Console Watch breaks down the biggest advancements in video game hardware—covering PlayStation, Xbox, and PC upgrades—all in under 20 minutes. From console power comparisons to must-have gaming PC upgrades, we help you decide where to invest your time and money. If you're wondering which platform delivers the best experience for the next big game, Next Gen Console Watch is the podcast for you.
Next Gen Console Watch is a part of the Geek Media Podcast Network, an IGN Entertainment Brand.
Visit Geek.com for more information.
64 Episodes
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Welcome back to Next-Gen Console Watch! Microsoft is getting a head start on next-gen by officialling announcing the next Xbox, codenamed Project Helix. Of course, we have a ton of questions, but we've pared it down to six burning questions ranging from price of games to whether or not it will ship with a disc drive. Plus, we have last week's poll results, and a new poll for you to vote on at IGN.com and Spotify.
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Welcome back to Next-Gen Console Watch! On this week's episode, the crew discusses a recent report that Sony might be rethinking PC ports in the future. Specifically, first-party single-player games like Ghost of Yōtei, Marvel's Wolverine, and others might not see PC versions. Multiplayer titles like Bungie's Marathon—published by Sony—will still see multiplatform releases. The report cites low sales for Sony's PC titles, and a possible risk to PS5 and eventually PS6 hardware. But we have another theory: with the eventual release of the Steam Machine and the possible next Xbox merging PC and console gaming, maybe Sony doesn't want their titles appearing on a rival's console platform?
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Welcome back to Next-Gen Console Watch! After last week's bombshell news story about Xbox's leadership shaek-up—an exclusive from our very own Ryan McCaffrey—we take this opportunity to put together five tips that might be able to win back wayward Xbox fans. The Xbox brand isn't what it used to be, but all hope is not lost, and hopefully incoming CEO Asha Sharma can right the ship.
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Welcome back to Next-Gen Console Watch! This week we take a look at a few games that might have a chance of coming to the Nintendo Switch 2. It's the fastest-selling console of all time with almost 20 million units sold globally in less than a year, and other triple-A titles are already coming to the platform such as Resident Evil: Requiem and 007 First Light. Upcoming games like Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls, Forza Horizon 5 (and maybe 6), Beast of Reincarnation, Silent Hill: Townfall, and others have already been announced for the PS5 and Xbox Series consoles, but publishing issues aside, what's keeping them from the Switch 2? Plus we have a new poll for you to vote on at IGN.com.
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Welcome back to Next-Gen Console Watch! This week we take a look at 13 supposed PS5 and Xbox Series games that we should have already been playing. Games like Judas, Knights of the Old Republic remake, Little Devil Inside, and Beyond Good & Evil 2 have had rocky development paths, but at this point, we're wondering if we'll even get these games at all, despite developers and publishers assuring us they're still being worked on. Plus we go over AMD's latest comments about the next-generation Xbox, and we have last week's poll results and a new poll for you to vote on at IGN.com.
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Welcome back to Next-Gen Console Watch! This week Daemon, Max, and Ryan look at the possible ups and downs of a delay of the PlayStation 6. With PS5 software sales holding strong, and with prices for gaming components like RAM skyrocketing, there's a real possibility Sony will wait another few years before debuting the PS6. This could make the current generation the longest console cycle so far, with 8 or more years from the launch of the PS5 and the possibile drop of the PS6. Plus we have last week's poll results, and a new poll for you to vote on at IGN.com.
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Welcome back to Next-Gen Console Watch. This week Daemon, Max, and Ryan take a look at the latest Xbox Developer_Direct. Microsoft Game Studios showcased Playground Games' Forza Horizon 6 and the Fable reboot, plus Kiln from Double Fine, and Beast of Reincarnation of Game Freak. While it's shaping up to be a good year for Xbox (in terms of games), this showcase was also great news for PlayStation fans. And we have last week's poll results, plus a new poll for you to vote on at IGN.com.
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Welcome back to Next-Gen Console Watch. This week we take a look at how the recent RAM shortage will affect the next generation of console games. With AI data centers demanding more and more RAM, manufacturers have pivoted to providing this growing industry with pretty much whatever it needs, thus forcing the cost of consumer RAM through the roof. What does this mean for the PlayStation 6 and next Xbox? Or for Valve's Steam Machine? Plus we look at last week's poll results, and we have a new poll for you to vote on at IGN.com.
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Welcome back to Next-Gen Console Watch. This week we take a look at 12 games we think will push the current generation of consoles to their limits. Games like Marvel's Wolverine, Control: Resonant, Resident Evil: Requiem, Gears of War: E-Day, and more are going to be amazing showcases for what the PlayStation 5 (and PS5 Pro) and the Xbox Series X (and the underpowered but still capable Series S) can really do, considering we should be entering the back half of this generation's life cycle. Plus we have last week's poll results and a new poll for you to vote on at IGN.com.
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Welcome back to Next-Gen Console Watch. On the last NGCW of the year, we look back at 2025 and pick what we think were the "most next-gen games" of the year. We're probably past the 'halfway point' for this generation so we should be seeing some of the best-looking games the PS5 and Xbox Series X can run, and we weren't disappointed. Battlefield 6 and Death Stranding 2 showcased what photorealism can look like on current consoles, while games like Keeper and Ghost of Yōtei were highlights in creative art direction. What do you think were some of the best-looking games of the year? Let us know in the comments. And we also have last week's poll results and a new poll for you to vote on at IGN.com
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Welcome back to Next-Gen Console Watch! It's the day after The Game Awards and along with Sandfall's Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 winning big, we received a mountain of new announcements. We're at an interesting time in this generation where any newly-announced game might just end up on the PlayStation 6 or next Xbox, so we break down what titles we think will end up on gaming's next-gen consoles. Could we see Tomb Raider: Catalyst debut on the PS6? Or maybe Larian's Divinity? Plus we go over last week's poll results and we have a new poll for you to vote on at IGN.com.
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Welcome back to Next-Gen Console Watch! This week Daemon, Max, Ryan, and Logan grade the Nintendo Switch 2's launch window. The Switch 2 broke Nintendo—and industry—records by becoming the fastest-selling console of all time. But how did it fare against the Switch 1's first six months? Did the Switch 2's lineup of Mario Kart World, Donkey Kong Bananza, and Metroid Prime 4: Beyond hold up agains the Switch 1's legendary 1-2-3 punch of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Super Mario Odyssey, and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild? And what can we expect next year? Plus we have last episode's poll results and a new poll for you to vote on at IGN.com.
00:00:21 Grading the Switch 2's launch window
00:01:13 Logan's grade
00:03:44 Ryan's grade
00:07:57 Max's grade
00:10:44 Looking ahead to 2026
00:14:27 Poll results
00:15:02 Outro
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Welcome back to Next-Gen Console Watch! This week Max, Ryan, and Daemon dive into Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick's comments about PC gaming. Zelnick says that gaming as an industry is moving more towards PC, even with the ongoing popularity of the PS5 and Nintendo Switch 2. Valve's recent Steam, Machine announcement makes it very clear that the company is making a play for living rooms—traditionally the domain of gaming consoles—as the next frontier for PC games. What does that mean for Sony and Microsoft? And is it too late for the next Xbox, which promises to be a hybrid console/PC like the Steam Machine? Plus we have poll results from the past two weeks, and a new poll for you to vote on at IGN.com.
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Welcome back to Next-Gen Console Watch! It's a big week for hardware news, as Valve has announced their new hardware initiative, led by the revamped Steam Machine, a new Steam controller, and a new VR headset, the Steam Frame. IGN's hardware and tech editors Michael Higham and Jackie Thomas join us this week to talk about their hands-on time with the new hardware. What does this mean for PC gaming, now that Valve is making another push to get PC games in your living room? And what does this mean for console gaming, with both Xbox and PlayStation not even requiring a dedicated console to play games anymore? Plus we have a new poll for you to vote on at IGN.com.
00:00:11 Valve reveals new Steam Machine
00:08:06 What do we think it'll cost?
00:12:48 Valve's new VR headset
00:17:19 Who is this new hardware for?
00:22:16 This week's poll and outro
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Grand Theft Auto 6 has been delayed again, this time to November 2026. That will cause problems for all sorts of fall 2026 games, such as Halo: Campaign Evolved, Gears of War: E-day, Fable, Wolverine, and more. Let's dig in on this week's Next-Gen Console Watch.
This weeks show is Daemon Hatfield, Max Scoville, Ryan McCaffrey and is produced by Nick Maillet
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Welcome back to Next-Gen Console Watch. This week Daemon, Max, Logan, and Ryan discuss Halo coming to PlayStation and what seems to be the end of Xbox having any notable exclusives going forward. When you combine this with Microsoft’s current messaging that everything is an Xbox, the fact they let someone else make the first Xbox handheld, and heavy hints from leadership that the next Xbox console will basically be a PC that can play a bunch of PlayStation games, it kind of looks like Xbox is just done competing with Sony on a hardware level. Is this the end of an era? Are the console wars actually over? Plus we have last week's poll results and a new poll for you to vote on at IGN.com.
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Welcome back to Next-Gen Console Watch. This week Daemon and Ryan are joined by producer Nick Maillet to talk about the ROG Xbox Ally X, which Nick had quite a bit of hands-on time with lately. The handheld PC has just launched, and though it's powerful, the $1000 price tag could be too high of a barrier to entry for most people. But is it worth the price? And who would really benefit from a handheld PC of this caliber? Plus we have last week's poll results and a new poll for you to vote on at IGN.com.
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Welcome back to Next-Gen Console Watch! This week Daemon, Max, and Ryan take a look at Microsoft's recent comments committing itself to another generation of gaming console hardware. The Xbox brand had a pretty rough week recently, when they announced a price hike on their Game Pass Ultimated service, on top of the already-announced hardware price hike. Fan response was, as expected, not great, with the Game Pass membership website reportedly crashing due to the number of people logging on to unsubscribe. Does another generation of Xbox hardware make sense for Microsoft? And how can they go about fixing the Game Pass service?
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Welcome back to Next-Gen Console Watch! The gaming world is reeling from yet another Microsoft price hike, this one hitting Game Pass and raising the price from $19.99 to $29.99 a month for the Ultimate plan. It's a signifiant jump of 50% — the largest single increase in the service's history. While the Ultimate plan still gives subscribers access to hundreds of games and some major first-party titles on Day 1, at what point is it not really worth it? Even if you love the service and all it provides, how many games a month are you actually playing? Plus we have last week's poll results and a new poll for you to vote on at IGN.com.
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Welcome back to Next-Gen Console Watch! This week Daemon, Max, and Ryan take a look at this week's big reveals, starting with the Sony State of Play that dropped on Wednesday. We have a first real look at the (very M-rated) Wolverine game, gameplay of Housemarque's Saros, and more. On the Xbox front, there's a brand new trailer for Hideo Kojima's OD starring a very scared Sophia Lillis, and a teaser for Forza Horizon 6. And speaking of Xbox, the crew give their thoughts on the second price increase for Xbox hardware this year. Plus we have last week's poll results, and a new poll for you to vote on at IGN.com.
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