Episode 33: Which 8th Generation game console should you buy in 2013?

     The video game industry, when it comes to hardware, has its own unique ecosystem. Unlike phones, tablets and computers, which typically have a new iteration in a hardware series annually, it takes an average of 6 years before new video game hardware is released. The 8th generation of game consoles began last year with the release of the Wii U, and will go into full swing this month as the other two major players release their consoles: The Playstation 4 (November 15th in the US and Canada, November 29th in the UK, and February 22nd 2014 in Japan) and the Xbox One (November 22nd everywhere). If you're thinking of buying a new console during the 2013 holiday period, here are the most important factors to take into consideration before picking which one to buy.

IGN.com's Mash Up of the controllers for all three 8th Gen Consoles

     First, to my Nigerian readers, the most important factor to consider is whether you'll be making your purchase in Nigeria, or whether you'll ship a console from overseas or buy one when you travel for the holidays. If you are making the purchase in Nigeria, unless you're filthy rich, don't buy any of the consoles this year. The prices are almost tripled in Nigerian stores amd non of the new consoles offers enough features or games to warrant such price tags. If you're buying them at their advertised prices and you don't have any bias towards a certain brand, then there's only one console that is a smart buy this year, again, unless you're filthy rich. Let's tackle this from three angles: price, exclusive games and non-gaming features.

PRICE

        To shorten the article and not bore those of you who don't care about the details, I've created a separate page for the detailed price comparisons. In summary, the Wii U is clearly the cheapest of the three and the only one with free online play.

EXCLUSIVE GAMES

       Here's my article on the games that will be available exclusively on each of the consoles. In summary, and excluding download only games (for details, read the full comparison), the Wii U will have 19 games, the PS4 will have 3 games and the Xbox One will have 3 that can not be gotten on any of the other two consoles.

NON GAMING FEATURES

      This one's a tough one because the offerings are so different and some people only want to play games and don't care what else the console can do, while I might think some feature is cool and another person mightthink it's unneccessary (like using the movement of one's eyes to scroll through an ebook on a Galaxy S3 or S4 is unneccesary to me). So you can read the details here, but I'll summarize by saying that the Xbox One has the coolest non-gaming features in my opinion.

THE VERDICT

        Game consoles usually have their price dropped by $50 after about a year on the market. The Wii U has already been out for a year so is not only by far the cheapest, but has much more exclusive games than the competition this year. I would advice anyone that doesn't have money spilling out of their ears to wait at least a year before buying an Xbox One or a PS4. You can either buy a Wii U now and buy one of the other consoles later, or if you don't like the kind of games that are typically exclusive to Nintendo consoles, you can skip the Wii U altogether and wait for the other consoles to have price drops and a good number of exclusive games before you buy them.