How many games do you need to justify buying a new console?

[ola_norsk]

Shouldn't the question rather be

"How many games, that you are today unable to play because of server shutdowns, will it take; For you to not shell out a shirt and kidney for yet another console?"

Gaming console fans appear to give a whole new meaning to "Consumer Affairs"...

[Björn Ironside]

Not a question of how many for me, but if the quality of the game is good enough to warrant getting a new system.

[Aidy]

One. I bought the XBOX 360 when Stranglehold came out, and the XBOX ONE when Witcher 3 came out.

I regret nothing.

[Arrowny]

I made a mistake of buying a PS4 right at launch. It took about a year for there to be enough games to make it worth it. I'd recommend at least 5 games you really want.

[Valkenr]

One.

Console Sellers (IMO):
PS4 - God of War
Switch - Elder Scrolls: Zelda

Xbox has been disappointing... all their exclusives are meh these days.

[Baal]

It only took Shenmue to make me buy my Dreamcast, the last console I've bought.

[Nintendo Xbot]

For me, there has to be at least ten games that I want. I don't have to get them all right away, but there do have to be at least ten games on my wishlist for that console for me to consider the console worth buying.

[Astraea]

I justified buying a PS4 just for high def Final Fantasy XIV, expecting more great games would follow pretty soon. Boy was I wrong, it took like a year before I had a decent amount of games to play.
So for PS5 i'm waiting a bit longer and not buy right after launch again.

[Darth Garak]

I'm finding it hard to justify the next Microsoft or Sony console. I hardly play them, and most of the games I would like to play will most likely come out on Steam or some other PC service like.... epic probably.

[Tons_0_phun]

Personally it depends on the system. I doubt i will buy another xbox again unless there are some worth while exclusives. The playstation needs not only worth while games and exclusives, but my friends need to be as in to the next generation as I am since it's my main way of spending time with them seeing as how our schedules differ so much and we only get a few hours usually around 11 pm and later. As for Nintendo, I need an interesting new Mario I.P. a new, refreshing Zelda I.P. SMASH in any capacity, and a new Metroid I.P.

[Chompy Said]

6. I do not jump from game to game much. I stick with a few, mostly rpgs and strategy.

[Yoshi]

I can't answer the original question simply, because it depends on too many factors. I "bought" (read: used credit card points) both a PS4 and a PS4 Pro. The only games I've finished on them are The Order, Uncharted 4, and Bloodborne. I could make a compelling argument that Bloodborne was worth at least one of the consoles by itself, because it featured great gameplay and one of my favorite themes, gothic horror. Since I own hardware, I need to circle back for stuff like God of War and Horizon, though neither would have made a blip in selling me the system.

I bought the Switch at launch, despite not being a Zelda fan. Breath of the Wild turned out to be fantastic, but what really hooked me was the hybrid console/portable feature of the hardware and the promise of a significant stable of exclusives. As it's turned out, the games that get the most play are the oldies but goodies like Night Slashers, which I can't believe got ported, let alone somewhere I could take it with me.

I will buy the upgraded Switch next year, but I am having trouble seeing myself buy a PS5. Uncharted is over, and there hasn't even been a hint of a Bloodborne sequel, similar to Demon's Souls before it. The Last of Us 2 is a game I would play on PS4 but not one I would buy a PS5 to play. Its delay makes me think it's making the generational move.

Microsoft, to their credit, has made the Xbox line nearly obsolete to me by releasing everything on PC, and they get more revenue from me because of it. I am mildly interested in the disc-less Xbox One reportedly coming next year, as I really would only use it for backward compatibility and as a Movies Anywhere streaming box with my Apple TV aging. If it's small enough and cheap enough, I'd buy it just to play old Panzer Dragoon Orta, Hard Corps: Uprising, etc.

Dorksword's post up above made me think about one more dynamic that you could infer from what I've written but that I wanted to make more explicit. Third party games won't sell me hardware anymore. They won't even sell me the games, if they're not on the platform I ideally want them on. I'll buy Read Dead 2 day one when/if it's released on PC. If it never is, Rockstar didn't want my money. Gone are the days I'll wind up double-dipping or settle.

[oopsies]

This author chooses consoles to buy based off which friends own or will own any given console.

[Garrett]

The only way I could justify buying a console is couch-coop, and those games are not made anymore because the performance of consoles will never catch up to the unreasonable expectation of graphics quality, and so the increased performance drain of split-screen rendering prevents single-screen multiplayer from existing. Otherwise, no amount of games will get me to buy a console. If the greatest game ever gets a console exclusive release, that will be so far into the future that pirating the physical consoles will already be possible. Maybe then the industry will finally learn that exclusives don't sell hardware.

[Onideus]

Kingdom Hearts 3... that's... that's it. I'm getting a Playstation 4 just for that.