I think it's time for better hardware, and I find it astounding that one of the biggest proponents of great technology is suddnely doing an about-face.

Just to take a quick comparison of Skyrim on PC and Xbox (I played both versions extensively) one of the biggest differences was load times, especially when loading large areas...around 1-5 seconds on PC, and a whopping 30+ seconds on Xbox. That's a huge difference.

Also, the xbox version would lag to load scenery sometimes, whereas the PC never did...it was a smooth, beautiful experience even with the HD textures.

I still enjoyed the xbox version, don't get me wrong, but once I played the PC version, I could not help but notice the massive differences between the two versions.

So yeah, it's not only about the visuals, but load times and frame rates too. Just having those improvements alone would make games more enjoyable.

If the next generation of hardware is to last anything from 6-8 years (As one would expect) but the power levels of the new consoles aren't significantly better, that means in 2020 we'll be playing games that look and perform pretty much like today's games. Personally, I find that totally unacceptable.

Gameplay is king yes, but newer and better tech does also drive the industry.