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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