It's been a few years, but this holiday shopping season again features a pair of brand-new video game consoles for consumers to quibble over in the form of Sony's PlayStation 4 and Microsoft's Xbox One.

These are the first new consoles from either company since 2005, when the Xbox 360 came out a full year before the PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii. That time window broke the traditional five-year development cycle, thanks in part to the Great Recession and life-extending geegaws like Microsoft's Kinect and Sony's Move.

The true defining characteristic of this eighth generation of home consoles, however, is that it may be the last time we ever see the launch of a round of boxes devoted solely to playing video games.

It's not that people aren't interested in gaming anymore — far from it. A study from market research company Parks Associates last year claimed the gaming populace has increased 241 percent since 2008, to 135 million people who had played at least one hour a month. The age of the average gamer dropped considerably in 2012, as well, going from 37 to 30 in just one year, according the Entertainment Software Association.

From the article, "Which console to buy, PlayStation 4 or Xbox One? Moreover, why buy one at all?" by Joshua Gillin.

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