As we enter the latter half of the 9th generation of consoles, a lot of talk recently has been about the usual mid-gen refresh that both PlayStation and Xbox put out around this time. But the question is, are they worth it?

While the rumors have been rampant for awhile now, Xbox head Phil Spencer has publicly stated they aren't doing one. Court documents from the Activision-Blizzard-King purchase might suggest otherwise, but for now the official line from Xbox is "not happening".

PlayStation on the other hand has been quiet on the status of any mid-gen refresh but it's had its fair share of speculation and rumors. While we choose to wait for any official word from PlayStation before commenting we understand peoples excitement and skepticism.

But the question I want to ask is, are these mid-gen refreshes worth it? The answer for me tends to be, it depends. I've been an Xbox gamer for 3 generations now and I skipped the 360 elite upgrade but I bought the Xbox One X on day one. I didn't see much reason to upgrade my 360 at the time but the leap of the One to One X (and the PS4 to PS4 Pro) in my opinion was a big enough leap. Jumping up to 4k Resolution at a time when 4k TVs were becoming the norm was worth it to me.

With the Series/PS5 gen I'm not yet sure what upgrade they can make that would make it worth the likely big price tag. I can't see them jumping up to 8k resolution as 8k TVs are not yet near the buy rate of 4k TVs were at the time of last gen; the current machines are supposed to be able to do 4k60 and Ray tracing already, so have we even seen them fully utilized yet? Sure they could improve on the 4k60 experience and current raytracing but I'm not sure that is worth buying if you already own one of the current consoles.

And then there is in my opinion the big problem going forward with a refresh, the game development. As games get more expensive and take longer to make than ever before are devs going to be happy about adding yet another build to their current plans. We've already heard many developers lament over the need to develop on Xbox for both the Series S and X, would that become the same problem for PlayStation, let alone Xbox if they added a third?

So while we wait for any official word from PlayStation and to see if Xbox will change their official position, it's fair to begin asking yourself if it's something you want and at what cost, and hopefully we find out sooner rather than later.