Now that we’re squarely in the midst of 2025, it’s really been hitting how many of my favorite games from my student days now fall in the “retro” category of games. Where the likes of the GameCube and PS2 were once the new hotness, they’re now practically fossils. Heck, the younger member of the gaming audience even think of the same way we once thought of the Atari age! Heck even the PS4 and Xbox One are well on their way to becoming retro systems; it’s already been over ten years since they debuted! Isn’t that crazy?

It’s not that I’m suddenly discovering that games that are 15 to 20 years old are, well, old now. Rather, it’s that they’re now as old to me now as the SNES/ Sega Genesis were to me back in 2005! Back then, it was SNES, Genesis, N64 and PSOne that were “retro,” and stuff like Atari and NES were “classic.” Now though? Now GameCube and PS2 are on their way out of the retro category and joining their predecessors in the classics. It’s Xbox and PS3 that are “retro”‘ now. The systems that were with me all the way through college are now “retro”! It’s just, wow! You know?

It’s just kind of amazing sometimes, isn’t it? Games that were once new and exciting are now practically ancient and well-trodden. Systems that once enabled then incredible feats of game design now might as well be as powerful as a calculator. Series and franchises that once captured our collective imaginations are now either just limping along as they try to keep up with the times or exist only in the form of old DVDs and memories. It all happens so gradually too that, by the time you really notice, the change has already long-since been completed.

We’re already going on 9 years since Persona 5 took the gaming world by storm. Seriously, nine years! We’re almost a deade into Persona being a household name, where before it was nothing more than a niche JRPG series. All those PS4 classics that dominated the latter half of the 2010s are, well, old now. They’re not “retro” yet, but that time isn’t far off. Heck, it’ll probably only take another year or two.

We’re now just a few months away from being 5 years into the current generation. Seriously! Remember all the drama about scalpers, bots and how difficult it was to buy a PS5? That’s several years past at this point! Demon’s Souls Remake is just another game, and people have practically forgotten the likes of Far Cry 6 and The Medium. Funny isn’t it?The PS5 and Xbox Series consoles are already well on their way to becoming “old”. Heck, the Switch is already there!

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I suppose I don’t really have a “point” to make with this one. It’s just a thought that I’ve been mulling over lately and I wanted to get it out there and get all your takes on it. So, what do you think? Are you ready for the games you love now to join their ancestors in the past?

Screenshot by Flickr User: PlayStation.Blog