Today, Polygon announced:

Hotline Miami on PS4 is cross-buy compatible with is PS3 and PS Vita versions — if you own one of these versions already, then you can download Hotline Miami on PS4 at no extra charge.

This relatively small bit of news today served to highlight something that I think has become more and more obvious in the past few months:

Next gen gaming isn’t about hardware, it’s about software services.

“Software services” don’t sound terribly sexy on the surface, but let me explain.  A couple weeks ago, I went out of town, and that trip happened to line up perfectly with the release of Rogue Legacy on the Vita. Rogue Legacy (a fantastic game, by the way) supports both cross-buy and cross-save, meaning that when I bought the Vita version, I also got a copy for my PS4.  Not “for an additional fee” – the same game, available on all my Sony platforms, at one price.  While I’ve known of this feature for awhile, I’ve rarely had a chance to leverage it.

Gaming, at its core, is about delighting the user, and let me say – being able to seamlessly resume my game of Rogue Legacy on my PS4 when I got back from the trip was delightful. I’ve used the Kinect, I’ve used the Wii U gamepad, and I’ve used a 3DS, but none of those hardware gimmicks impressed me as much as that.  It feels “next-gen” in a way that those haven’t.

The beautiful thing is, games like Rogue Legacy are becoming more of the rule than the exception.  I purchased Hotline Miami on the Vita a couple years ago, and now I get it on PS4 for free.  Just like that.  When I bought my PS4, there was a copy of Flower waiting for me, because I’d bought it on PS3 five years ago.  Just.  Like.  That.  Every time I see another game announced as cross-buy, it makes me feel, every so briefly, like a company is treating me like a human being, and not just a potential dollar sign.  It’s a fleeting feeling, to be sure, and I know it’s just fiction – but it’s a nice one.

It stands out in stark contrast to Nintendo’s strategy; Shovel Knight, another great game, was released for both the 3DS and the Wii U…but you’ll pay full price if you want to play on both platforms, and there’s no benefit to owning both.  Currently, owning a 3DS gives me no real reason to own a Wii U – and that’s a damn shame, because a few tweaks behind the scenes and Nintendo could easily change that.

Also in stark contrast, unfortunately, are the way AAA games are handling cross-generation titles.  The Last of Us, Grand Theft Auto 5, and Sleeping Dogs are all expecting you to double-dip for the privilege of playing them on a new system, leaving it up to retailers themselves to offer you some sort of “upgrade deal”.  Unfortunately, it’s hard to see this changing in the immediate future – but one can hope.

I think the industry has hardware figured out; we know the equation to make a great console, and the PS4, Xbox One, and Wii U are all the result of that equation – now it’s time for the battlefield to move to software and services.  Already we’re seeing that, with PlayStation Plus and Games with Gold both offering great games for free every month, and now EA Access joining the fray.  If Nintendo can work out a similar deal with their own back catalogue, well, then we’d have a real interesting fight on our hands, as I think it’s a largely untapped resource that no other gaming company can truly match.

While I am certainly excited for the potential hardware advances, especially in the world of VR, I am undoubtedly more excited by the potential of software services, at least with regard to its broad impact on the industry.  This generation has the potential to be the most interesting – and, perhaps most important, the most gamer-centric – one yet.