Shocking GameStop Retro Console Label Hits Millennial Gamers

To get ahead of that debate, GameStop has created its own criteria for designating these three home consoles.

“The ruling was reached following careful analysis of multiple indicators, including,” and I can’t believe I’m saying this, “the lack of Fortnite and the realization that these consoles launched when George W. Bush was still president.”

Why The Argument Works

Now, while GameStop is well within its rights to have a classification system on its own for these consoles, let’s be reminded that the Wii U wasn’t released during the Bush administration. Though many would like to point out that George W. Bush’s presidency was between 2001 and 2009, but let’s not pluck at straws.

One reason is the lack of cables in newer consoles, which shows that hardware has evolved since the release of the PS3, the Xbox 360, and, of course, the Nintendo Wii U, making it very difficult for them to run more modern games, even something as simple as Fortnite, even though many would not classify Fortnite as simple.

Basically, it boils down to this: you can no longer find components that could fix or repair consoles that are 20 years old, or maybe even older, and it’s even harder to find the connectors that allow you to play them on your TV, especially the more modern ones, which mostly use HDMI cables.

And even if you had a setup that allowed you to switch between cables, like an adapter, the cables you need are increasingly hard to find because they are no longer being made.

Old Hardware Feels Retro

If we all remember the RCA cables that TVs were known for — the white, red, and yellow ones, or the extra white cables that we would stick into the TV and unplug if the TV decided it wanted to act funny that day — yeah, it’s very rare that we see those now. That kind of wiring is considered retro technology today.

So logically, it makes sense that these consoles would be considered retro. But to put it in numbers, the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3 are 20 years old, so it’s been roughly two decades since their launch, and in terms of what is considered vintage and retro, that’s as retro as retro gets.