Surprisingly, you are not the only one looking to purchase a PS4 or Xbox One. Despite the release of the PS5 and Xbox Series X a few months ago, Sony and Microsoft's previous generation consoles remain as popular as ever, not to mention increasingly hard to find.

It's not hard to understand why people are rushing out to buy a PS4 or an Xbox One; since they can't find a PS5 or an Xbox Series X, having an outdated console is better than having no console.

Also, the PS5 has few true exclusives and the Xbox Series X has none; the PS4 and Xbox One at least have some life left in them. But is it worth getting these aging consoles instead of their hard-to-find successors?

The short answer is no. While current game consoles have their charms, they are no longer a good investment, especially for new gamers.

During major sales events like Black Friday and Cyber Monday, Tom's Guide staff use search trends to find the best deals. "PS4" and "Xbox One" were by far the two most popular search terms! Imagine my surprise when I discovered that "PS4" and "Xbox One" were by far the two most popular search terms.

Customers were desperate to find PS4 and Xbox One (especially PS4), and if they were lucky enough to find them in stock, they sold out as quickly as the new consoles. (The Switch also sold ridiculously well this past holiday season and is now available everywhere; the PS4 and Xbox One are still pretty hard to find.)

Like I said, unless you can find a brand new boxed model at a staggeringly low price, I think the time to buy these consoles is past. (But obviously there must be a reason why people are still buying these systems in bulk.

The simple answer is that the PS4 and Xbox One are relatively plentiful, while no one can find a PS5 or Xbox Series X. The life cycle of the next generation consoles has only just begun, so 99% of the same games can be played on the current consoles. Add to this the gift obsession of the holiday season, and it is not hard to understand why the PS4 and Xbox One are the last bastions of the holiday season.

Seriously, there are several reasons why the PS4 and Xbox One are still viable. As mentioned above, they have game libraries and should be relatively stable for at least the next year, possibly longer. Also, most consumers don't own 4K TVs, so a 1080p-optimized console isn't as much of a deal-breaker as you might think.

Even if you haven't owned a console for a while (or ever), the PS4 and Xbox One libraries will theoretically keep you occupied for years; if you upgrade to a PS5 or Xbox Series X, thanks to cross-gen compatibility, your games and save files with you. If not, you can always use your current console as a super-sized streaming box.

Still, I can't think of any major reason to buy a PS4 or Xbox One at this stage. That and the fact that the PS4 is in the process of being discontinued as I write this article.

This is common knowledge at the moment for avid gamers, but may not be immediately obvious to more casual consumers: the PS5 is fully backward compatible with the PS4; the Xbox Series X is fully backward compatible with the Xbox One; the Xbox 360 and the original Xbox are partially backward compatible.

Thus, one could pay $300 for a PS4 or Xbox One and $500 for a PS5 or Xbox Series X. Given that you will need to upgrade within a year or two anyway, it makes a lot of sense to put that $300 toward a new console rather than an old one.

The math is even more obvious when you remember that the 4K-capable PS4 Pro and Xbox One X still sell for around $400, and the PS5 and Xbox Series X have cheaper versions available. The $300 Xbox Series X is not 4K capable but is otherwise a very powerful little machine, and the $400 PS5 Digital Edition has no disc drive but is otherwise identical to the standard PS5.

The PS5 can play all PS4 games (with a few niche exceptions). The Xbox Series X can play all Xbox One games and, with Xbox Game Pass, can also enjoy Microsoft's first-party titles for a flat monthly fee. (The Series X can also play 4K Blu-ray, but to be fair, so can most Xbox One models.)

Essentially, purchasing the previous generation console only delays the purchase of the next generation console and adds $300 to the price. There are many drawbacks if one has to figure out what to do with a bulky, outdated, and unsellable console in a few years.

As for when we will get a shiny new PS5 or Xbox Series X, it is difficult to answer.