PixlBit

If you didn’t know, I have an awesome wife. This is a generally true statement, except this past Thanksgiving she did something for me that was super awesome – something that genuinely expressed how she just wants me to be happy.

She pushed me to get a PlayStation 4.

Now, that may seem silly, but it isn’t really, especially if you understand the context a bit better. Like many gamers, I was very excited about the impending releases of the Xbox One and the PlayStation 4 – specifically the latter of the two. I had been putting money away regularly so that when launch day came, I would be able to scoop one up and join the next generation immediately. However, this was not to be.

My soon to be wife was pregnant with our daughter, Lila, at this time, and launch day was only a few months after she was due. With a child on the way, spending hundreds of dollars on myself instead of spending that money on things my family would require seemed downright silly. I decided (with no pressure from my wife) to cancel my PS4 pre-order and spend the money instead on baby necessities.

I did this gladly and never regretted this decision or harbored any ill will because of it. My family is the absolute most important thing to me. I also figured I could always get the system the following year, after all, none of the launch titles seemed that impressive.

The next year came and went and found better things to spend our money on than a game system. We already had a Wii U, and my little bundle of awesome had proven to be quite the handful. I didn’t have the time to play much, and I still couldn’t rationalize spending that much on myself, especially since we had just bought our first house. Gaming could wait.

So this holiday comes about, and to be honest I had already written off the possibility of picking up my PS4. At this point there were more than enough games out to make the purchase worth the cost, but buying the system still seemed rather selfish.

Apparently my wife didn’t think so.

She started sending me links to sales and deals for consoles and games. At first I thought she was simply torturing me, or perhaps gaging my interest in the event that perhaps family and friends were pooling resources to get me one for my birthday or Christmas (which means, as all December kids know, that you tend to get birthday/Christmas combo gifts). She told me this wasn’t the case, and just wanted me to know that there were some good deals out there.

We decided this year that we would get ourselves one big thing as a Christmas gift to each other. Perhaps a new television, or something for the house. My wife threw in the PS4 as a possibility. Initially I balked at the idea, after all, that’s more of a gift for me than for us. She looked at me seriously and said, “I want you to get something that will make you happy. You were supposed to get one years ago and have sacrificed a lot for us.”

There was one condition, though. She wanted Just Dance and the Camera so she didn’t have to hold the controller.

I gladly complied.

Game on.