Modern consoles are locked pre-built PCs. You have to pay for online. Why get a console at this point in time?
this post was submitted on 19 Jan 2025
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Because you can buy a consol3, plig it into the back of your TV, and be confident that it will work. You don't have to worry about system requirements, storefronts, launchers, driver updates fucking you up, etc.
Power Cable, HDMI cable, and connect to wifi - that's it.
I've been PC gaming since the mid-80s, and even I sometimes just want to sit on the couch, push the Xbox button on my controller, and get going. Is it lazy? Yes. But I work 2 jobs and get to be lazy when I get home.
I haven't worried about a driver update fucking something up since before win XP.
I have however repeatedly encountered crashes of games on my ps5 in the last year, which kind of defeats your point. Consoles had that worry free stability factor to them in the 90s or early 2000s, but that's long gone.
I've been PC gaming since 8-bit computers. I eventually bought an Xbox One as my first console and a Switch some years ago. I just couldn't get into either of them after the initial novelty wore off. PC gaming is so much more convenient for me. I'm already at my PC, I just need to start a game. And I can multi-task with other apps in the background or on my second monitor. Going to the living room to play on a console on the TV, or switching inputs if I keep it attached to my PC monitor, both are too much hassle. I only ever use the XBox for Just Dance (nothing beats Kinect for it) and I've played many more hours of Switch games on an emulator on my PC than on the actual Switch.
You can get a steam deck then if you are worried about all of this and it would still be cheaper than console as well as portable.
The console argument just doesnt make any kind of logical sense.
A steam deck is a custom gaming device with a custom gaming OS, custom, pre-defined hardware, limited upgradability, and launches into a gaming interface for a specific company's game store and launcher.
How is it not a console?
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PCs can do all of this and much more.
It's the "and much more" that's the problem. A console is a deli slicer where a PC is a chef's knife.
The knife can do so much more than the deli slicer, but if you just want to slice some meat and don't care about the rest, then the deli slicer is perfect.
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Lol... You can do same with pc. Just needs configured 1 time.. Using a linux distribution you could boot into same interface like steam deck. You can emulate the consoles too well not newest gen but who cares. You can configure the whole PC for lazy using too...
Just install one of 300 distributions of an unfamiliar operating system not designed specificallyfor you use case along with drivers for all the hardware (that you also have to learn about), learn to use the OS to the point you can actually use it, install custom software so you can install games, then hope the games work or don't get updated with anti-cheat software that keeps you from playing.
Or just buy the "plays games" machine and play the games.
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Because you can just plug it in to your TV and play. That's the target demographic.
I do that with my steam deck
Edit: I actually never bought a steam deck have a PC set up to be like one but you can just dock the steam deck and use it that way
I've thought about getting a dock for my Steam Deck, but honestly, I just either play on my desktop or Steam Deck, almost never on my TV. I also have a Switch for the TV, and I only really use it for party games.
Man i was just told pc gaming would be dead in 5 years
It's not like there needs to be a winner here. Console or PC gaming is just a personal preference and will always coexist.
Personal preferences and experiences aside, consoles are a big source of e-waste - they come as an addition to your (presumably already existing) PC, can only be used to play certain games (you might need several different consoles to cover all of the exclusives), they can't be upgraded and lose their relevance over time as games stop being released for older models.
consoles are a big source of e-waste
Surely pc components are an equal source of e-waste? Personally I think PC gaming is in a weird place with all the unnecessary RGB obsession and endless consumerism of upgrades.
presumably already existing
I think you'd be surprised how uninterested the average person is in owning and using a pc nowadays so we can't easily assume that.
lose their relevance over time
Also applies to pc gaming... It's not like consoles stop working when a new one is released.
Anyway I'm not here to argue for one or the other as they can just happily coexist.
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Exactly. Consoles exist as a super low barrier to entry, value play for casual gaming. If you just want to have something on your living room tv, a console instantly achieves that, with no debugging or technical know-how required whatsoever.
I switched from a Series X to a living room gaming PC last year and absolutely adore it, but I'm also willing to spend hours tinkering with emulators, playnite, settings, etc. I actually enjoy messing with it, so this is way better for me, but I'm absolutely aware that it's been a massive amount of fiddling to get my experience this clean and integrated, and I'll never manage something like Quick Resume.
If you want it to "just work" absolutely go with a console. If you like to tinker, are bothered by nitpicky details, play a lot and need to cut costs, or just really care about features like higher refresh rates, and aren't put off by a lot of settings and performance testing, then 100% go for a PC.
I have a Series S and quick resume and backward compatibility are the best features. The current generation is generally underwhelming though so I'm not surprised if pc gaming is on the rise.
There doesn't need to be a winner, but this was a very, very slow trend over the past 20 years for one line to cross the other line, and it didn't used to be close.
Huh, I'm kind of surprised that's a new thing. I would assume way more people own computers than consoles in modern times so you would think that would always mean more sales
Thoughout history a typical gaming machine could run you over $1000, game consoles often cost under $400. Consoles are very often sold as loss leaders to promote software sales, PCs are not. Oh and that's just the cost of the box itself; a console is usually designed to attach to a television which has built-in speakers and consoles usually have at least one controller packed in. Computer monitors are sold separately as are any sound equipment. Normie PCs like Dell ~~Inspiron~~ Basic Plus machines might come with a keyboard and mouse but gaming PCs sometimes don't because they expect you're going to buy premium peripherals. You've got a desk to put this on, right?
Oh also there just isn't much of a PC gaming culture in Japan. It may be increasing now but in the land of Nintendo, Sega and Sony they play console games.
On the other hand, a PC is good for things that aren't gaming, like work or something.
TVs are also sold separately though if you are gonna count monitors as extra for PC, wtf. Also you literally have to pay to play online for consoles, thats a joke. Ive saved an insane amount of money by gaming on PC for decades and forgoing consoles overall and its not even close.
For most of the history of home video gaming, a television was primarily purchased for viewing broadcast, cable or satellite TV programming and/or watching movies on tape or DVD. A household that was going to buy a video game machine almost certainly already had at least one television and a game console would be one of the things attached to it. The investment would be considered already made.
That has been true of PC gaming for very small stretches of its existence; PCs have rarely worked on the living room couch so you usually set up a desk scenario with a dedicated monitor. The average PC buyer of the last 30 years would buy a monitor along with the computer.
Yes, if you have no AV equipment at all and want to get into video games you will have to buy some kind of monitor. The typical unwashed mass who has absolutely no AV equipment and wants to play video games will likely buy a Nintendo Switch because he hasn't heard of a Steam Deck.
People are less likely to own a TV already these days though than they used to be so the price calculation for consoles favors them a lot less if you take that into account. Not to mention that console games tend to be more expensive than PC games, especially indie PC games now that triple A is more of a warning label than an indicator of quality.
People have been buying Madden and Call Of Duty reliably for decades now. Doesn't matter if they're good or cheap, there are people who identify as "a person who buys Madden and Call Of Duty."
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I mean yeah but you don't need an expensive computer to play games. In the mid 2010s I spent loads of time playing games on my ~$200 something Asus netbook, and more recently I was using an old Dell Precision from 2011 I got for $25 and put a $75 GPU into from like 2018 until 2023.
I guess maybe the difference is that people who don't buy expensive consoles or computers also don't buy expensive games. For the most part I don't buy things unless they have a sale for like under $30, so even though I've bought a lot of games I've probably paid less total money for games than the average console player.
Piracy is a lot more accessible on PCs than consoles
Piracy doesn't really decrease sales though, in fact it might increase them since it generates word of mouth from people who wouldn't have bought it.
How about we equate the nebulous uncertainty of those claims, since piracy arguments never have reliable motivator data.
“Piracy might not decrease sales. In fact it might increase them.”
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If i count all the media I've consumed in the last 8-9 years as savings, piracy has paid the price of my 1000$ ~~entertainment console~~ PC so, so many times over.
Ya consoles suck. Not a surprise. It’s always been this way.