this post was submitted on 07 Jun 2024
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Hello, PC gaming here: Are the consoles OK? (www.pcgamer.com)
submitted 3 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

Some things to say back to this:

Most people now have the console they prefer, and it’s lasting them. They don’t necessarily need new consoles. This is true EVEN if that console is a PS4, Xbox One, or Switch. They don’t get everything, but a surprising number of major releases still come to all those destinations.

It’s still nicely convenient to have consoles for less setup and configuration. Some people manage really complex problems for their work and home projects already - a desktop computer may be beyond their tolerance.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Consoles are great if you want the same thing you can get on your computer but with worse graphics, shittier framerate, and a terrible device for input.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

true, but try making a half decent PC for the price of one console

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

I think consoles are sold at a loss, they make the money from game sales

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Consoles have just been proprietary PCs since the Xbox 360. It's a wonder they've lasted this long.

Still crossing my fingers and waiting for Steam Machines 😔

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

If you have Steam on your pc, you have a steam machine. Plug it into your tv if you want a bigger screen experience

[–] [email protected] -1 points 3 months ago

If you have Steam on your pc, you have a steam machine

You obviously don't understand what those words mean.

I have a Steam Machine. But many many more would have them if Valve sold them directly.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

The money is in the users not selling the hardware. As long as Playstation has hundreds of million daily users they will continue to make insane profit. The people will move up a generation eventually.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Apparently not enough, because Sony focuses on PC more than ever.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Focusing on PC more than ever isn't exactly a high bar. Consoles (maybe not xbox) are still doing extremely well and consoles are more popular than PC by quite a big margin. I expect Sony and Nintendo to continue to grow their userbase even if the sales on the latest platform drop a bit.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

consoles are more popular than PC by quite a big margin.

How do you measure this? Steam alone has 130 to 150 million active users, more than Switch customers at a whole. And that does not even include some of the most popular PC games at all. I also expect PC user base to grow, it has more potential than consoles.

So yes, its a big deal for companies like Sony to open up this big to PC and to be that successful. They don't even need to sell a console to sell games. Off course consoles will remain popular and for good reason. But most popular games are mulitsystem games and not specific to consoles anyway. In my opinion it is remarkable how much Sony focuses on PC now. I hope they keep doing it; its only beneficial for the players, the publishers and for Sony.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

The stats I could find compared pc and current and last gen consoles so ps4 and ps5 era and the split was basically 50/50. But if you think about it that's not a fair comparison because pc has people who running on hardware worse than a ps3.

I mostly take issue with the smug tone of the article acting like it's over for consoles just because they didn't meet expectations and decided to bring some games to pc. Consoles are still extremely popular and far more powerful than the average pc according to steam hardware survey. They will still be around and successful no doubt about it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

I mostly take issue with the smug tone of the article acting like it’s over for consoles just because they didn’t meet expectations and decided to bring some games to pc. Consoles are still extremely popular and far more powerful than the average pc according to steam hardware survey. They will still be around and successful no doubt about it.

I agree with you here. These articles are stupid telling people it would be over for consoles. It's just clickbait or they are uninformed. Maybe besides your point that the "average pc" is that weak as you say. Most are at a level of PS4 or stronger. But that is not all you need to compare if you want to an analysis. This topic is extremely complicated. You can't just take the average. There are far more PC users than console players. Its like taking the Game Boy into account and saying that the average game consoles is weak. That's not the full story.

In example most monthly active users on consoles play games that could be played on a potato PC or last gen consoles too and these people probably do not buy newest games. Similar to the situation on PC.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 3 months ago (4 children)

I still don't understand why would I want a PS5 when I have a PC

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

Couch gaming.

I'm a technical person and I've tried a lot of different methods to do couch gaming with a PC. From having some sort of lap tray to various wireless mice and keyboard solutions. I've currently landed on having my gaming desktop just stream with Steam Link to my living room. As long as I'm selective about which games I want to play, I can usually get a good experience. But I still have at least 60% of my steam library that isn't a good experience doing that.

Having a dedicated piece of hardware with a custom OS that is designed around a controller is a huge difference maker. Plus you add in how ridiculously expensive it is to get either a USB external optical drive or internal SATA drive to watch DVDs and Blu-Rays. Heck, even just watching Netflix or YouTube in the living room is easier on PS5 than a media PC for the average user.

There's a reason Valve tried to make the Steam Machine.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Because my pc uses 4-5 times the power to run the same ps4-era game. (Especially nice when it’s hot in summer)

So I play it on my ps5, which offers me quick resume as well.

I love pc gaming, been building pc’s for over a decade at this point, but I do also see the advantages my ps5 has over my pc.

Could I build a more efficient and quiet pc, attach it to my tv and use that? Probably, and it’d be quite good with steamOS on it, but it’d be finicky to get sleep/resume working on it, and it’d probably cost me more.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

just wait till arm becomes mainstream

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

ARM isn't more efficient than x86 at that scale. Below 15W or so, it is, but not scaled up. I think there are other good reasons for it--like having more than three companies that can produce them--but not that.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 3 months ago

Til

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I could see the appeal of consoles back in the day, when they were weaker specs but much cheaper and the games just worked right out of the box. But nowadays it seems like they're just as expensive, still not as good for specs and the games are just as bug-riddled as PC games half the time. And Sony has been releasing all their big hits on PC anyway so yeah really no reason for me to get a PS5 that I can see.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago

But nowadays it seems like they're just as expensive, still not as good for specs and the games are just as bug-riddled as PC games half the time.

No they aren’t ‘as expensive’, LTT did a video a while back where they tried to build a PC that could beat a PS5 for a similar price. They had to buy used parts to match the price and the PC did not include a controller ($69). If you’re going to use used parts, then also compare it to the price of a used PS5.

And Sony has been releasing all their big hits on PC anyway so yeah really no reason for me to get a PS5 that I can see.

Sure, if you want to play old-ass games, get a PC.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 3 months ago (4 children)

I don’t understand why I would buy a PC when I can get a PS5.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

I'm not sure why I'd want a PS5 when there are zero games that interest me on it, and most of PC games I do want have very modest requirements. A Steam Deck is overkill for most of them.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

The 79,900 games available on steam vs 7,200 on PS 4/5.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 3 months ago

99.999% of the games on Steam are low budget crap. On PSN it’s only like 98%

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

For self-hosting / drawing / video editing or other useful things that you can do with a PC? You can also play FPS with keyboard & mouse

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

For self-hosting I have several Linux and *BSD machines, but that’s server-grade hardare, not gaming hardware. None of those machines even has a GPU.

Drawing I do on my iPad Pro, for everything else I have a MacBook Pro. If I got a desktop PC it would only be used for games, I have no real need for non-server PC hardware.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I still don't understand why would I give Apple my money when there are alternatives

[–] [email protected] -1 points 3 months ago

Because they have the best hardware and the best desktop OS. Nothing comes close.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

It has a library going back 30+ years.

It is useful for other things.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I don’t play old games. I don’t even play PS4 games on my PS5.

I have no other use for a desktop PC.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

You're not going to play any of your PS5 games in 5-10 years? You're happy with some of your games aging out of your library?

You do you, but you might be an outlier.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

You're not going to play any of your PS5 games in 5-10 years?

No, I only ever play through a game once. After I finish the main campaign I’ll never touch it again.

Why would I play a game I already played when I could play a new game instead?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Sounds like what you enjoy are shallow, linear story games. To each their own, of course. Glad you're happy with what PS5 offers you in that regard. But the industry has a lot more to offer than that.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 3 months ago (2 children)

How are story games shallow? They are much deeper than the next generic multiplayer shooter. I happen to like stories in all forms, books, movies, series and video games. Video games are unique in that they allow you to be part of a story. For me the story is the single most important thing of a game. Often I simply play games on easy or story mode, mainly to keep up the pacing of the story.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I never said story games are shallow. But if the games you like are ones where you can feel like you've experienced all the game and the story has to offer in a single playthrough then they are, by definition, shallow. Even a great movie is worth watching multiple times of its story has any appreciable depth. Video games, even more so since there should be more to the story to experience.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Even a great movie is worth watching multiple times of its story has any appreciable depth.

That sounds more like a you problem.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

I guess it's possible you are correct and like the bulk of people who have ever studied film, literature, and art more generally are wrong. That seems unlikely. More plausible is that it's common for people to experience a given work multiple times and get different things out of it.

That's not even accounting for the "Reading Lear as an old man hits differently than reading it when I was a teenager" factor. That is, who you are changes over time and that affects how you experience art.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

You misread that. Sounds like you are being defensive.

They are saying the person likes the ones that ARE shallow.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 3 months ago

the real problem for me was paying toplay online games and having no way to install games but the ps store