- cross-posted to:
- technology@lemmy.zip
- technology@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- technology@lemmy.zip
- technology@lemmy.world
For a long time, the common wisdom was that game consoles would usurp PC gaming, leaving it a niche hobby, ignored by the greater gaming community. And indeed, for a long time consoles were the most popular way to play mainstream games. But recently, especially since the release of the current generation of consoles, the very opposite seems to be coming true. PC gaming has been expanding while consoles falter.
Looking forward to the next Xbox and PlayStation consoles, analysts are predicting $900 as the low end of possible pricing–and that number is seeming more and more optimistic. That’s a lot of money to spend for a dedicated machine that, for most console owners, is just used for playing Call of Duty or the latest football game. Consoles are becoming too expensive for all but the most dedicated gamers to justify–especially when gamers in their teens and early 20s have grown up in a world where a console is no longer needed to play the vast majority of games.
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The thing about “PC gaming” is that I already use a PC (laptop) daily, so it makes sense to also use it to play games rather than buy a separate device, especially if I mostly play cheap indie games with low spec requirements.
I think theres an argument here for making consoles better at other computing stuff to be more relevant.
Not sure they can market that effectively tho even if it might help overall.
Wouldn’t that just make them… PCs?
I forgot to finish my argument earlier - that computers being convenient for gaming is why PC gaming will never fully die. But consoles can still have their hard-core gaming niche by specializing for high perfomance/price ratio and making it easier for devs to make games for them (not even exclusives, just regular ports).
Also, bring back a true physical media option or something. If I’m going to have to download a game/patch, I might as well use a PC.
I’m still using my Xbox Series X that I bought almost 6 years ago. And I’m playing Forza Horizon 6, which was just released…. yesterday.
The current generation of consoles can last for a damn long time with how they are.
The PREVIOUS generation of consoles already lasts a damn long time. Unless it’s a really shiny looking AAA, it’s probably on PS4, we got Yakuza 3 Kiwami recently.
And I think there’s some current gen games that look like they could’ve ran on PS4 if they were optimized or scaled down - especially since the Switch 2 and Steam Deck can run them! Expedition 33 was the first game my Steam Deck was just barely “running”.
I don’t think the next gen can offer much besides just boosting fps or resolution, and I’m satisfied with 1080p 60fps, maybe even 30.
I mean that’s largely true, but it’s not like PC hardware isn’t currently relevant to the current system as well. About 2-3 years ago I went all out and built my son a 3 grand gaming PC (divorced dad energy), about a month ago I looked up the parts. The exact same build that’s now 2-3 years more outdated components, would run about 5 grand now.
So yeah… while I’ve been largely out of consoles for a while now. gaming hardware in general is pricing everyone out right now as data centers are bidding everyone up…
This. Everything’s more expensive.
The nice thing about PCs, though, is you can use the same machine for gaming and productivity. You don’t need to buy two different machines. If you have a PC, you can play games on it.
The best approach for most people right now is to play games on whatever they already have. If you already have a console, then you don’t need to buy one. If you already have a PC, then you don’t need a console. Play games on what you already have. PC gamers do have the advantage of new releases being available on computers built even two decades ago (if you ignore the more demanding releases), but there’s plenty of games to play on all platforms.
It usually (or used to) goes the other way. I would expect the same parts to be worth about half after 3 years.
Exactly that’s how it was before the begining of this year, now everything new is being produced exclusively for data centers… so now it’s just us trying to outbid eachother for years old hardware.
They’re stuck being priced-out of the game with the rising price of hardware caused by AI data-centers.
And to the surprise of no one, those with a vested interest in building and maintaining those data-centers are trying to make cloud-gaming a thing (Amazon Luna, GeForce Now).
You won’t own your AAA games any more, and they’ll make them cloud-exclusive to stomp piracy and game resales.
There are already more games released than one can ever dream of playing in a lifetime. Indie developers also release groundbreaking new stuff left and right that will run on ancient PCs, Steam Decks, and older Switch models.
- Hang on to your older consoles and check Gamestop for the titles you missed the last gen, you might find them cheap.
- Get a cheap emulation handheld or jailbreak your old PSP or DS to unlock thousands of genre-defining titles for games coming out today.
- Affordable adapters let you use your fancy 8Bitdo controllers and whatnot on your PS4 with stick drift or otherwise dead controllers.
I literally cannot get FOMO for the new stuff because there are so many options. Battlefield 6 comes with a rootkit? No problem, I just won’t play it. New Capcom game is too expensive? I’m sure I can get a similar fix elsewhere or wait 6 years for a steep discount.
Every time a game company/dev does something questionable like price-gouging aging hardware, introduce digital download-only games on cartridges, make a racist tweet, or revoke games from digital libraries, it helps me strike a bunch of stuff off of my backlog. That gives me more time to play what is left on the list and maybe even to touch grass.
Within any given tier of gaming hardware*, the main advantage of consoles is not price, but simplicity: They’re convenient and easy. They consume very little extra space (no dedicated monitor/speakers/keyboard/mouse) and require practically no technical knowledge or setup/tuning/troubleshooting effort.
But PC gamers get value for their efforts. The vastly larger pool of games and greater variety in hardware options are part of that value, but there is also the total cost of ownership: PC games tend to go on sale for lower prices, and hardware upgrades can be done incrementally (ship of theseus style). Over the course of 10 years or so, that translates to either more fun or more money left to spend on other things. Or both.
Perhaps this decade’s painful rise in hardware costs is making more people willing to invest a bit of effort in exchange for a gaming PC’s better long-term value compared to a console.
*(I mention hardware tiers because it doesn’t make sense to compare a Nintendo Wii to a high-end Radeon or GeForce PC, of course.)
don’t forget that PC doesn’t charge you a subscription to play online
*doesn’t charge you an extra subscription to be able to play games online. obviously games themselves may make their own choice on whether to charge you to play them online.
I feel like I’ve heard this every console generation, that this time will be the end of consoles for real you guys!
Consoles are a joke now.
I totally abandoned consoles in 2006 right before the release of the PS3 and never looked back. My shiny new 8800 GTX was a much better use of that cash.
20 years later and my gaming backlog spans decades. All of which are perfectly playable today.
The Atari 2600 was priced at $189.95 in 1977, which is equivalent to at least $1010 today. I think the current pricing is in line with history, although the chip and memory shortage certainly won’t help. I’ve always gotten more enjoyment from PC gaming, anyway.
This is an oversimplification that ends up being deceptive by coincidence, because hardware is supposed to drastically reduce in price as it becomes standardized and mass-produced, and game consoles and computers both did this.
That we’re now back to the point where a console costs nearly the same as the adjusted cost of the very first, hyper-niche, hyper-bespoke hardware units in the 80s, is a HUGE regression. Prices aren’t “in-line with” the Atari prices because that’s just how they scale, they’re there by chance as they spike upwards due to supply constraints driven by AI.
“Even though we’ve lost all engines and are in a nose dive, we’re currently at 300ft, which is in line with a normal landing approach altitude.”
That doesn’t take into account the move to outsource production to countries with cheaper labor. Sure it can be inline with history but the profit margins are so wide the companies are practically scalping the buyers.
The limiting factor is in significant part memory and to a lesser degree storage, and while in some cases, there are options for PCs — like using scavenged DDR4 DIMMs — that aren’t available for consoles, PC prices have also generally been hit by the same factors that have driven up console prices.
