My 5 and 7 year old are PC gamers. Sure, they play console games, but when it comes to serious games for them (Minecraft and Humongous Ent. titles), it's PC all day long. My 7 year old grumbles when she has to use a computer with only 1 monitor, also.
The future of consoles
- Thread starter invictis
- Start date
for most setup, PC gaming is pretty much trouble-free, has been for the last few years. Firmware and driver updates also has been rolled into windows update.
its when you are no longer fall in the "most setup" group, the problems with PC gaming became exponentially worse. While on xbox, even with me using homebrew apps, it works fine, most of the time (xbox still have bugs, but fewer and occurred way rarer).
arandomguy
Veteran
The PC hardware enthusiast side of the equation I feel is what often results in people overcomplicating PC gaming, and if you're just discussing it among this crowd (eg. this forum) it might give the impression of being complicated.
You don't need to update to every single driver. You don't need to have overlays constantly monitoring FPS/hardware. You don't need to tweak hardware settings and overclock. You don't need to tweak every single game setting individually, or worse make edits outside the game. The people who play PC gamers that I know but don't have any real interest in the hardware side basically don't do the above or even have much awareness of that stuff.
You don't need to update to every single driver. You don't need to have overlays constantly monitoring FPS/hardware. You don't need to tweak hardware settings and overclock. You don't need to tweak every single game setting individually, or worse make edits outside the game. The people who play PC gamers that I know but don't have any real interest in the hardware side basically don't do the above or even have much awareness of that stuff.
I still cant get myself to enjoy PC gaming as much as I do on consoles.
To me consoles still feel more organized and more accessible
Sure but when i talk with my friends that switched to consoles in the 90s they still have in mind this picture when it takes a lot of effort to just install the game. Installing patches thru etxternal sources and configuring display properties, they think you need to have some comp science degree to be able to do that. Modern console gaming and pc gaming is not that much diffrent, steam does great job of installing everything for you the same way as you purchase game from ps/ms store. Sure console experience is still better but is not much that diffrent imo.
It has been! I had an Amiga at college while my mate had a PC. We'd go round my house, fire up a game like Project X or Hired Guns and play. Then round his house, fire up a game, get no audio or some other issue, and he'd jump on DOS typing .bat files to get his PC to play anything.
PC has come a long way, though it's still not quite as simple as console, although the gap has narrowed as much because consoles have become less user friendly. Not only is the hardware homogenising - so is the experience!
I ment nowadays with family members in that age, i wasnt even around during the Amiga days
The days when you slide in cd in the tray and started game are pretty much over.
cheapchips
Veteran
Interestingly, for me at least, xCloud restores some of that immediacy. No downloads or patching. There might be an extent to which that's true of Geforce Now, although the frontend is clunkier. I've used it to play Epic freebies rather than installing.
arandomguy
Veteran
It's going to vary but I always found having to deal with removable media as less convenient. This was actually a reason for me preferring the PC platform. But I've always just liked playing a few games until I basically exhaust interest in them. Nowadays it's even easier to be doing something else while installing, so that time isn't even "lost" in the real sense.
GOG games are basically to me the least hassle gaming experience. As the launching is completely independent of any launcher and therefore updates if you don't want to deal with it.
GOG games are basically to me the least hassle gaming experience. As the launching is completely independent of any launcher and therefore updates if you don't want to deal with it.
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You can go only digital on console too if you want
arandomguy
Veteran
Yes I know, but I assumed that discussion was in the context of the old pre digital download era in which consoles played purely off removable media and PC's were also removable media but required installs. With consoles moving over to installs it also helped with load times versus optical media. I prefer saving time during game play versus startup.
Going purely digital download, whether console or PC, has another wrinkle with the licensing discussion, but that's another matter.
Something like Steam is just click on Play on the game in your library and everythings done for you by Steam, installing, patching etc at once. With fibre internet its as much plug and play as it can be on pc. As Shifty noted console and pc have grown very close regarding ease of use, though the consoles are still easier/more plug and play then the pc is even today.
W10/W11 update drivers and everything you need in the background aswell, its not as straight forward as a console but damn things have been much and much worse on the pc.
W10/W11 update drivers and everything you need in the background aswell, its not as straight forward as a console but damn things have been much and much worse on the pc.
Silent_Buddha
Legend
Here's my 2 cents.
As long as a good gaming PC (new) costs well over 1000 USD (really good ones are generally 2000+ USD) on average, there will always be a place for consoles. Sure, the cost of consoles will likely go up in the future, but so will PCs. While, we're currently in a non-normal situation with coronavirus and crypto-mining, the reality is that a PC graphics card with equivalent performance to a console has a cost far higher than a console (and that's ONLY for the graphics card) currently.
In such an environment there will always be a market for a smaller, cheaper, and less complex gaming console. While something like the Steam Deck closes the gap somewhat in terms of price, it comes at a significant reduction in performance compared to an equivalently priced console.
IMO, if gaming consoles are to be rendered obsolete, it won't be the PC that does it. The only way consoles will be rendered obsolete is if Mobile devices end up offering a similar gaming experience, at similar fidelity and at a similar or lower price compared to a home console. That's the gaming environment that consoles should be worried about, not PCs.
Some might argue that cloud gaming is a threat to console gaming, but I'd disagree. There are so many drawbacks for cloud gaming compared to console gaming, IMO, that it's more of a complementary experience than one that can realistically replace console gaming for the vast majority of console gamers.
Regards,
SB
As long as a good gaming PC (new) costs well over 1000 USD (really good ones are generally 2000+ USD) on average, there will always be a place for consoles. Sure, the cost of consoles will likely go up in the future, but so will PCs. While, we're currently in a non-normal situation with coronavirus and crypto-mining, the reality is that a PC graphics card with equivalent performance to a console has a cost far higher than a console (and that's ONLY for the graphics card) currently.
In such an environment there will always be a market for a smaller, cheaper, and less complex gaming console. While something like the Steam Deck closes the gap somewhat in terms of price, it comes at a significant reduction in performance compared to an equivalently priced console.
IMO, if gaming consoles are to be rendered obsolete, it won't be the PC that does it. The only way consoles will be rendered obsolete is if Mobile devices end up offering a similar gaming experience, at similar fidelity and at a similar or lower price compared to a home console. That's the gaming environment that consoles should be worried about, not PCs.
Some might argue that cloud gaming is a threat to console gaming, but I'd disagree. There are so many drawbacks for cloud gaming compared to console gaming, IMO, that it's more of a complementary experience than one that can realistically replace console gaming for the vast majority of console gamers.
Regards,
SB
Gaming laptops. These laptop devices have exploded in popularity due to your named reasons. Even pre-builds make more sense now, they didnt skyrocket in the same way GPUs have.
And thats to say that the price gap between PC and console gaming has been larger before, i remember the mid to late 90's and even the 2000's where gaming pc's where really expensive, and lasted about a year or two at most.
I dont think anyone here, in this topic atleast, has said so? They both co-existed since..... for over 30/40 years now? I dont see that changing anytime soon.
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