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As a PC gamer I do feel like consoles occupy a useful space for some gamers. I have my PC set up very much like a console but it takes more effort to make it like that. I had to plan the parts I wanted to purchase, make sure my PC had built-in wifi just like consoles do, put the whole system together, install the OS and then set up my OS to boot directly into Steam Big Picture with no login or anything else just so I can immediately interface with my system using my controller and not touching my keyboard or mouse. All of this comes as standard for consoles right out of the box, you just plug it in and you get all of that ease of use straightaway.
Granted PC has its benefits for me since I’m someone who really cares about being able to play older games so I need things like unrestricted emulation and backwards compatibility with older games, these are things I can’t really get on consoles without forking out to purchase games I already own or to play it over a cloud streaming service. However, most gamers aren’t like me in that sense and probably don’t care if their latest PlayStation or Xbox can play the full library of SNES games.
Graphics used to be a big factor in favour of PC gaming but in recent years consoles have really caught up to PCs in offering higher resolutions, smoother frame rates and even ray tracing. To even match latest console performance right now you need dual graphics cards and a liquid cooling system whereas back in the days you could match a console’s performance using a single GPU and stock CPU cooler. Before it was just like putting Lego together but now it’s a lot more complicated and potentially messy.
Consoles also have the benefit of game preservation in that console game discs contain the 1.0 versions of games that can be run off a console without any internet connection whereas you have to engage in piracy to achieve the same thing on PC.
Whilst PCs are definitely still the option of the power gamer, consoles do offer features that a lot of gamers want but would be turned off if they had to deal with the extra steps needed for a PC.
As a PC gamer I do feel like consoles occupy a useful space for some gamers. I have my PC set up very much like a console but it takes more effort to make it like that. I had to plan the parts I wanted to purchase, make sure my PC had built-in wifi just like consoles do, put the whole system together, install the OS and then set up my OS to boot directly into Steam Big Picture with no login or anything else just so I can immediately interface with my system using my controller and not touching my keyboard or mouse. All of this comes as standard for consoles right out of the box, you just plug it in and you get all of that ease of use straightaway.
Granted PC has its benefits for me since I’m someone who really cares about being able to play older games so I need things like unrestricted emulation and backwards compatibility with older games, these are things I can’t really get on consoles without forking out to purchase games I already own or to play it over a cloud streaming service. However, most gamers aren’t like me in that sense and probably don’t care if their latest PlayStation or Xbox can play the full library of SNES games.
Graphics used to be a big factor in favour of PC gaming but in recent years consoles have really caught up to PCs in offering higher resolutions, smoother frame rates and even ray tracing. To even match latest console performance right now you need dual graphics cards and a liquid cooling system whereas back in the days you could match a console’s performance using a single GPU and stock CPU cooler. Before it was just like putting Lego together but now it’s a lot more complicated and potentially messy.
Consoles also have the benefit of game preservation in that console game discs contain the 1.0 versions of games that can be run off a console without any internet connection whereas you have to engage in piracy to achieve the same thing on PC.
Whilst PCs are definitely still the option of the power gamer, consoles do offer features that a lot of gamers want but would be turned off if they had to deal with the extra steps needed for a PC.