• CrabAndBroom@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      16
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 month ago

      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.

    • Lemzlez@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      10
      ·
      1 month ago

      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.

    • Delusional@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      9
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      edit-2
      1 month ago

      And then there are people like me who buy all the consoles just to have them and barely use them all and mainly game on the PC.

      • WhoisJohnGalt@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        1 month ago

        Same, if only to keep fulfilling a childhood commitment to myself of owning all consoles after seeing some friends of mine having a Sega AND a Nintendo.

    • bokherif@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      1 month ago

      Exclusives, simplicity, ease of use. I had a gaming PC, but switched to the PS5 only because I realized I’ve been using my PC like a PS5. I only play like fifa and gta now since most new games don’t even excite me anymore.

    • paultimate14@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      1 month 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.

      • UntitledQuitting@reddthat.com
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        20
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        1 month ago

        i’m the exact opposite. all my computers are macs so I’ve been gaming on PS5 for years. picked up an sd oled mostly to play hades, but have finished dead island 2, ghsot of tsushima and hogwarts legacy on it. the barrier to entry to play a game is so low with the steamdecks suspend feature, I can just pick it up and be playing 5 seconds later.

      • corus_kt@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        16
        ·
        edit-2
        1 month ago

        Maybe you’ve just grown out of gaming. The Steam Deck has it’s issues, but the sheer amount of different great games playable on it is debatably it’s greatest strength. Hades, Armored Core, Persona, Dark Souls, pokemon romhacks, etc.

      • jjjalljs@ttrpg.network
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        1 month ago

        You have discovered sturgeon’s law. 90% of everything is crap. Judging a medium or genre by the crap isn’t useful.

      • frezik@midwest.social
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        1 month ago

        Steam is a platform that works best for word of mouth. Yes, 90% of it is crap if you just browse around. Hang around gaming forums and YouTube channels that highlight top indy games, and you’ll soon have more games than you can play in a lifetime.

        Those of us who rave about it have been doing this for years and have a big backlog. Now that I think about it, it would be difficult to jump in cold.

  • jordanlund@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    20
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    1 month ago

    “Console sales are down. Circana analyst Mat Piscatella marked a 26% decline in spending on current-generation consoles this April compared to last April.”

    We’re 4 years into the generation, sales declines aren’t uncommon, but this gen has had unique challenges:

    1. Covid fucked it all up. Supply chain issues screwed availability, software engineering ganked game development.

    2. Too much emphasis on “Cross Gen”. Why would someone scramble to get a hard to find PS5 or Xbox Series when the same game is out on PS4/Xbox One X?

    Long generations are kind of the new thing, starting with Xbox 360/PS3. Previously they were around 5 years and people are looking for the next machines now.

    • Eeyore_Syndrome@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      13
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      edit-2
      1 month ago

      And people cry when games like Elite Dangerous drop console support.

      Microsoft and Sony force them to develop for the lowest spec gen, so no you cannot play on your PS5/X whatever because PS4 and One X cannot run new game engine.

      They were never more than 20% of the player base.

      Also get your free PC copy Here 🥹

      • lorty@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        1 month ago

        I somewhat understand what you are talking about but the buggy and poorly maintained Elite Dangerous isn’t the best example to support your argument. BG3 getting a pass on some features for the series S is exactly what other games should be able to do if it makes sense for them.

      • nave@lemmy.ca
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        1 month ago

        Microsoft and Sony force them to develop for the lowest spec gen

        No they don’t. If the developers wanted they could have dropped support for the last gen versions for newer updates (like what cyberpunk did).

        Also for what it’s worth they even had a ps4 trailer for the Odyssey dlc.

    • ampersandrew@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      1 month ago

      I think we’re too far out to blame supply chain issues. PS5 is lagging behind PS4 at the same point in its life by about 20M consoles. #2 is both a symptom and a cause. Developers across the entire industry have bloated their development timelines. That means fewer games and less reacting to consumer tends. When do you think Concord started development, for instance? And do you think it still would have been made if it started after Overwatch 2 came out?

      Plus, consumers seem to be gravitating toward the less restrictive open standard. If you’re in Sony land, you need to replace your old controllers, even though they still work; you have to pay for online play; backwards compatibility is a bit of a dice roll, and if you want features as similar as higher resolution textures and better frame rates, they’re going to sell you a remaster rather than just letting you turn up the settings. In ruling over their walled garden ecosystem and trying to extract more money from it, they’ve given players more and more reason to play on PC.

    • Xer0@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      1 month ago

      Pretty sure the shortest time between Playstation consoles was 6 years (PS1 > PS2 & PS2 > PS3.) Then 7 years for both PS4 and PS5.

      • jordanlund@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        1 month ago

        Playstation consoles are weird because Sony just can’t let go of old hardware (unless it’s the PSP).

        The PS1 was in production from 1994/1995 (Japan/US) to 2006(!) So it technically overlapped both the PS2 and PS3(!)

        PS2 ran from 2000 to 2013.

        PS3 2006 to 2017.

  • Fizz@lemmy.nz
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    15
    ·
    1 month ago

    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.

      • Fizz@lemmy.nz
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        1 month ago

        Yea because ps4 is still getting all the releases and ps5 is really expensive. I have friends who still play on ps4 and I went to their house and they’re playing games on like 20fps having a blast. It was kinda wholesome I just wish they weren’t getting scammed by Sony and chose pc so they could play games that actually run on their hardware.

      • Fizz@lemmy.nz
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        1 month ago

        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.

        • thingsiplay@beehaw.org
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          5
          ·
          1 month ago

          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.

          • Fizz@lemmy.nz
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            2
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            1 month ago

            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.

            • AmbiguousProps@lemmy.today
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              5
              ·
              edit-2
              1 month ago

              that’s not a fair comparison because pc has people who running on hardware worse than a ps3.

              This is a benefit of using PC, not a downside. Unlike consoles, you aren’t forced to upgrade every few years and you actually have the ability to change graphics settings. Even if you want to upgrade your PC, you don’t need to get an entirely new build.

              That’s also missing the fact that plenty of people don’t need or want to play the latest AAA title.

            • thingsiplay@beehaw.org
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              4
              ·
              1 month 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.

  • Ilandar@aussie.zone
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    12
    ·
    1 month ago

    The one holdout among the console makers is Nintendo, whose PC strategy is still to threaten fan projects with lawsuits. Perhaps I do not have to hand it to Nintendo for this, but as a result of its obstinance, the Switch is the only console I’d consider buying as a PC gamer. Nintendo remains a one-of-a-kind gaming company, whereas Xbox and PlayStation feel less and less distinguishable from gaming at large—aka PC gaming.

    I’m not sure about this analysis of the Switch’s success. The “lawsuit” argument is pretty irrelevant; the console would sell regardless of whether emulation existed (as it has, for most of the big titles and for much of the console’s life). I think the “one-of-a-kind” argument is accurate, but I’d also suggest that the very wide library of games is a major reason why Nintendo has performed so well in this generation. The Switch appeals to almost every single type of gamer - there is so much variety there. Additionally, the portability is clear point of difference: for many, the Switch is more like a handheld that they can occasionally play on the TV, rather than a traditional home console. And finally, the Switch is just a more affordable option and that has mattered a lot since 2020.

  • Katana314@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    12
    ·
    1 month 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.

  • juice702@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    11
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    1 month ago

    I’ve never been into this pc vs console cringe fest of an argument. I’ve always been a pc gamer, but guess what, some exclusives only come to consoles. If I want to play that exclusive enough and I have expendable cash, I’ll buy it. I still prefer to play on pc over any of the consoles, but a ps5 is a solid system.

    • lilja@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      6
      ·
      1 month ago

      I haven’t had a gaming-capable PC for about a decade and I’m very happy with my PS5 (and the PS4 before it). Sony bringing exclusives to PC don’t feel like the end times as it’s just a way for them to make more money.

      I’m genuinely glad that PC players will get to experience some of the great games that have been on the PS5 in the last few years.

      • Empricorn@feddit.nl
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        edit-2
        1 month ago

        It’s literally brave of you to come to this community and this thread and say that you love your console. And then to express positivity for PC users! You are exactly what we need more of in gaming.

  • helenslunch@feddit.nl
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    8
    ·
    1 month ago

    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 😔

    • Sam_Bass@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      7
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 month ago

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

      • helenslunch@feddit.nl
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        3
        arrow-down
        6
        ·
        1 month 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.

        • penquin@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          arrow-down
          2
          ·
          1 month ago

          What is the difference? You can buy a smaller PC, install Bazzite OS on it and plug it into your tv. Voila, you now have a steam console. Quite literally. lol

  • jaschen@lemm.ee
    cake
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    3
    ·
    1 month ago

    I own a PS5 and only play Don’t Starve together because they only enable couch coop on console. Bullshit lazy PC devs.

    • orbitz@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      1 month ago

      Going back awhile now too for that no install right? Like didn’t PS3 have some installs? My memory is fuzzy on when it exactly started, but yeah it was nice to just pop in the media (cart, disc) and play. That was a great perk of console games, especially rentals,though there was a small time I could rent PC games when I moved to a city in the late 90s. These days I mostly play on PC anyways so always install but it was nice for the first few decades of my gaming to not require it.

  • Sam_Bass@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    3
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    1 month ago

    Can count on one hand the number of times the xbox was even powered on. The ps4 gets more time but my pc is my main platform.

  • Anamnesis@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    7
    arrow-down
    8
    ·
    1 month ago

    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.

      • rab@lemmy.ca
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        1 month ago

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

    • iegod@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      6
      ·
      1 month ago

      Speak for yourself I use both controllers and kbm for my PC games. The input method isn’t really worth crying over.

    • HeckGazer@programming.dev
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      7
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      1 month ago

      Hey come on now that’s not fair, at least the games are way more expensive and you have a fraction of the selection to choose from