Ex-Xbox Exec
X Xbox Xec Series X|S
This seems nsfw
Or muskrat having an aneurysm
And his Xclusive Xposé.
Yeah their stupid naming convention is exactly what was going through my mind reading that.
People have been telling me that consoles are dying and everyone will play on PC instead for over 30 years. The convenience factor of the all-in-one hardware, and the supported lifetime of the platform, can’t be understated. I can see docked phones being a replacement at some point. But I’d be surprised if PCs ever squash out consoles.
Aside from convenience, the price really is a lot cheaper than equivalent PCs. An RTX 4070 alone costs as much as a playstation 5 (with disc), and that comes with a controller too.
But you don’t really need a 4070 for gaming. Just like you don’t need a F150 to drive to work (most people don’t at least). Plenty of lower end hardware does the job well. Over the course of the systems lifetime a PC can be very competitive in terms of prices for games. And it can be used for more than just gaming.
Yeah, it’s the wrong generation and has a little too much power, the closest would probably be a 3060 which was available shortly after the launch of the PS5. But it was still more than half the price of a PS5 and you need more than a GPU for a computer.
But you also don’t have to pay for online monthly you get better deals on games and or free if you’re one to sail the seas imo they save you money in the long run and you can do so much more then just play games on it compared to a console
That’s not really a fair comparison though. The ps5 has nowhere near the gpu power of a 4070. The PS5 is equal to like a low-mid range PC. Also console players are paying yearly subscription fees to play multiplayer. Plus you can think of the display as a cost as well. You need a monitor or TV, just like a PC. PC is likely more expensive overall, but not by as much as people think. Plus PC gives you so many perks over consoles. So you’re getting a ton more functionality for your money. It’s really not a HUGE DEAL to get a console once you factor these things in. Deal, sure. But not a huge deal.
Im a lifelong PC enthusiast, but I recently bought a PS5.
The amount of games you can play instantly with 14€ a month is overwhelming!
I could never build A equivalent Pc for the same price.
I came to realize that I prefer picking up the ps5 controller and get a game started in less than 30~ seconds instead of gaming on my PC.
Game passes exist for PC as well, and offer even more variety there.
Boot time should never take 30sec on PC as well. But most consoles are actually not much faster in boot and loading times. People tend to compare a PC booting from cold with a console just booting from sleep/hibernation mode.
Boot times on PC however can easily be further optimized, especially when not using Windows for gaming. A gaming Linux distro will be faster by leagues, even in a cold start.
Game Pass owners fired the people who made Hi-Fi Rush, so I wouldn’t expect many bangers from them in the coming months.
I think in the near future, game-passes will cost one AAA game per month. Otherwise, I don’t see how it will be sustainable business. Microsoft has already started increasing the price. I hope it doesn’t happen though.
I agree.
I don’t understand this at all. You can get game pass or something on PC as well. That isn’t a console only benefit.
I have about 100 games at this point I’ve gotten for free from Epic alone. Add in a few every year from steam and GOG, yeah not a great argument against PC…
My argument is that gaming on ps5 is cheaper and more convenient than on PC.
I referenced the game pass because games tend to be cheaper on PC in general.
The availability of a game pass equalizes the price for gaming and makes buying games on PS5 obsolete for me.
But game pass is available on PC too… Are you not understanding that?
I guess I see your argument? I don’t really agree though - read my other comments.
I think we have a misunderstanding. I will try one last time:
My Argument: Gaming on Ps5 is cheaper and more convenient than gaming on PC.
Why more convenient?
(See my first reply above)
But why cheaper?
Not because of games (a gamepass exists on both pc and ps5)
But because of hardware!
Ps5=~550€
PC (with the same specs)=MB+CPU+GPU+SSD+RAM+Case+Mouse+Keyboard+Gamepad=More than ~550€
Do you disagree?
People dont deal with more freedom, I know I dont. I have a pc and ps5 and prefer the simplicity of the ps5 setup which is a big selling point.
Yea fair enough. That’s a completely valid point.
PC is already larger than active users on both PlayStations combined, and it didn’t used to be that way. Given the Steam Deck and what Microsoft have been saying about handhelds and their next console(s), you’re looking at a very real possibility that the next Xbox is just a PC with a different UI, like the Steam Deck.
isn’t the steam deck much closer to a console than a PC?
It’s honestly the best of both worlds. A well built and tested hardware platform with well known specs and manufacturer support, that’s capable of running any third party software at the drop of a hat
Not really? Conceptually maybe. But if you can install whatever OS you want and aren’t forced to use official distribution methods then that seems pretty PC to me
Steam Deck is just Linux… It’s the same as installing Linux with Steam. And run Proton via Steam.
Now we’re in philosophical territory with questions like, “What is a console?” It runs PC games, but you can navigate it with a controller. It has most console features but is malleable enough to have most PC features.
sure, it’s a spectrum. but to me the biggest defining feature of a console is being a self-contained wad of hardware, unable to be upgraded or repaired piece by piece.
Then it arguably isn’t that either. They give you full instructions on how to repair and upgrade it, and they partnered with iFixIt. People have modded in more storage, battery life, and better screens. Personally, I think I draw the line at the part where it runs the same executables as any other PC, so I’ll call it a PC.
Wow, it’s been 40 years since I played on a spectrum.
Those are two different things
being a self-contained wad of hardware
Steam Deck checks this, but so do laptops, raspberry pis and smartphones.
unable to be upgraded or repaired piece by piece.
Again Steam Deck is almost as upgradable and repairable as a laptop, and more repairable than a raspberry pi or a smartphone.
So that definition of console doesn’t work, otherwise raspberry pies, laptops, and especially phones would also be consoles. The differentiating factor is locking of the system with the hardware, in that sense Apple is more “console-like” than non-Apple competitors. Also The primary function of a gaming console must be gaming.
With those two extra points the Steam Deck hits one but misses the other. It is primarily for gaming, but the system is not locked down, you can change it how you want and even remove it entirely and put a different one.
So with any definition you can find the Steam Deck is not quite a console, but it does provide a console experience, so it’s in a weird space.
I upgraded my Steamdeck joysticks to a 3rd party with hall effect sensors, the ssd to one with double the capacity, and the fan to one that is silent. There’s people that have upgraded even more things, to the point of using a pcie flat cable to connect a full pcie GPU card.
The steam deck is a PC in a handheld form factor. It simply runs Linux and defaults to steams big picture mode (a console esque interface). You can still enter a desktop mode and use firefox and a word processor
Yeah, but now you can buy an all-in-one convenient PC to plug on your TV with almost 100% retro compatibility, it’s called the Steam Deck and it’s awesome.
I left my steam deck but it’s no replacement for an actually high-end PC
But it is a replacement for a console like I told the person I replied to.
It may not be a replacement, though they can work hand in hand amazingly.
I’ve found that as long as I leave my pc running at home, I’m able to just hop on 4G mobile data through my phone and stream the vast majority of games.
I wouldn’t try this for multi-player games, but when I want to play Warhammer when I’m away this does the trick!
Or even at home, no more hauling the pc to the TV. Stick it in the corner, and simply stream over wifi.
Personally the only games not able to played on my deck are games like Starfield, which thankfully doesn’t bother me one bit. (Though it worked perfectly being streamed from my 1660ti).
Now if you’re a graphics snob then no, the deck can not compare to a pc. But neither can a console.
Can’t if they don’t sell in your country
Does the deck dock to TV? I always thought the Switch should have a pro dock to upscale when docked.
Yup, you can buy the official dock or really any usb-C dock. Resolution can be set, so you can even do 4k on it if the tv supports it and the deck can handle it for that game
Im with you except for the “supported lifetime,” I have a PC that can play the original Doom alongside Cyberpunk 2077 with raytracing, and literally everything in between.
My PS3 can play at most a decade worth of games. It is obsolete.
My PS3 can play at most a decade worth of games. It is obsolete.
Sure, but so is the PC that someone bought around the time the original Doom was released.
Right. Fair enough. But, as another user said, I can upgrade that PC. I’ve technically had the “same PC” since like 2015. At this point, there are no pieces of the original left, but I never went out and spend $1000 on a new rig up front.
Also, that still doesn’t make consoles look amy better. Because, when the PS3 became obsolete, and I went and got a PS4, what happened to my PS3 library? It’s still locked to my PS3. Even if we did have to go buy new computers every 7 years, they’s still all run the original Doom as well as newer games, and everything in between. All this, while also being able to file my taxes.
Not necessarily. You can incremently upgrade your pc over time. Typically for cheaper than a brand new console. Generally as long as you have a nice enough mobo, you could just replace the GPU and suddenly “be able to play next gen games”
I still believe mobile PC’s (like the ROG or Deck) will be the new consoles of the future. Why the hell would I trap myself to a room every time I want to play a game? Now I can walk to any random forest, lake, area, and go play Cyberpunk 2077 for 4 hours with nothing but nature.
The improvements of steam and proton, steamlink and big picture mode make it possible to run great games on your TV. Its not „just turn on“ yet but we‘re getting there. I wanted a PS5 when they were unavailable but I since managed to play my favorite games on my tv with a ps4 controller and dont see the point to buy back into a locked up computer with a fancy case for games that have microstransactions gallore.
Not to mention that if you’re already playing PS4 games, a PS5 isn’t opening up a lot more games for you and many PS4 ports to PS5 run worse than their PS4 counterparts.
And 99 times out if 100 will get a PC release anyways…
And 100 out of 100 times, we build emulators that run on PC. They can take years to make with the complexity of newer systems, but they’ll get there.
Its not „just turn on“ yet but we‘re getting there
I think we are 99% there. If you make a decent AMD based machine, install Bazzite on it, you can set it to “Open in Big Picture mode on startup”. After the initial configuration in desktop mode (you need to do this only once during installation), you can just start the PC and sit in your couch. No need to download drivers or any desktop shenanigans. You control it using any standard game controller. No need for a mouse/kb; just start and play.
Thats pretty awesome! :) thanks for sharing. Do you know by any chance if kodi has a steam app somewhere? I‘m going with a raspberry pi and it works well as a client for media but not yet for steam.
You don’t need it specifically from steam you can add any app into steam hell even my pirated games are in steam
As long as there are killer 1st party titles exclusive to a console platform, there’s a reason to buy one.
Personally, I love Zelda, Mario, and most recently I’ve been excited about the new Astro Bot game about to come out.
Outside of Steam Deck emulation, you need a console to play those, and I do enjoy the convenience.
The last Xbox worth buying was the 360, because all Xbox titles are released on other platforms now - eliminating the need for an Xbox console.
As long as there are killer 1st party titles exclusive to a console platform, there’s a reason to buy one.
Counterargument: some of us consider this kind of arbitrary BS a reason NOT to buy one.
And that’s before you even consider the additional crap consoles pull, like Nintendo making the only way to back up your saves a fucking subscription service.
Especially now that there are maybe 2 or 3 “killer apps” per the life cycle of a console at this point. Why would I pay $600 to buy a console, just for 3 exclusives?
If there was an entire panel of awesome exclusives like back in the PS3/360 era, it would make more sense. But as it stands, the amount of good games on PC just dwarfs what’s on any console.
I would agree with your last statement, but in the case of Xbox i think it is by design. They already excitedly talk about windows handhelds being the future and its because the console market has almost always been a loss, even back to the Sega selling massively under production cost to try and take ground from Nintendo. Games were always what made the profit.
In the case of Xbox, their business model for a long time has been moving to a live service streaming model, i don’t think they want to be in the console market. If they can move their app on all kinds of devices, they can skip the investment of the console and instead focus on what the real profit driver was all along.
The new-gen console is actually trending 7 per cent ahead of the PS4 in the United States launch aligned.
And how much do you think the drop in Xbox is? It’s way more than 7 percent. The problem for Sony isn’t that its console is dying; it’s that they’re approaching market saturation. They’ve got their market cornered in a way that they never have, and they’ve only got a 7 percent lead off of the last generation. Peak dollars spent on consoles was back in 2009, when all three consoles were in very healthy competition. Many PS4 users are happy to stay on PS4, because the games they play are over 10 years old, like Grand Theft Auto V and Minecraft, so there’s no need to upgrade.
Meanwhile, a console that launched with some idea of every game running at 60 FPS is now compromising on that (it was inevitable, but people believed otherwise). Games that used to be console exclusive are now coming out on PC, where you don’t need to pay a subscription fee to play online and your library always comes with the assumption that every game you have will be forward compatible. Even if you buy the new PlayStation, there’s no promise that your old games will run at better resolutions and frame rates. The controller you bought 10 years ago still works on PC, but Sony says you need to buy the new one, even if the game you’re playing uses none of its new features. The VR system you bought before doesn’t play the new VR games. For all sorts of economic realities, not the least of which are certification processes and licensing fees, there’s a good chance that game you really want to play is on PC long before it’s on console, in early access or otherwise. There are no competing storefronts for digital releases, so you can only pay what Sony says you have to pay. Consoles also aren’t even significantly cheaper than an equivalent PC anymore, and they run basically the same hardware under the hood, so the reasons for a console as we know them today to exist are fewer and fewer as time goes on.
60fps PS5 games were only ever 60fps because they were really just PS4 games running on faster hardware.
Now that we’re finally getting games that aren’t cross-gen with the 10-year-old PS4, we’re back to 30fps-ville.
Sont forget that pc games have faster, more frequent and longer updates, cross storefront multiplayer and quickly cost a lot less than at launch.
Oh, the Ex-Xbox Exec? I hear is now a Court Reporter with a unique sense of fashion, the jet-setting jort-sporting Court Reporter.
Failing manufacturers in this case mean manufacturers who’ve sold twice your product count?
Clearly Xbox have a weird definition of the word “fail”.
Consoles will be around until the tech is sufficiently advanced as to negate their usefulness. There will come a day when a phone does everything a modern high end PC can. Bluetooth to a TV and play whatever you want.
Graphic fidelity is almost to a point where there isn’t much more needed in the way of processing power. Another decade. Maybe 2. Consoles will still exist for decades yet. But they’re going to become increasingly unnecessary.
Steam is futureproof. But nothing else.
I disagree. Your phone can happily do that today as long as you’re willing to play old games. This will always be the case, even when phones are able to play things today are now considered AAA, Desktop computers will be leaps ahead in what they can do.
I think it’s a bit shortsighted to assume gaming will have no use for significantly more powerful hardware in the future. even if not for graphics or VR, it could be greater use of AI, or something else we could never foresee.
Dedicated hardware still has benefits, having your phone notifications separate from gaming, if your phone breaks having your console break would suck, and imo a touchscreen will never surpass physical buttons on controllers so you’d still want those.
I personally hope the future looks more like a steam deck than a gaming phone.
In terms of touch screen control. The phone will just be the processing unit. It will wirelessly Stream the video to your tv while accepting controllers and other ik devices via bluetooth. Maybe with a switch like cradle. And I can’t play a lot of games with a controller… but my kids play fine with one… also on the touch screen. It’s what you are used to I guess.
Can things that are true be a “pushed narrative”?
Is this when they realise that infinite growth isn’t actually infinite? There’s always a place for a device for entertainment. Be that pen and paper or electronic.
Well, maybe there’s some truth to that. my phone is basically a Switch when I slide it into a controller. The biggest problem it’s facing is the limited library of non-shitty games and storage space. Once I can store a terabyte on my phone and can link it up to my steam library, I don’t think I’d even consider buying a console again. To me, the only thing a playstation has over a steam deck is its exclusives.
And exclusive titles is an asshole move to force users to buy a whole platform for a single game. It’s anti competitive. It’s anti consumer. It should be illegal.
Let’s hope Atari is keeping the hardware alive with their 2600+/7800+/modern VCS.
Your console is failing doesnt mean Nintendo and playstation are failing. As a matter of fact they are killing it. Xbox has lost the console wars!
I think the biggest competition to consoles is tablets. A lot of Gen Alpha doesn’t even know how to use a controller. EDIT I guess noone on Lemmy actually pays attention to kids these days…
What the fuck gen am I? Millenials, Z and all this shite. Everytime I get on here there is a new generation. Im only 30.
'94 is considered a Millennial typically. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation#/media/File:Generation_timeline.svg
Oh Im one of them, didnt realise it was gen Y
