Do consoles (PS4//XB1) hurt video games more than they help them?

There is no disputing the fact that consoles like XB1 and PS hurt video games more than they help them. Long ago, I would argue that consoles like PS1-3 and Xbox/360, they offered games that PC's just were making. Now, it seems that both PC and PS4/Xbox are thinning the line that makes them unique. They all trying to be that "oh we aren't pc's, but we have same features"

-Consoles no longer fight about the unique abilities, but rather exclusive content. I rather have ONE so i can enjoy all the exclusive content.

-Consoles can't be upgrade, it hinders progress till new consoles come out. There is no denying it! PS4/Xbox1 are already being utilized as best as they can. Guess what? compared to PC's they can't really compete.

-They have silly controllers. Seriously, i wont deny the fact that controllers are better in many instances. The problem is, it SUCKS in others as well. You can't play RTS games. Would it not be better if there was one console that lets you choose whichever you like...

Now I'm not arguing about consoles like the Wii or a portable device. After all, they do offer a difference between PC/xbox1/ps4.

Yeah, I think that we're seeing the death of consoles, which is ironic because we always heard about the supposed "death" of PC.

The hardcore gamers will go to PC where they have more games, more freedom, and a better version of everything.

The casuals will go to mobile where they have games that only cost 99 cents and are designed for quick, mindless bursts.

Consoles this generation just don't have much in the way of games, their hardware is now essentially just a gimped PC, and they cater to the sorts of big blockbuster games that are becoming increasingly generic and vapid.

Shitty exclusives, lack of original games, inferior multiplats. Despite all that they are driving consumer interest and helping the game industry grow, for better or worse.

No.

and lol "death of consoles", there are already almost 50 million current-gen consoles sold in 2 years.

Quite the opposite, consoles are helping PC gaming.

No.

Nah.

no. don't be silly

Yeh buying up exlusive on every third party game even

@ten_pints:

Yup, you just will never hear hermits admit that. lolz

Consoles are the Alpha and Omega of gaming,,,

I dont know, but I havnt heard anyone pirated ps3, ps4/ x1 games so far so isnt that good for gaming... Meanwhile on pc..

@ten_pints: Elaborate.

Hard to say, games have bigger budget when they are sold on several platforms, increasing the quality of the game in most cases, this is the good thing there's no denying it.

Flipside is that the multiplat games are designed to please all platforms, generally making them a bit more casual oriented than pure pc games, this can be a good or bad thing.

Then there's the claim that consoles cause the downgrades of games, I highly doubt this is the case in most cases as the games are pretty much made to run on budget pc builds anyway.

For me the biggest downside of the whole shebang is the goddamn User Interfaces on these multiplat games. It feels like the game dev is literally non stop smacking you in the face with his D every time you open your inventory or use any of the ui components pretty much. If the ui's were made with mouse+kb in mind they would be 10x more accessible. And I generally find menus pain to use with controller, heck even when I was playing witcher 3 with controller I'd always have kb+mouse nearby for when ever I had to open map/look something in the inventory.

TLDR: Dont think they hurt more than they help, EXCEPT DEVS PLEASE GIVE PROPER MOUSE+KB UI IN YOUR MULTIPLATS.

Consoles don't hurt anything, they're harmless. Consoles are more redundant than ever, but all those multiplats just provide the PC with even more games. So consoles now provide a service to the PC gamers, that's their job.

And through DX12s easier porting, the Xbox One is the perfect conduit to let that happen.

Nintendo not included, they deserve respect. Thank You Nintendo.

Which is comparable to this point last gen, except that now the gaming market is way bigger than it was back then. That means that consoles have started stagnating, while the mobile and PC platforms are booming.

Steam has over 125 million active user and that's not slowing down any time soon. There's no way to get solid sales figures for PC, but Steam accounts can be a pretty good metric of that.

No. Without consoles PC would not would be getting the best version of multiplatform games because they would not exist at all. Even CD Projekt Red said The Witcher 3 became what it is because of the console market.

If you think consoles will die and all the casuals will become hermits you are wrong. PC exclusives become more F2P and low budget haven than it already is now.

Never heard the PC sales has raised after 2011.There are many reports proving it.

Oh for fucks sake.

Is this a serious question?

No, they help maintain mainstream interest in the medium. I don't know how anyone could argue otherwise.

I don't see the need of consoles in the modern era. It's not a viable option for most to release a game on one platform anymore we've seen this generation many games failing when they are exclusive to one console. When you buy a console you're buying hardware weaker than a low end gaming PC. It was not that bad in previous generations but that's what you're getting now a console equivalent to a 2-3 year old gaming PC at launch. Consoles are already dying don't think because they are big in the US that the whole world is like that gaming is a worldwide thing.

PC is the platform that's dying. The bulky desktop is a relic of the past, and most PC gaming is pre-teens and little kids playing league of legends on their rinky-dink laptops. The console version of Witcher 3 outsold the PC version 3 to 1. The numbers don't lie, you're living in a fantasy world.

And a lot of the games are still great. Truly wonderful.

This thread again?

@j_assassin: Shockingly, PS3 and Xbox 360 were able to be pirated just as bad as PC. The only downside was, people needed a burner and the cds which was not ideal when PC can do it by mounting the image. This will only get easier to do on newer consoles as the line that makes them unique continues to thin out.

@charizard1605: I agree, please, try not to think of this as pc vs consoles. I'm merely saying, would it benefit games if there was one console/entertainment unit that does the same thing. That's why I don't include Wii or DS. They offer something PC/Xb1/ps4 doesn't. Something beyond exclusive games

@Pray_to_me:Yes, console out sold it. It's like PC is outnumbered 2 to 1. Considering it has 1/3 sales..you know... Ironically enough, most players that do play lol are above the age of 18, the statatistic were released by Riotgames, but you would not care about that. You also would not care that 84% of US households have a PC.

@Berserker1_5: I understand. You're saying you want there to be one machine (or platform, or whatever) for each niche in gaming- so PC serves the PC gaming market, Nintendo covers the segment where it gets those wacky Japanese games, and its own titles, smartphones cover bite sized, cheap gaming, and one console covers the mainstream AAA market. You're saying the issue right now is that there is too much overlap in the value proposition the consoles are providing, and this may be hurting gaming as a whole. Did I get this right?

CDPR also admitted they downgraded Witcher 3 , yeah with consoles devs can expand their market and increase the sales but this doesn't always make the games better ...

They downgraded the visuals...so what? Without the console market the scope of the game would have been much smaller.

Unless you hermits are prepared to donate tons of money from your own pockets Star Citizen style on a regular basis then compromises will be made.

Another thread assuming that every potential player wants to game the same way. How in the actual **** can more money brought in hurt an industry?

If your complaint is oh the AAA hand holding blah blah, then don't play or buy them. There are sports leagues for people that aren't the top league and it isn't detracting from the top pro leagues. Get over this idea that this hobby should cater to your needs and either play games or get a new hobby.

Yes TC, a future of mobile and F2P PC games would have been awesome.

No....

@cainetao11: Actually, that's my point. How does a PS4 differ from XB1? Really, their biggest selling point is exclusive games. You kinda argue the exact same thing i just did except you don't even know it. I'm not arguing about consoles that let you play differently like the Wii. Hello, I want that, I was differentiation between consoles, that would be a good selling point.

when developers play favorites its disregarding of an entire audience and thus turns the audience off of them I feel, yeah I'd say its bad in that respect

consoles that can't upgrade though, this is good, with developers trying to keep games available across multiple platforms it forces them to squeeze more abilities out of older hardware, personally I was sick of always having to update my PCs everytime the latest and greatest games came along, more powerful PCs still get the advantage of better performance anyways

This thread is like a Hermit lovefest. Lonely basement dwellers bragging about their rigs and calling anyone that does have the latest up to the minute PC components a peasant.

Short and long answer, No.

If only you took a few minutes of your time to actually read the thread. I understand it's hard, this is after all a video game forum; but even for a video game forum, I expect someone to have long enough attention spam to actually read a post that consist of less than 100 words. Hard..I know

To make it a bit shorter, i'm talking about having a unified console or a pc, whatever you want to call it. That supports keyboard&mouse or a controller. I want a 1 entertainment unit because the only difference between PS4/xbox1 is exclusives.

I know exactly what you meant and my answer is no thanks. You ask a question and I answered. Maybe you should reread you own title. Also I apologize, I didn't mean to offend you.

@flyincloud1116: You did not offend me. What offends me is that you think I'm here trying to argue why PC>xbox1/ps4. When In fact i'm saying is if they these three units can find a way to either be truly unique or unite as one would benefit us more

@Berserker1_5: @Berserker1_5:i see your point but i was answering in comparison to PC . Like any faction some cant fathom that people and there preferences differ. More important they dont ever need to make sense nor be defended. Why would they? Like I'm going to live by anothers will or for their approval.

@cainetao11: But what is the preference?

@Berserker1_5: mine? Console as i game with friends on them. I do have a gaming pc as well and enjoy using it but where my friends are will always take precedence over graphics and resolution.

Lets cool the jets on that.

Last generation had the Wii and that spoke to a much broader audience of gamers, and that systems audience isn't necessarily gaming on consoles yet. In fact we're ignoring that the consoles sold this gen might not actually be a bigger number than the combined numbers of the PS3/360/Wii did last gen, plus there was a healthier handheld space (that one already isn't going to come close). Throw in how little Triple A games get made, and how few are capable of actually drawing big money, would arguing helping the game industry grow is something they aren't doing. They are more like trying to maintain the status quo, while the big 3 and the big third party pub maintain profits.

But assuming they can't get that smartphone/tablet market in the long run, and the average age of the gamer growing (to damn near 40 btw), that is a huge blow. Those 'filthy casuals' that everyone on this forum loves complaining are more important for this industry's greater health.

god OP..try harder..

Every generation this question is asked about the dominating consoles of their time.

The reality is quite the opposite.

No shit, there’s no doubt CDPR couldn’t build a budget to make W3 without making it a multiplat - and I’m grateful for that - but reducing the marketing costs don’t make a game better ! you know what ..**** it ...so what the game is nothing like its 2013 trailer

LOL at hermits thinking that all hardcore gamers want to game just on PC and everyone else will be satisfied with just cheap mobile games. Hermits need to step out of their bubble and realize that many gamers prefer consoles over PC. It doesn't matter if they can have a better version on PC, they still prefer the experience they get on consoles. I have a very powerful PC that I built for the Oculus Rift, but besides virtual reality games, I still prefer to play games on my consoles and always will.

Why would you do that to yourself?

What do you prefer about the "console experience?" It's literally the same thing except worse in every way.

Well since the Xbox ( the original one ) came out, PC games started to find their way on consol and then PS, Xbox and PC all share the same 3rd party since the 360 came out. I think this is the source of the current situation because fore that, Consol had different games than PC. There wasn't that many 3rd party games that could come out on all system.

As of right now, I think we don't need both the X1 or the PS4 as they pretty much have the same crappy 3rd party games. But I don't think PC is the "be all, end all" as tablet become a huge thing. I can see PC become obsolete in front of what a tablet can offer and is way more accessible and easier to use than a PC.

Consoles will do just fine. Consoles don't hinder games in how they play, just graphics, at least not early in the gen. Devs has to make the games so they work on most gaming capable PC's to sell well anyways, and that means laptops with around the same or less power as the PS4. If everyone thought like Crytek did with Crysis when making games for PC, they would not survive in the market.

I think we had a huge jump last gen with tons of new effects, renderers, physics, animation tech and so on, that utilizes the hardware better. Now we are seeing more developers using all of that in they're games at a higher resolution, and they are satisfied with that.

There´s no disputing the fact that you are wrong.

Consoles are not hurting anybody.

It seems to me the mainstream is moving more to mobile and tablets.

Last gen, almost all video game commercials were console games. Now? I see far more commercials for mobile and tablet games and barely any commercial for console games at all.

I just bought my youngest kid a 3DS XL for her birthday (her mom's idea). It's sitting unused because the kid can't be torn away from her PC.