Why Choose Consoles Over PC?

Why Choose a Console Over PC?

Hello, please take the time to read this as it was intended and please do not assume I am hating on any particular brand or platform.

I just got 9 games for FREE on PC, for an event I had no part in whatsoever. Then you see the disappointment from people who pay a subscription for these games and I can't help but think, why bother with consoles any more? I've only been properly gaming on PC for a little over two months and I already have more games than I can get on a console with barely a penny spent.

The fact that you have to pay to play online is bad enough but to receive games that are just a few quid on their own anyway, hardly seems worth it to me. I get why people play on console, I was a sole console gamer for years but I go where the bargains are and there is not a lot to be found on consoles any more.

PlayStation Plus was like a dream world sent from Japanese Gods once, now it is disappointment after disappointment each month (sure there are going to be exceptions occasionally) but you are paying for these games, they are not gifting them to you. I cancelled my PS Plus subscription last year in February and few months earlier on XBOX Live and I kept looking for reasons to buy a new subscription off both but they never really came along.

With Steam Sales, it has become for me the only gaming platform worthy of my investment.

I'm not being a hater or an elitist, I know this will not apply to everybody, I just don't understand why more do not move to PC when that seems like the best option available these days. I am also well aware that PC gaming has it's issues as well.

As gaming has evolved along with everything else, so do people's tastes and desires but as I see it consoles are fast losing a reason to exist with PC's heading to the living room.

The console that I consider worth having is a Nintendo Wii U but even that has multiple issues with lack of third party support. So it's a no buy for me and it is looking very likely to be dropped soon with the release of the NX.

I get that consoles are far easier or at least they used to be, but where is the cut off point in finally saying... No, a console just isn't worth it any longer?

So I suppose what I am asking is, how much does platform loyalty stretch to?

EDIT: This question was asked as a result of reading the comments on an article on Gamespot, where people were complaining about the lack of decent games via the subscription service of PlayStation. Sorry some take this as a reason to argue. If their own users were not complaining of yet another month of lackluster games, then I wouldn't have began this discussion.

Thanks to all who took the time to read it properly and answered me civilly.

some people just don't want the hassle of PC. I get it. Don't get me wrong PC is definitely way more accessible than in the past but people are lazy. Also exclusives. Me I like PC and consoles. I never saw the need to draw a line in the sand.

They're quick and mostly easy to use, and highly accessible. People like having dedicated devices they can leave under their TV. Not too to mention both consoles share a large number of games with PC anyway. They're viable options, though I use my laptop more myself.

It's simply because they want to play a console game.

Most of them are casuals they don't care about all that stuff and Americans are ignorant they don't represent the world PC gaming is standard in places like Russia, China and South Korea.

1- You don't need to spend $5000 to enjoy current gen games
2- You don't need to upgrade every 6 months
3- No viruses
4- Game settings aren't a hassle
5- You don't have to update your drivers on a weekly basis

Is that enough for you?

Sports games and exclusives.

Plus, I like keyboard and mouse for many of my games. If the PS4 or XB1 have keyboard and mouse game support, I would have bought them back in their Day 1. Their graphics are good enough to me.

When you have to ask. You have already made up your mind.

This thread again? has it been a week already?

console exclusive games, cheaper entry point, what system your friends have.

I have a PC with a GTX 560 ti that I built last gen, I played some games like Crysis and bought loads of Steam games during summer sales, I didn't play any of them, I just like console gaming more and I won't be investing in upgrading my PC this gen

My favorite games are fighting games, RPG's especially JRPGs and action games. PC has come a long way with getting these types of games that consoles are known for, it really has, but it still hasn't caught up with the quality of these games on console especially the high profile exclusive versions.

High profile PC exclusives (MMO, RTS, MOBA) do absolutely nothing for me so there is little to no draw there.

On the flip side, consoles have also come a long way in getting the type of games PC is known for. Many of the high profile PC exclusives that were known to get are coming to consoles in a big way.

The way I see it I could jump on PC bandwaggon and miss some of the biggest JRPGs, action games and fighting games or stay a console gamer and miss out on the biggest RTS, MMOs and MOBAs that I could care less for.

It's not a hard choice for me. There is no loyalty to consoles, they just have more of the best games I want to play.

^It is that simple.

Cheaper hardware. Also, not everyone is obsessed with graphical quality. And I prefer couch gaming :p

This. I spent well under that for a build with about as good as hardware as you can get right now. Moore's law is dead and we are reaching the limit of computer speed and such with our current tech. No longer do you have close to 50%-100% performance gains with each gen/year. Its maybe 20% if that.

Computer gaming is so easy these days with OSes having most of the drivers built in and everything being plug and play. Should have tried computer gaming back in the day when you had to worry about drivers and IRQ's and such with Win 98. :P

A number of reasons that has been answered a plethora of times. I tend to keep a PC going, along with consoles so I get the best of everything.

Exclusives are of course one reason, but even ignoring exclusives, I even prefer to play multiplats on a console over a PC. The three biggest reasons for me are:

• Playing on a console is a more relaxing experience to me. I don't have to deal with any hassles and since I already spend most of my day on a PC, when I want to relax, I need to get away from the PC.
• It is easier for me to play multiplayer with my friends on a console than on a PC.
• I prefer physical media over digital media and physical media is close to dead on a PC.

1. Yawn. I've spent less than £800 pounds upgrading my PC over the last 5-6 years and it plays every current gen game at higher settings and FPS then the PS4.

2. Another fallacy. The only upgrade I've spent money on since the start of 2015 is £80 for 16gb RAM. I got a GTX 970 in 2014 and my CPU is from 2012. Most PC gamers upgrade gradually over time.

3. I haven't ever had a virus with my current build.

4. Game settings are one of the great things about PC gaming - the ability to adjust performance to get the best out of your hardware. If you don't like them, you simply use something like Nvidia Experience for a one-click setup.

5. Updating takes less than 5 minutes and most people only do it when there's a new release with game-ready drivers that are known to improve performance. I would say I update once every 1-2 months.

I started gaming on Consoles when I was a kid. It was way more mainstream than PC gaming and also more accessible. I later owned gaming PC back in late 90s and since then I've been gaming on PC primarily.

PCs these days are a lot more accessible than they used to be back then. Consoles, still have their place and I've seen some of my friends moving on to Consoles from PCs just because they don't game much these days and they just want to shoot bunch of people in FPS games when they return home.

Those who still game several hours per day, are still using PCs as their lead platform for gaming.

The reason's why I don't play on the PC is because I'm in front of a computer all day long at work, don't want to come home and sit in front of another one. I don't want to spend thousands of dollar's to keep up with the new graphics cards all the time to game.

Lol?

1. Who the hell spends that much on a PC?
2. You don't need to upgrade a PC every 6 months, this also shows how little knowledge you have about what you're talking about.
3. Only idiots get viruses.
4. What settings are a hassle on PC? I haven't seen them yet. You mean the ones that enable you to decide how your game is gonna look? I'd call that awesome, not a "hassle".
5. You still have to update your games and OS frequently on consoles.

So no, that was not enough. That was fucking stupid.

Best part of these treads is always the funny excuses people make up

And I already pointed out the perks so I don't claim there isn't point to consoles.

Nothing more irritating if you didn't know the GPU or audio device on your computer when trying to install a DOS game. The list of GPUs alone was astounding! If you didn't pick the right one, the games would crash. Then having to deal with IRQ's......then again, that's what caught my attention with computers. I enjoyed the challenge they gave and when I got a game to run properly the victory was all that much more sweet.

Within the past few years it's becoming the norm for a lot of games to auto detect (with decent efficiency) to pick the best graphic settings based on your GPU.

I can see why people will still pick a console over a PC. Console is basically plug and play - you insert the game, it might download/install some files and then you're on your way. You only have to worry about adjusting the brightness, music/sound volume and maybe some button settings - you're up and playing the game within 5-10 minutes.

PC games, you have to download, install, adjust graphic settings and check key layout for your m/kb - this whole thing could take you 5-30+ minutes (depending on the size of the game and your internet connection speed if you're downloading it). A lot of people don't have the time for this or think this is really hard to do.

For the superior visuals of course. :P

Just a old lazy gamer and the console works for me.

@howmakewood:

I didn't claim anything. I just wanted a civil discussion on the matter not an argument.

According to the Book of Truth in a Bubble there are 4 fringe reasons to:

1.: You need to game NOW and you need to play new games that are not indie games that run on your old ass computer. You need to play them now and you can't save money before you get something. (Money loans or PC payment plans are not ideal at the moment.)

2.: You are absolutely in love with this one franchise that will never come to PC. And you don't care so much about anything else as long as you can get your hands on the latest iterations of that franchise.

3.: You don't want to sit comfortably behind a desk. You want to sit as ergonomically ill advised as possible. You don't care about your body. You had a hard day of work. You don't want to play a game that requires you to be on top of things. You just want to throw your legs over the couch and play some relaxing games. Or maybe shout at some people through your head set. (Although Steam Big Picture mode can solve this for some people, not everyone can place their PC in the living room. And Steam Link is not perfect.)

4.: Your friends are not really into gaming. But you really like to play games with your friends. And they don't have gaming PC's because they rarely play games, or maybe they're just not that smart. All they have are consoles. So if you want to play games with your friends, you'll have to surrender your good intentions and buy a console too. We'll forgive you for it.

Dos gaming was so much fun though. I remember getting the shareware version of Commander keen 4 when I was a small kid. I used to love installing and running the games via the dos prompts. I also fondly remember shareware Wolfenstein 3d. I played it over and over again countless times.

I do also remember the first time I played it at my uncles who actually had sound blaster speakers, I couldnt believe the music and sound effects. Our Samsung PC only had that crappy little cone shaped speaker which looking back just sounded terrible :).

I also remember my brothers friend burned what I believe was nhl 95, and it was like on 17 hard disks, haha. The good old days of pc gaming when you could buy shareware hard-disks of popular pc games in grocery stores.

But yea in terms of this gen, Cad dollar and the affect it has on the price for each pc component held me back (comparing PC Part picker prices between US to CAD just pissed me off), so I choose a PS4. instead.

As well my brother lives on the West Coast and had won a PS4 through work so its been nice to co-op some games with him. Looking forward to Broforce next month :). I can't really complain, I have been enjoying the games I got and I am very happy with the price I paid for the console and what I am getting out of it.

PC is a little more intimidating I think. Consoles are a little more streamlined and accessible

Can't afford one, money doesn't grow on trees. I do get an open few months when games don't release in the summer so that's when I plan on building a medium range pc with plans to upgrade.

I want to warn you, in case you don't have experience with this, that building a PC with upgrading in mind hardly ever works out the way you thought it would. Even when you intentionally leave in one weaker component so that you can upgrade it later, in a couple years time you'll find that you may probably just as well buy a new PC. At least that has been my experience so far. You find out that the new hot processors use new slots that don't fit on your old motherboard, so you'll need a new motherboard. Or that GPU you want is not dropping in price for years and that would end up costing half a PC anyway.

Like... If you really know what you're doing and where the market is going I bet you can plan upgrades years ahead, but I've had no luck with that. So these days I get a good system that I can afford and then I just consider that in 5 years time or so, I'll probably need to save up the money for a new PC. Just saying. That's my experience but maybe you'll have more luck. And that sounds even more expensive but you might be surprised to find yourself saving money by gaming on PC. For instance, I could have bought Rise of the Tomb Raider for $45 on XB1 but I found a $35 PC 'Survivors Edition' today. As someone who plays quite a few games per month, it really really adds up.

@punksterdaddy: Ease of use, controller, friends, larger community on popular games, and far less chance of running into cheats like auto-aim bots.

Consoles usually offer larger online communities and fewer cheaters. That's why I end up playing shooters and sports titles more on consoles. I buy them on both.

Add

With the money you spend upgrading Rams, graphics cards n´stuff to keep at pace as the games are being released by the end of the cycle of consoles you can easily purchase a couple of the newest ( or most recent generation ) consoles.

@suicidesn0wman:

I get all that on PC too. Although I've yet to run into cheats.

Its mainly because of the hype and wanting to fit in with their school friends.

the money you spend upgrading is often overstated, if you add all the upgrade spend, with the total spent on games PC will turn out cheaper over the generation. Providing you buy more than just a handful of games per year.

As for original points, others have already responded but ill respond again

1 - $5000 is way to much, its possible for less than $1000.

2 - I got my PC in 2013, only upgraded from 7850 to a gtx 970 since then, I dont expect to need to upgrade for another few years either.

3- If you use your PC for gaming you wont get viruses, if you use it for porn sites then you will.

4 - You can automate game settings in most games, and there not a hassle they are an option, I know some console gamers would like game settings for visuals.

5 - Updating your driver is about as frequent as console OS updates, but it normally downloads and installs faster and you can carry on using the PC while it does so. Console OS updates are a bigger hassle.

1. Don't have to spend that much on a PC either. My $1000 CDN build blows the PS4 and XB1 away in performance.

2. NO PC gamer upgrades every "6 months". Stop peddling this disingenuous bullshit.

3. Get anti-virus software, durrrrrr

4. This is actually a limitation of the console games. The texture quality, shadow levels, lighting effects, environment details, foliage, physics, particles... that's all restricted by the game maker. You play on the settings they determine (ie. what ever the weaker hardware can handle) Want higher res textures? Can't have them. Want frame rates higher than 30 fps? Not happening with some exceptions like racers and fighters which are linear and easier to optimize the assets. But forget seeing high frame rate on large open world games on consoles. Flexibility and customization to give user control over visual fidelity and performance is a plus for PC, not consoles.

5. Drivers hardly update every week, and they're for the most part automated. Oh and don't console games have patch updates now? ;)

From an ergonomic perspective, in my personal opinion controllers in many cases are superior. If you work 8 hours a day more at a computer job, and then come home and spend more time with a Mouse and Keyboard, its not conducive to long term health, especially when it comes to RSI. I can hold and use a 360 controller for multiple hours with no strain, whereas its a bit much to want to come home and continue to use a KB & Mouse specifically for gaming.

I use an ergonomic keyboard and trackball mouse (i use the logitech marble at work with my left hand and then the logtech M570 at home). However they are not the best for precise PC gaming. So yes they are a benefit to many people.

Why are PC gamers so concerned with the fact that some prefer consoles?

@punksterdaddy: I stick with consoles due to the convenience. I know when I buy a game it will run on my system. I do not have to worry about system requirements. Not saying either platform is better just my preference. People argue graphics are better on PC but the truth is it's hard to tell with the naked eye besides I think gameplay matters more.

Yeah but that plays a big part in peoples choices. i.e. I've got about 80 friends on Live, 15 on PSN and 2 on Steam, why in the world would I ever choose Steam as my primary platform when I literally have no one to play against/with? As for the cheating, it isn't all that hard to build an aim bot that see's through walls, I could probably build a custom bot in a few days, not all that hard when you know what you're doing.

I have a gaming PC and a PS4. PC can run almost every game at max or high settings. I still prefer my PS4.

If gaming is one of your primary past times, then you should never choose a console over a PC. If gaming is just something you do from time to time during the week, then consoles are fine.

Consoles have their place which is why they sell so well.

@terminalyinsane:

Thank you. That is an honest answer.

Those were the reasons keeping me from jumping to PC sooner than I did, but then this generation rolled out and could no longer see a viable future FOR ME, in that console market. As it turned out, it wasn't as hard as I imagined it to be. It was daunting yes but once I began doing some research, I soon realised I could buy a PC that would not break the bank and so far it has paid off.

So far I have spent £450 and that should hopefully last me a long time to come yet.

The best games the industry has to offer arent on PC,

I can't tell if that's in favour of the PC, in that we know you don't have to do those things to game on the PC or if that's in favour of consoles for the same reason. But I think you're also a PC gamer, so I don't know if this is also some sort of sarcasm, because it doesn't always translate over the net.

But if that was bait, pretty good lol, you riled some people up.

@suicidesn0wman:

Okay but you didn't start with 80 friends, you gathered them over time same as I did.

You would've had 3 friends on Steam when I asked you for your Steam ID last week. ;p

Look I do appreciate your points, I do see what you mean for the most part. I just wanted to raise the debate on console over PC to see what the reasons were for not more people were buying a PC for gaming as a result of the complaints from PS4 owners over their "Boring games," From PS+.

PCs are for hardcores and consoles are for casuals. lol don't hav it console games.

:-) jus stirrin

What makes someone specifically a hardcore gamer vs casual when referencing PC vs console. I have seen peoples trophy/achievement lists online and they have logged obviously a tonne of hours into gaming on consoles. I am sure there are plenty of people who input plenty of hours per week on console just like on PC...