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Comment on There Is No Reason To Buy Another PlayStation Or Xbox

ConstableJelly@piefed.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

I’m leaning this way for the first time in decades. I’ve had every Playstation console from the beginning, plus Xbox and Nintendo systems here and there. As the indie game market has evolved in the past 5-10 years, I’ve found my playing preferences transition away from big, detailed, AA/A, as I’m sure many others have as well. I bought a Steam OS Legion Go last year and have been enchanted by the flexibility of PC gaming, even as it’s limited for me to what can be played on a handheld.

I strongly disagree with any notion that consoles have had no value comparable to PCs for years. I think PC gamers vastly underestimate the value of being able to one-click purchase a console, pull it out of the box, plug it in, and play. I’ve explored gaming PC purchases since I bought the Legion, and there is a comparably steep commitment required to research CPUs, GPUs, storage, cooling, and RAM, and how their combination will affect performance and longevity. You can buy pre-built, but you’re looking at roughly $1k for a lower mid-level machine, plus peripherals and maintenance. Perhaps this is part of the fun for some people, but it’s definitely a barrier for many.

On the other hand, the distance between PCs and consoles continues to widen, where the newly released PS5 was only barely a good value for its power compared to PCs when it released and quickly fell behind again. Similarly, I’ve enjoyed being able to experiment with games I wouldn’t otherwise have played via the Playstation Plus catalog, but no subscription media service has ever maintained or increased its value over time, and Sony has already raised prices while the quality of its offerings continues to wane. And of course the abandonment of physical media means that we are further locked into an already tight ecosystem.

Ultimately, one of the big reasons I’m finally considering a PC purchase in place of the next console generation is that I’ve been playing with a home media server the past couple years and recently migrated to Linux Mint. My confidence level with feeling capable of managing a PC effectively has grown enough that the aforementioned barrier feels less intimidating. Hopefully the Steam Machine will close the gap for some console players feeling similarly, but the inability to upgrade the GPU feels too big a deal when I could just make the slightly longer leap to an actual PC.

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fuckwit_mcbumcrumble@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

and there is a comparably steep commitment required to research CPUs, GPUs, storage, cooling, and RAM, and how their combination will affect performance and longevity

I mean those same things affect consoles too, you just don’t get a choice. Sony prioritized keeping the PS5 quiet so the CPU and GPU run pretty warm. If you add an SSD it’s just hot boxing itself in that awful enclosure. You can always just yolo it like you would when buying a console. Then if it’s bad on a PC you at least have the option to fix it.

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- ConstableJelly@piefed.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  Understood, and I concede the benefit of being able to choose and fix on a PC, it’s definitely better. But it’s almost more of a difference in perception. For someone unfamiliar with PC builds, it’s not a matter of not having a choice but not having to choose or having to fix anything. It’s the promise that it will work on its own (notwithstanding the reality of hardware failures in general).
  
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HarkMahlberg@kbin.earth ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
It's funny, the Steam Machine has a weird identity problem.

We talk about it like it's a PC, and what a detriment it is to not be able to upgrade the GPU, like why else do you have a PC. But you can't upgrade console GPU's either. And it's still a plug-in-and-play box, no building required.

We also talk about it like it's a console, and what a detriment it is that a console costs over a thousand dollars and is digital-only. But the next generation consoles are almost certainly going to be as expensive if not more, with no disc drive either.

The SM is a glass half full and a glass half empty. It's the best of both consoles and PC's, or the worst of both worlds.

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- Morgikan@fedia.io ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  The way I view Steam Machines is just as a delivery system for SteamOS. I don't know if Valve even thinks Steam Machines will themselves be successful. I'm thinking they are betting on enough users adopting Steam Machines that they will get a foothold with their OS and start pushing Microsoft out.
  
  And that kinda makes sense as Microsoft is going the "AI first" route and focusing on productivity. That leaves an opening (if albeit a small one currently) for companies like Valve to pull users into their "Gamers first" SteamOS.
  
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