I think you’re underestimating the number of people who just don’t want to take on the secondary hobby of building a PC in the first place.
TechAnon@lemmy.world 3 days ago
I’m starting to think consoles are cooked. The massive jumps in technology between console generations have turned into small incremental steps. The game quality has dropped (independent games and a few others are exceptions). PC’s used to be slow to boot and load a game vs consoles and also required updates to download, but now PCs are quick and updates are mostly automatic. Consoles used to be nice to just turn on and play without thinking about all that other stuff, yet now they require downloads and updates as well. Loading times aren’t much better either. Consoles used to also be very cheap compared to PCs, but now with the “next gen” being around $1000 the price difference isn’t that huge anymore - especially when you factor in modular updates that can be done to a PC to cheaply extend it’s life. One of the last hold outs for consoles were physical games and now they’re taking that away too.
moakley@lemmy.world 2 days ago
godsammitdam@lemmy.zip 2 days ago
Cyberpower. iBuyPower. Even Starforge. There’s a bunch of builders out there to remove that “scariness.”
It’s a personal choice, but if they were willing to spend 5-10 minutes to download something like Bazzite and click the 10 total clicks to install it, you’d achieve a console-like experience too.
The information is out there, it’s just not forcefed to you because of a massive marketing budget.
Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 days ago
Considering building a PC is too much, how do you figure that they will week out Linux, choose a distro, and successfully install it.
godsammitdam@lemmy.zip 2 days ago
I’m not sure if you ignored both but:
As the original commenter said, pricing of next gen consoles will be $1000+. Which puts pricing into PC ballpark.
I said there are system integrators, always have been, to buy a prebuilt system.
So “too much” both fiscally and laboriously aren’t true anymore.
And I mentioned it, but choosing Bazzite is a locked down system. Installing it takes about 10 clicks of your mouse.
They could ask a friend. Or google it.
How braindead do you think people are? If they talk to anyone they’ll easily come across these ideas. Linux just jumped from 4% desktop usage to over 10%. So people aren’t completely gone. Enough friction and they’ll look for alternatives.
If they play sports games I can’t help them though. They’re already on life support.
Pyr_Pressure@lemmy.ca 2 days ago
I built my first PC 6 years ago, before PS5 was released.
My PC can still play new release AAA games at high quality graphics and probably will for a number of years still… when it starts to slack a couple hundred $ and it will be good as new.
Was pricey up front but in the end better quality, more choice, and longer lasting.
TechAnon@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Me too. AM4 platform. Just upgraded the CPU to a 5800X3D and will get a 5070 TI (maybe super?) soon. This old machine will out perform a PS6 and I can use it as a regular PC as well. The price difference (assuming I would have purchased a PS5/pro and will have purchased a PS6) is minimal especially if you consider (which you have) the higher quality gaming experience.
zqps@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
Not to forget obligatory subscriptions.
Buddahriffic@lemmy.world 2 days ago
While I don’t think that the next console generation will flop entirely, I do strongly suspect that it won’t be as successful as previous ones have been and will lead to a shift where consoles are just cheap streaming boxes that support a subscription to a cloud gaming service, which will eventually be replaced by a single device that can connect to whichever services you want.
PC gaming will be similar for most AAA titles (and in fact will be one of the devices that can support these services), though indie devs will hold out until the requirement of owning a PC leaves only a tiny market.
TechAnon@lemmy.world 2 days ago
That’s an interesting take and I can see things moving in that direction. The problem for the console makers is at that point, anyone can make a dumb box to stream with very cheap hardware.
That means the fight will be over exclusives. It’s going to look like streaming services, huh? $15/mo for PS network, $15/mo for Xbox network… Yuck. At that point I’ll stick to indie games locally on PC.