You can take this headline and replace the word consoles with just about any electronic device and it holds true imo.
this post was submitted on 04 Jul 2026
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Consoles haven't seemed worth the price since like... the PS2 era, maybe PS3.
I might have a little more tolerance for jank than some people, though. Some people are like "I had to go into the settings and change something" like it's a dozen years hard labor.
What I myself don't understand about the whole "I have to go into the settings" spiel is that... How is it a disadvantage?
Modern games pick predetermined settings based on your PC hardware anyway. Don't want to tinker? Don't. You have that option, and it works well.
What you also have is an option to change those settings to YOUR preference. This isn't available on consoles, is it?
Nintendo still making theirs available as physical media. Though their games are overpriced, on the other hand. And basically only the Zelda and Mario games are worth the money to me. So it's basically a really expensive Zelda and Mario machine.
As someone who switched from console to PC, the experience is night and day =w=
Every time I think about replaying a game I have on console I end up thinking "ehhh, but I don't want to deal with not having all the features I want, and booting up the console/noise" etc. If I want to replay something waiting for a steam sale and buying it again unironically feels more worth it, than playing the copy I own and dealing with all the limitations
With GOG you'd even own your copy.
I just like steam for convenience tbh. I know buying from something like gog would be better in terms of ownership of media, but steam offers a lot of stuff I use on a daily basis at this point and it's hard to give that up =w=
The neat thing about pc is that you aren't locked to one or the other
Yis. We love the ability to make choices here :3
Plus steam DRM is easy to remove if you want a drm-less copy. I keep backups of old versions of my games playable this way
This is not specifically true.
You still license a copy; almost no software is sold for ownership. Since day 1 software has been licensed. Even FOSS.
Now, buying it from GOG and getting a complete, offline, DRM-free installer gives you a lot of flexibility with that license. It’s certainly harder to take from you. But you’ve never owned software.
This is the exact way physical copies of games work as well. Still can't be taken away from you.
Well yeah, actually buying the copyright to the software would be quite expensive. Everything is a license to use the software. I don't own the Linux kernel, but to use it I need a copy of it, but I don't own the copyright to it. But I'm licensed to copy the Linux kernel.
You only really own things you've either made yourself, or have purchased the actual copyright... which is probably not for sale and if it is it's going to be in the millions at least. Everything else is licensed.
I can’t be bothered turning my gaming pc these days, ps5 and switch2 have games I am more interested in playing and can just play on the couch
There is something I can’t explain about the experience on console which is better than dealing with PC even if they are also hooked up to the TV
For me we have already reached the point where graphics improvements no longer matter, I just prefer the polished experience and quality standards of exclusives
You should try SteamOS. That's what it's for.
What games are on PS5 and not PC?
The trick is to not even know, nor care what games are available on the ps5.
I guess that makes sense if you already have one. I don't see why anyone would buy a console for the first time now though. My 13 inch laptop is just as portable as a modern handheld console and if I had a TV it would be easier to just connect my laptop than deal with an extra device.
Plus there are thousands of PC exclusive games spanning over 40 years plus basically every console exclusive before the current generation via emulators vs what maybe a hundred exclusive to current consoles?
I don’t get how that makes sense, the price of everything is going up
It’s not like ps5 is going up while PCs are staying the same price
But almost everyone already has a laptop, so they don't need to buy anything new. And if you really need more performance, you could spend the console budget on an external GPU for your laptop.
I guess if your only current computer is ARM or you have a low end chromebook it could make sense?
I'm a PC enthusiast, but I think you're greatly overestimating how much computing power the average, non-computer focused (read: most) people have access to. The "computer" in a ton of households is a smartphone, tablet, or the budget laptop they got their kid for school. Unless they bought the laptop with gaming or demanding productivity in mind, they're not playing anything except older titles or small, non-demanding games.
The idea that "almost everyone already has a laptop" that they can just play games on just isn't a reality.
But almost everyone already has a laptop,
You'd be surprised how untrue this is. Additionally a large proportion of people that do have laptops that aren't really capable of anything more than web browser and office stuff (or macos which can't run the majority of games).
I have to admit as a pc gamer who also plays console that i like the plug and play experience of consoles as well. Usually when i boot up a game it's to take a break from tinkering with linux, only to then get stuck tinkering with game settings lol. With the direction ps6 is going though, it's not worth it anymore to me and i'd rather have to tinker with my games instead of losing all my freedom.
There’s something to be said about developers being able to target standardized hardware, and ship a game pre-loaded with graphics settings already tweaked. Also, it’s nice knowing a game will just work no matter what, with no “Oh right, I switched my audio output to my headset earlier” or whatever.
That said I find my PC experience to be way more satisfying for pretty much every other reason. And the pre-configured graphics settings are a lot less attractive now that devs use TAA by default. I will move heaven and earth to turn off TAA.
Yeah, even though they are still PCs i think that's also one of the advantages of the steam deck/machine. Developers can make graphics presets for that specific hardware like cyberpunk did, or you can just look online and see what graphics settings other people used to get the best experience. And yeah i also despise TAA lol, i actually hooked my ps5 up to a different monitor when i saw it ghosting cause i thought my monitor was broken or something lol. I really hate that most console games don't give you the option to turn it off.
i actually hooked my ps5 up to a different monitor when i saw it ghosting cause i thought my monitor was broken or something lol
This is the thing that bothers me most about TAA. The current industry and many users have this attitude of “There’s no problem. Whatever you’re seeing is probably your fault” gaslighting that makes you second guess yourself.
I’ve never found someone IRL that knows what ghosting I’m talking about. When I describe it or show them clips I took, they always say “Oh, mine doesn’t do that. It must be your settings.” Five times now it’s come to a head where I’ve gone to their house and recreated it on their PC to show them what’s going on.
My last console was a PS4 but even that wasn't exactly plug and play was it? I thought every time you'd bring a game disc home it would usually have to do a major update before it would be willing to launch the game