There was a time when I thought consoles were (and would always be) the best way to play. They were so much easier and faster than PCs and I’ve always much preferred a gamepad to keyboard controls. Of course, the years have seen most, if not all, the advantages of console gaming slowly get whittled away by technology. Now, PCs can install and load up a game just as fast as any of the modern consoles, and you can play using whatever control interface you want.

PC even has quite a few advantages now, granting user access to the wide world of mods and the lowest prices in gaming. This doesn’t even scratch the surface of stuff like peripheral prices, emulation and overall performance. It’s only barrier now is the initial cost of the machine, and even that has come down in recent years. To be honest, it’s enough to have me looking at my PS5 and Xbox and wondering exactly why it is that I didn’t just use that money on a PC instead.

Well, I suppose I’m not wondering that hard. I know why I’m still on PS5 and Xbox, and it’s almost entirely because my friends are all still on there. If I want to hang out and play something, it’s gotta be on PS5, Xbox and Switch. Everyone’s on these, so that’s what I gotta use too. However, with crossplay becoming more and more of a thing, PC ports becoming better and more common, and even Nintendo stuff getting modded support on PC too, I can’t help but wonder if even that reason will fade one day too. Once that happens, will there be any reason to favor PC over a console? I honestly don’t think so.

Console exclusives all seem to come to PC sooner or later, even PlayStation ones these days, and all of Xbox’s stuff is on PC via GamePass. On PC, you don’t have to pay a subscription fee for online play like you do on consoles and apps like Discord take care of all the party functionality one could want. PC is where most smaller gamesmake their debut now, and it plays host to lots of stuff that we just plain may never get on console. Lethal Company is one example that immediately comes to mind. It looks like a blast to play with friends, but I’m stuck on PlayStation, so I can only look on through YouTube and the like.

Then there’s the whole console generation thing. If you invest money in a top-tier PC, you’ll be able to play most things reasonably well for the next ten years. Meanwhile, it’s only been four years since the PS5 and Xbox Series consoles released, and both Sony and Microsoft have already started talking about what’s coming next. I don’t know about you, but I’m not really looking forward to having to get yet another machine. Having to deal with the inevitable scalping issue again isn’t going to be fun either. I’d much rather have a machine that’s going to last a good long while, you know?

I suppose all this is to say that I’m not so sure that console gaming makes all that much sense anymore outside of those who want to continue buying physical, but even that seems to be going away for console. Microsoft has been talking about going publisher-only like Sega once did, and Sony doesn’t seem to be all that interested in continuing to support physical too.

Personally, I still prefer physical in theory, but I haven’t actually bought a physical game in I dunno how long, and that was for the Switch since I don’t have to worry about baked-in language settings on that. Consoles are getting closer to PCs in terms of price too…so, yeah. Perhaps the age of consoles is coming to a close (for me at least).

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How do you feel about console gaming vs PC these days? Does it still offer any real advantages to you? How long do you think we’re going to continue seeing gaming boxes like PS and Xbox produced?

Image is promotional artwork for PS5