Personal preferences and experiences aside, consoles are a big source of e-waste - they come as an addition to your (presumably already existing) PC, can only be used to play certain games (you might need several different consoles to cover all of the exclusives), they can’t be upgraded and lose their relevance over time as games stop being released for older models.
Surely pc components are an equal source of e-waste? Personally I think PC gaming is in a weird place with all the unnecessary RGB obsession and endless consumerism of upgrades.
presumably already existing
I think you’d be surprised how uninterested the average person is in owning and using a pc nowadays so we can’t easily assume that.
lose their relevance over time
Also applies to pc gaming… It’s not like consoles stop working when a new one is released.
Anyway I’m not here to argue for one or the other as they can just happily coexist.
Exactly. Consoles exist as a super low barrier to entry, value play for casual gaming. If you just want to have something on your living room tv, a console instantly achieves that, with no debugging or technical know-how required whatsoever.
I switched from a Series X to a living room gaming PC last year and absolutely adore it, but I’m also willing to spend hours tinkering with emulators, playnite, settings, etc. I actually enjoy messing with it, so this is way better for me, but I’m absolutely aware that it’s been a massive amount of fiddling to get my experience this clean and integrated, and I’ll never manage something like Quick Resume.
If you want it to “just work” absolutely go with a console. If you like to tinker, are bothered by nitpicky details, play a lot and need to cut costs, or just really care about features like higher refresh rates, and aren’t put off by a lot of settings and performance testing, then 100% go for a PC.
I have a Series S and quick resume and backward compatibility are the best features. The current generation is generally underwhelming though so I’m not surprised if pc gaming is on the rise.
There doesn’t need to be a winner, but this was a very, very slow trend over the past 20 years for one line to cross the other line, and it didn’t used to be close.
It’s not like there needs to be a winner here. Console or PC gaming is just a personal preference and will always coexist.
Personal preferences and experiences aside, consoles are a big source of e-waste - they come as an addition to your (presumably already existing) PC, can only be used to play certain games (you might need several different consoles to cover all of the exclusives), they can’t be upgraded and lose their relevance over time as games stop being released for older models.
Surely pc components are an equal source of e-waste? Personally I think PC gaming is in a weird place with all the unnecessary RGB obsession and endless consumerism of upgrades.
I think you’d be surprised how uninterested the average person is in owning and using a pc nowadays so we can’t easily assume that.
Also applies to pc gaming… It’s not like consoles stop working when a new one is released.
Anyway I’m not here to argue for one or the other as they can just happily coexist.
I watched a friend of mine have a progressively worse time as he tried to play all of his old Live Arcade games on his Xbox 360 in 2024.
Exactly. Consoles exist as a super low barrier to entry, value play for casual gaming. If you just want to have something on your living room tv, a console instantly achieves that, with no debugging or technical know-how required whatsoever.
I switched from a Series X to a living room gaming PC last year and absolutely adore it, but I’m also willing to spend hours tinkering with emulators, playnite, settings, etc. I actually enjoy messing with it, so this is way better for me, but I’m absolutely aware that it’s been a massive amount of fiddling to get my experience this clean and integrated, and I’ll never manage something like Quick Resume.
If you want it to “just work” absolutely go with a console. If you like to tinker, are bothered by nitpicky details, play a lot and need to cut costs, or just really care about features like higher refresh rates, and aren’t put off by a lot of settings and performance testing, then 100% go for a PC.
I have a Series S and quick resume and backward compatibility are the best features. The current generation is generally underwhelming though so I’m not surprised if pc gaming is on the rise.
There doesn’t need to be a winner, but this was a very, very slow trend over the past 20 years for one line to cross the other line, and it didn’t used to be close.