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I don’t think I’ll ever understand people that buy consoles, especially for FPS games. The controls are terrible, the FPS is terrible, the display is probably t

I don’t think I’ll ever understand people that buy consoles, especially for FPS games. The controls are terrible, the FPS is terrible, the display is probably terrible if they’re using a TV, and the number one reason I will never understand: paying money if you want to play multiplayer. So you’ve already paid money for the console, you paid an exorbitant price for a game that is rarely on sale, and now you have to pay _more_ money to Sony/Microsoft so that you can use the internet? What the actual fuck? I can’t understand how console players aren’t rioting about this. Imagine the outrage if Microsoft prevented you from playing an online game on PC saying “Please buy a Windows+ subscription for online features”. I bought a PS4 to play Crash Bandicoot when I wasn’t sure it will ever come out on PC (also fuck exclusives - a whole another debate), but since I bought it on Steam the console is a glorified HBO player. I don’t even use it for Netflix because using my fire TV stick is faster.

epanchin 6y ago
A PlayStation 5 is £450 and will smoothly play any game I buy for it. PlayStation+ for 7 years is £350. Total cost excluding games is £800 for 7 years of smooth gameplay. An £800 PC wouldn’t even play current games smoothly, never mind releases in 7 years.
- ChuckNorris89 6y ago
  >An £800 PC wouldn’t even play current games smoothly Why do people assume you need a million $ PC to play current games smoothly? Is it the tech youtubers/influencers like Linus to blame for this madness where everything needs to be run at 4k 300Hz ULTRA settings to count as PC gaming? PC gaming hardware for a good experience is more affordable than people think. A 850-900 Euro PC (for us over the channel) with an RTX 2060 will definitely play all AAA titles very smoothly. Sure, not in native 4K, but consoles games(even next gen) are also not native 4K/ultra settings but rendered in lower fidelity then upscaled to whatever your TV output is. >never mind releases in 7 years. That PC will most definitely play games 7 years from now but on lower settings which will still match the visual fidelity of the 7 year old console as the game developers will have to lower game details to make the game playable on the then outdated console hardware.
  - effingwewt 6y ago
    He also forgot you can simply keep upgrading you PC, and your PC can play all your old games without having to repurchase them. Also, if you added another $800 to your PC every 7 years it would still outperform a console. Also a gaming PC is still a usable computer, a console is not. Therefore a home PC can pay for itself by letting you code on it or whatever it is you may do. This is what worries me with younger generations. Just the other day when google shut down google music a top comment was pretty much 'sorry boomers no one keeps mp3s anymore we all stream get lost dinosaurs'[1] as if that streaming service would always be there...in a thread about a huge music SAAS shutting down! [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25066751 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25066751
    - jamespo 6y ago
      A lot of people want to play games on the couch with a controller, not hunched over a desk which is the typical pc experience.
      - effingwewt 6y ago
        Which can also be done on PC even wireless controller such as gasp PS4 and Xbone controllers.
    - mhh__ 6y ago
      That and you are going to end up buying a PC of some kind anyway because you can't work on a console
  - pandaman 6y ago
    A 7 years old PC GPU equivalent to 2060 today is the Kepler GPU like Geforce 660, if you think you can match PS4 visual fidelity on that then you have not seen either one or another or both.
- ErikVandeWater 6y ago
  The better idea is to get a laptop $400-800 more expensive than the one you were looking at. That way you get benefit of performance across your laptop experience. With the amount of time anyone spends on a computer, the investment is worth it.
- mhh__ 6y ago
  An £800 PC shouldn't struggle with anything below 1440p. My PC cost that much 2 or 3 years ago and it barely turns the fans on playing most games even now
loriverkutya 6y ago
> I don’t think I’ll ever understand people that buy consoles Because I buy it once and I can play each and every game in the next 5-7 years without spendig money on hardware upgrade. > The controls are terrible I'm ok with them, I'm not into hardcore competitive multi fps >the FPS is terrible you mean you cannot get 60 FPS for each and every game? Yeah sure, but I don't really need it. >the display is probably terrible if they’re using a TV why would it be? > paying money if you want to play multiplayer I usually buy ps+ when it is discounted, so I pay about $5 in a month and I usually get two free games for that price. >you paid an exorbitant price for a game that is rarely on sale You can buy ps4 games secondhand usually half price if you wait a month after the release, at least in the uk. Also, even AAA titles are heavily discounted during the summer sale on ps4. So you probably payed much more for hardware upgrades than I payed for the console and for the games in the last 7 years since ps4 is out :)
egypturnash 6y ago
Costs less, lets you kick back on a couch, setup and maintenance is a couple orders of less magnitude less complicated, much smaller attack surface for malware. Oh yeah, and the internet subscription also tends to come with a constant stream of free games. Every month there’s a couple new things to play that cost more than your month’s subscription.
- pdpi 6y ago
  > much smaller attack surface for malware. And much smaller blast radius too. I don't do home banking on my xbox.
  - ChuckNorris89 6y ago
    Malware on a large scale on computers, be them PCs, Macs or Linux hasn't been a problem for years unless you as a user engage in downloading shady stuff from dodgy sources. The reason consoles are safer is that you can't do any dodgy downloads on them beyond the manufacturer's walled garden, similar to how mobile devices work, not because they have magic security pixie dust making them invulnerable to malware, especially since they share the same X86 hardware as PCs.
    - MaxBarraclough 6y ago
      > The reason consoles are safer is that you can't do any dodgy downloads on them beyond the manufacturer's walled garden, similar to how mobile devices work, not because they have magic security pixie dust making them invulnerable to malware, especially since they share the same X86 hardware as PCs. That's not the whole story. The Xbox takes sandboxing very seriously, and provides isolation way beyond a typical PC. See for instance [0]. Recent generations of Xbox and PlayStation have been based on AMD64, but I don't see that this is a major factor. edit It's a pity they don't offer decent keyboard+mouse support. Being able to use a console as a serious desktop web browser would be a very useful feature. [0] https://youtu.be/U7VwtOrwceo?t=1180 https://youtu.be/U7VwtOrwceo?t=1180
      - 6y ago
mensetmanusman 6y ago
To add to this, if you don’t play often enough, when you do want to jump on the couch and play with a friend, you have to wait 15 minutes for your console to upgrade.
- Erlich_Bachman 6y ago
  Are you saying that PCs/games/Steam/ubisoftbsmanager/etc don't never have to upgrade in most inconvenient times? Beecause they certainly do.
- zuppy 6y ago
  this is not the way it has been on ps4, for sure it is not the way it works on ps5. ps4 can do updates when it is on stand by. i don’t know about xbox, but i presume it is the same.
shocks 6y ago
Because I already spent all day on my desktop.
tapoxi 6y ago
I used to play games on a PC but I switched over to PS4 (and will probably pick up a PS5 when available). Sony makes a ton of blockbuster single-player games like Ghost of Tsushima, God of War, and The Last of Us that I can't get anywhere else. The display is fine (I have a 4K HDR TV, which are now commonplace) and I can relax on my couch without messing around with a computer.
ineedasername 6y ago
Why do people buy consoles? It has very little to do with controls, and everything to do with price & conveninece. Because a PC gaming system is much much more expensive. Take Horizon: Zero Dawn. It runs just fine on a 7-year old PS4 console. If you want to play on a PC, you need a PC that, at the level of a budget DIY system, will cost you around $600. This doesn't even take into account the fact that this particular game didn't come to PC for 3.5 years.
kingaillas 6y ago
>I don’t think I’ll ever understand people that buy consoles They are flat-out easier to setup and maintain for the bulk of the customer base. For example, setting up multiple users (family accounts) is a breeze on my PS4 and Switch, because that is a use case they pay attention to. Meanwhile over on my PC, Steam supports sharing (family view) but it only seems to work from the same base Windows account. What the hell is the point of that; if I'm not around the kids can download and install all kinds of crap (click OK on the near useless Windows UAC prompt???). Or, I can create their own Steam account and their own Windows account and do library sharing but then you share all the games, you can't pick what subset, what to include or exclude. Two options, neither fully solving the problem.
fomine3 6y ago
Gaming console is the fastest STB thanks to its spec, isn't it?

epanchin 6y ago

A PlayStation 5 is £450 and will smoothly play any game I buy for it. PlayStation+ for 7 years is £350. Total cost excluding games is £800 for 7 years of smooth gameplay. An £800 PC wouldn’t even play current games smoothly, never mind releases in 7 years.

ChuckNorris89 6y ago
>An £800 PC wouldn’t even play current games smoothly Why do people assume you need a million $ PC to play current games smoothly? Is it the tech youtubers/influencers like Linus to blame for this madness where everything needs to be run at 4k 300Hz ULTRA settings to count as PC gaming? PC gaming hardware for a good experience is more affordable than people think. A 850-900 Euro PC (for us over the channel) with an RTX 2060 will definitely play all AAA titles very smoothly. Sure, not in native 4K, but consoles games(even next gen) are also not native 4K/ultra settings but rendered in lower fidelity then upscaled to whatever your TV output is. >never mind releases in 7 years. That PC will most definitely play games 7 years from now but on lower settings which will still match the visual fidelity of the 7 year old console as the game developers will have to lower game details to make the game playable on the then outdated console hardware.
- effingwewt 6y ago
  He also forgot you can simply keep upgrading you PC, and your PC can play all your old games without having to repurchase them. Also, if you added another $800 to your PC every 7 years it would still outperform a console. Also a gaming PC is still a usable computer, a console is not. Therefore a home PC can pay for itself by letting you code on it or whatever it is you may do. This is what worries me with younger generations. Just the other day when google shut down google music a top comment was pretty much 'sorry boomers no one keeps mp3s anymore we all stream get lost dinosaurs'[1] as if that streaming service would always be there...in a thread about a huge music SAAS shutting down! [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25066751 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25066751
  - jamespo 6y ago
    A lot of people want to play games on the couch with a controller, not hunched over a desk which is the typical pc experience.
    - effingwewt 6y ago
      Which can also be done on PC even wireless controller such as gasp PS4 and Xbone controllers.
  - mhh__ 6y ago
    That and you are going to end up buying a PC of some kind anyway because you can't work on a console
- pandaman 6y ago
  A 7 years old PC GPU equivalent to 2060 today is the Kepler GPU like Geforce 660, if you think you can match PS4 visual fidelity on that then you have not seen either one or another or both.
ErikVandeWater 6y ago
The better idea is to get a laptop $400-800 more expensive than the one you were looking at. That way you get benefit of performance across your laptop experience. With the amount of time anyone spends on a computer, the investment is worth it.
mhh__ 6y ago
An £800 PC shouldn't struggle with anything below 1440p. My PC cost that much 2 or 3 years ago and it barely turns the fans on playing most games even now

loriverkutya 6y ago

> I don’t think I’ll ever understand people that buy consoles Because I buy it once and I can play each and every game in the next 5-7 years without spendig money on hardware upgrade. > The controls are terrible I'm ok with them, I'm not into hardcore competitive multi fps >the FPS is terrible you mean you cannot get 60 FPS for each and every game? Yeah sure, but I don't really need it. >the display is probably terrible if they’re using a TV why would it be? > paying money if you want to play multiplayer I usually buy ps+ when it is discounted, so I pay about $5 in a month and I usually get two free games for that price. >you paid an exorbitant price for a game that is rarely on sale You can buy ps4 games secondhand usually half price if you wait a month after the release, at least in the uk. Also, even AAA titles are heavily discounted during the summer sale on ps4. So you probably payed much more for hardware upgrades than I payed for the console and for the games in the last 7 years since ps4 is out :)

egypturnash 6y ago

Costs less, lets you kick back on a couch, setup and maintenance is a couple orders of less magnitude less complicated, much smaller attack surface for malware. Oh yeah, and the internet subscription also tends to come with a constant stream of free games. Every month there’s a couple new things to play that cost more than your month’s subscription.

pdpi 6y ago
> much smaller attack surface for malware. And much smaller blast radius too. I don't do home banking on my xbox.
- ChuckNorris89 6y ago
  Malware on a large scale on computers, be them PCs, Macs or Linux hasn't been a problem for years unless you as a user engage in downloading shady stuff from dodgy sources. The reason consoles are safer is that you can't do any dodgy downloads on them beyond the manufacturer's walled garden, similar to how mobile devices work, not because they have magic security pixie dust making them invulnerable to malware, especially since they share the same X86 hardware as PCs.
  - MaxBarraclough 6y ago
    > The reason consoles are safer is that you can't do any dodgy downloads on them beyond the manufacturer's walled garden, similar to how mobile devices work, not because they have magic security pixie dust making them invulnerable to malware, especially since they share the same X86 hardware as PCs. That's not the whole story. The Xbox takes sandboxing very seriously, and provides isolation way beyond a typical PC. See for instance [0]. Recent generations of Xbox and PlayStation have been based on AMD64, but I don't see that this is a major factor. edit It's a pity they don't offer decent keyboard+mouse support. Being able to use a console as a serious desktop web browser would be a very useful feature. [0] https://youtu.be/U7VwtOrwceo?t=1180 https://youtu.be/U7VwtOrwceo?t=1180
    - 6y ago

mensetmanusman 6y ago

To add to this, if you don’t play often enough, when you do want to jump on the couch and play with a friend, you have to wait 15 minutes for your console to upgrade.

Erlich_Bachman 6y ago
Are you saying that PCs/games/Steam/ubisoftbsmanager/etc don't never have to upgrade in most inconvenient times? Beecause they certainly do.
zuppy 6y ago
this is not the way it has been on ps4, for sure it is not the way it works on ps5. ps4 can do updates when it is on stand by. i don’t know about xbox, but i presume it is the same.

shocks 6y ago

Because I already spent all day on my desktop.

tapoxi 6y ago

I used to play games on a PC but I switched over to PS4 (and will probably pick up a PS5 when available). Sony makes a ton of blockbuster single-player games like Ghost of Tsushima, God of War, and The Last of Us that I can't get anywhere else. The display is fine (I have a 4K HDR TV, which are now commonplace) and I can relax on my couch without messing around with a computer.

ineedasername 6y ago

Why do people buy consoles? It has very little to do with controls, and everything to do with price & conveninece. Because a PC gaming system is much much more expensive. Take Horizon: Zero Dawn. It runs just fine on a 7-year old PS4 console. If you want to play on a PC, you need a PC that, at the level of a budget DIY system, will cost you around $600. This doesn't even take into account the fact that this particular game didn't come to PC for 3.5 years.

kingaillas 6y ago

>I don’t think I’ll ever understand people that buy consoles They are flat-out easier to setup and maintain for the bulk of the customer base. For example, setting up multiple users (family accounts) is a breeze on my PS4 and Switch, because that is a use case they pay attention to. Meanwhile over on my PC, Steam supports sharing (family view) but it only seems to work from the same base Windows account. What the hell is the point of that; if I'm not around the kids can download and install all kinds of crap (click OK on the near useless Windows UAC prompt???). Or, I can create their own Steam account and their own Windows account and do library sharing but then you share all the games, you can't pick what subset, what to include or exclude. Two options, neither fully solving the problem.

fomine3 6y ago

Gaming console is the fastest STB thanks to its spec, isn't it?