3 ms·

Come to Steam! We got cookies. Besides the exclusive titles I don't know why should anyone buy a console right now for gaming.

• robmcm 13y ago
  I would say: - Low barrier to entry / technical know how. - Future proofing, a next gen console will probably still be running the latest games in 7 years time. - Level playing field. All gamers online have the same input devices, hardware and performance. No getting you ass whooped because someone has the game running at 60fps to your 30. - Easy TV hook up - Not everyone has a 1080p laptop or large external monitor. Most people will have a 32"+ HD ready TV. - Simple input method. You get an easy input method out of the box, no complicated keyboard inputs, or expensive lagless mice to buy. - Camera / Kinect games, for fitness, dancing etc (if that's your bag) - Online/service stickyness. Achievements and trophies, friends etc. - Marketing, big big factor. I have never seen a steam TV ad. - One off bundled cost, perhaps steam box(s) will address this. - Security (PSN hacks aside) I don't know of any console viruses. I don't agree with all of these, but it could help answer your question.
  • Fargren 13y ago
    >>Not everyone has a 1080p laptop or large external monitor. Most people will have a 32"+ HD ready TV. Isn't a 32" HD Ready TV a large external monitor?
    • hayksaakian 13y ago
      Some metrics would consider 32 to even be too small of a monitor
    • robmcm 13y ago
      Plugging a PC into a TV has always been a faf, may not be now, but perhaps that leads onto the marketing factor.
      • Fargren 13y ago
        It's pretty much Plug-and-Play in my experience.
  • VLM 13y ago
    To some, the whole "if you're not any good at a game, pay money for a crutch" is a bug, to others, its a feature. Some of your claims are weird. I'm not sure what makes a HDMI cable magically know its supposed to be harder to plug in because its connecting a PC rather than a console.
    • robmcm 13y ago
      Knowing you can plug a PC into a TV isn't something most people know about. You need special graphics cards or adapters and have to deal with weird resolutions and oversized images. Consoles just work...
      • VLM 13y ago
        HN is generally overly pessimistic about the skills of the general public and overly optimistic about their own. Furthermore these are gamers, well not real gamers but console FPS players, but still a technological leap past the average reality TV viewer. I scrolled around tigerdirect just for fun. It appears you'd have to work pretty hard to buy a video card that doesn't have HDMI out. As a secret knowledge that horse left the barn a decade or so ago. Too many people have sat in meetings/classes where some drone plugs his laptop into a TV projector and reads a powerpoint to the bored sleepy audience, and calls it a great presentation. I am certain its possible to find a way to make it not work, for either consoles or PCs. The point is if consoles aren't any better than PCs anymore because not only are they no longer less of a PITA, they're actually now more of a PITA than a PC, even an extremely minor hassle at the hardware level results in the PC beating the console as an overall gaming system. The ogliopoly or whatever of console mfgrs results in anti-consumer actions that suck. The PC world is hardly perfect, just better off.