It's official: consoles cost as much as gaming PCs now
It's official: consoles cost as much as gaming PCs now
Modern consoles with digital games already blur the lines on console generations, but like, very few games are even using the PS5 to max.
PC you can decide your own "generation", and if you upgrade your PC, you don't have to buy remakes, you just turn the settings up.
Between that and locking yourself to one entity to buy games from, there's a lot of downsides to consoles and not many upsides left.
I was always a fan of consoles, everything is packaged nicely and you only had to worry about buying the game itself.
Eventually I ran into the problem where Sony prevented me from starting a DLC I bought and downloaded simply because the base game is validated for a different region. Umm I'm sorry I live in a different country now?? Couldn't get their AI chatbot to help with refunds either (but honestly shouldn't they prevent purchasing in the first place...)
Bit the bullet and built a PC instead. Fuck Sony.
But friendly reminder: games are almost always cheaper on PC. Maybe not at first, but very quickly.
And you don't pay a monthly fee. Which i only found out a few month ago. Like what the actual fuck
So, did you find out that PC gaming doesn't require a fee, or did you find out that console gaming requires a fee? I'm guessing the latter.
It doesn't really matter as a PC does so much more than play games. It's like arguing that a Nintendo Switch is cheaper than an a flagship smartphone. Ok, have fun trying to file your taxes, run blender, write code, browse the web, or backup media on your playstation.
Unrelated but this is totally possible on a PS4....
...after jailbreaking it and booting into Linux.
Which makes me even more mad at Sony removing OtherOS, but oh well.
I really like my PC, but it is the absolute worst, that you cannot buy disc versions for PC anymore, like for consoles.
If you are willing to, you can sell some discs for the same amount you spent before. Especially price stable games like Fromsoft titles.
This is a good point, but I think in 5 years, it won't be a thing on consoles either. The ability to resell implies ownership.
Some sites like Fanatical even have sales and discounts on pre-orders or recent releases. It's nuts.
They can be at first too, all you need are some bandanas and a fake parrot (some people may tell you this is not necessary, those are just typical Internet lies).
More importantly, PC has significantly more and better exclusives. Factorio, Dwarf Fortress, Ostranauts, and Squad off the top of my head that I've been playing lately. There are so many incredible games, frequently that are $20-40, that will never be on a console. They're never advertised as "PC exclusives" because there's no marketing budget to push that stupid concept, but they are. People always talk about which console to buy because they have better exclusives, but any reasonable person would choose a PC if they cared about that.
The initial buy in for the steam deck is so much cheaper. It has everything you need in a package: oled screen, portable, better sales, mods, repairable and free multiplayer.
This! Consoles are losing to handhelds like the Steam Deck in terms of capability and price. This keeps up, and we might see more switch over!
I love my Deck.
If you're interested in higher performance, have a use case for a desktop, are willing to go for used parts you put together yourself; then you could get a really decent performance PC for the price of a Deck.
Seriously, buying used parts when building a gaming PC is the way to go if you're looking to save some money. I just snagged a used 6700 XT for $220 (~400 new) and a used 3070 earlier this year for $300 (~500 new) on ebay, and better deals could be had if you're willing to be patient and hunt for a good deal.
There are benefits to buying new (such as warranty), but you can save some serious cheddar if you shop smart.
Maybe I'm too Canadian to understand but where on earth are you able to build a decent gaming PC able to play the latest AAA games on high graphics for $700?
No really, please tell me. I want to upgrade my PC.
Edit: For everyone trying to explain it to me.
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There's more to a PC than a CPU and GPU. Those of you giving me only those 2 that make up more than half of the $700 are kind of reinforcing my point.
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The key thing here is running AAA games on high settings using this budget. You can't really do that.
I think this article is sensationalizing the situation a bit. It could be $700 (if you already have a case, hdds, psu, and cooling on hand.)
But really comes down to your desired resolution and frame rate. I know plenty of people who are fine with 1080p and 60fps.
1440, 2160 120 is another story. The higher end gpu would likely require a slightly higher tier PSU and more efficient cooling which could add a few bucks to the GPU and CPU investment.
I recommend checking out PC part picker to see what your ideal components would shake out to.
The PS5 Pro is a decent value compared to a PC. It's just not an amazing value like the original PS5 was in 2020.
Take PCPP's Entry Level AMD Gaming Build. Upgrade it to a 2TB NVME and a RX 6800 GPU. That's $830. https://pcpartpicker.com/guide/NtFfrH/entry-level-amd-gaming-build
That's pretty similar specs to the PS5 Pro (with a better Zen 3 CPU, but minus a gamepad).
You won't be able to do ultra, but you can do high at 1080p30fps in most every modern game pretty easily for that price. 1080p 60fps for a solid chunk of them too.
https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/list/MzFVh3
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=A6coMhaOw0Q
Your point still stands though; you're still better off spending 1000$ so that you don't end up shooting yourself in the foot with regards to upgradeability, which is one of the big reasons people want a PC in the first place.
That's still better than consoles can run most native games too lul. People always use the argument that consoles 'just work' at max graphics as a selling point when it's rarely the case. Almost every new game has issues on release that need to be fixed and even after some never run at max.
1080p lmao it's not 2006 anymore
the PS5 pro uses 60 CU rdna 4, so if you want to match that, buy the supposedly rumored 8800XT that amd is trying to pump more of as they forgoe top end end generation supposedly (basically similar to the RX 480 and RX 5700xt generations)
keep in mind, console and pc sales and cost differ because of where they focus on making money. Sony for example makes money off accessory sales (the ps5 pro is disk driveless and no vertical stand) ontop of never adressing the rampant stick drift problem the dualsense has, ontop of paid online, none of which is any signicant factor on PC, which generally speaking is more front loaded cost heavy but overtime has lower cost in games, services and such.
You could probably build something decent for CAD$1000. Canada computers often have massive discounts on a lot of items. US$700 to CAD$1000 is not that far apart. The console would probably still be more performant but the point is, the prices are not that far apart anymore.
With exchange it's closer to $950 cad, best bang for your buck is probably used. Quick glance at kijiji and I saw some 3070tis for sub $400, heck if you're fine with slightly older hardware just saw a ryzen 3700x + 2070 super, ram, full system honestly for $650 cad. You'll probably get quite a bit of mileage out of that CPU, I ran with a 3rd gen i5 for nearly a decade
There’s more to a PC than a CPU and GPU. Those of you giving me only those 2 that make up more than half of the $700 are kind of reinforcing my point.
Yes, but they do tend to cost the most.
Assume someone is already going to buy a Chromebook for $200-300. Why not spend $900-1000 on a nicer laptop or desktop and need a console at all?
And if you're a certain age, why invest in an ecosystem that will die with the next hardware iteration, when you've seen it happen over and over? I bought a cartridge of Super Mario Bros 3 in 1993 with my birthday money. Why should I have to buy it again, ever, if I still own the cart? Why not invest in an ecosystem that's by and large always backwards compatible?
RX 6600 with a Ryzen 5 5500 should get you close enough with FSR.
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Steam Deck all the way. Also Sony's been shit since at least the 2011 hack.
You can also get PC games from all kinds of sources and sales that ultimately are far cheaper than the pithy Playstation sales. It greatly offsets costs over time.
You also have far more backwards compatibility and flexibility especially to do things with controller profiles and mods, etc.
Not to mention in 5 years you can replace one part on the pc and increase performance.
You don't need to upgrade every part every time
While this is technically true, in practice I've found there's always something the old PC is missing, tech wise.
Socket change. Ram version change. New version of PCIe.
Effectively you need to do mobo/cpu/ram all together.
The only other components are GPU and storage, which I agree are generally transferable, but depending on age you may want to upgrade too.
I guess PSU but that is thankfully something you almost never need to upgrade, unless your new GPU sucks down a lot more watts.
Maybe if I had an AM5 board I would be in a better state, but currently on AM4 so my upgrade paths are limited (already on a 5000 series chip).
Remember when everyone though the PS3 was insane at 599 US dollars?
For context, $599 in 2006 dollars equals $911.41 in 2024
I remember when they announced the first PlayStation right after Sega announced the Saturn was going to be $500 and the Sony dude just came out and said "299" and then bounced.
PS1 launched at $299 in September 1995, which would be about $614 right now.
PS2 launched also at $299 in October 2000, which would be about $541 right now.
PS3 launched at $599 in November 2006, which would be about $935 right now.
PS4 launched at $399 in November 2013, which would be about $538 right now.
PS4 Pro launched at $399 in November 2016, which would be about $520 right now.
PS5 Digital launched at $399 in November 2020, which would be about $482 right now.
PS5 Disc launched at $499 in November 2020, which would be about $603 right now.
It's also worth noting that the launch PS3 also had a whole PS2 inside of it, which partially explains the inflated price point. I say partially since I'm prrety sure that a PS2 slim cost a lot less than $330 in 2006 dollars; they could have just bundled both consoles or offered a rebate on a PS2 purchase and called it a day.
Yeah, people thought the PS3 was insane at 599 US dollars because it WAS insane at 599 US dollars lol
I bought one of those 60GB original PS3s back in 06. That was also the last game console I purchased for myself. Made the switch to PC not long after that.
Yeah, aside from the switch, the 360 and PS3 were the last consoles I've bought.
Same. Upgrading the computer I was already going to buy with hardware to play games was cheaper than the console.
Heh same for me too
Remember when everyone though the PS3 was insane at 599 US dollars?
The day Microsoft did smile, as finally they could see an actual chance for their xbox thing.
That is insane
Remember when everyone though the PS3 was insane at 599 US dollars?That's because it WAS insane at 599 US dollars lol that's worth like $900 US dollars in 2024.
You can't even get probably the equivalent graphics card in there for less than $700. I still think PCs are more expensive.
Thinking is but a step on the path to knowing.
Does it have to be equivalent? There are plenty of builds that will work just fine for gaming, they just aren't 1440p or 4k, or 120hz.
There's also that these computers can do a lot more than just game, so while you're not getting "top of the line" graphical fidelity from your console, you can actually use it to browse the web, or run some software in your home.
Then there's also the fact that if you want to play online it requires you pay a subscription. So even just the $10 a month for the subscription is $120 a year for every year you didn't buy a PC instead.
So, are PC's really more expensive, or is it the fallacy of needing the absolute best and then paying out the nose in after-ownership fees for the entire duration you own the console?
Last year 1080p displays were still 65% or so of steam users, so there's a bunch of people would be served perfectly well with older GPUs you can get for a couple hunski instead of buying a 4080 to cram a 12 inch rod through a 4 inch hole.
You can get a comparable GPU for $400 used (rx 6900 xt) and still have $300 for everything else.
I’m just going to hang out over here with my (modded) PC games from the early 2000s that I love so much…
Modern AAA gaming is not for me.
I enjoy a AAA now and then but console prices are definitely not for me.
I've been looking for an excuse to switch to pc.
That is honestly the most true picture ever lol
The worst part of this for me is that I remember when you could build a PC with better specs than a console for the same price. Now we're coming back full circle to where that might be possible again, but graphics cards never truly came down from their inflated crypto mining prices. So that means consoles are just getting more expensive and everybody is losing.