PC Games Are Outselling Console Games, According to New Industry Report

Modern consoles are locked pre-built PCs. You have to pay for online. Why get a console at this point in time?

Because you can buy a consol3, plig it into the back of your TV, and be confident that it will work. You don't have to worry about system requirements, storefronts, launchers, driver updates fucking you up, etc.
Power Cable, HDMI cable, and connect to wifi - that's it.
I've been PC gaming since the mid-80s, and even I sometimes just want to sit on the couch, push the Xbox button on my controller, and get going. Is it lazy? Yes. But I work 2 jobs and get to be lazy when I get home.
- Not worrying about system requirements just translates into the game not being sold for your generation of the console, and requiring multiple generations of one console to enjoy both new and old titles.
- Console updates and game updates are a thing. It will work, true, it just might be downloading and installing updates for a day before it does.
- I haven't worried about a driver update fucking something up since before win XP.
  I have however repeatedly encountered crashes of games on my ps5 in the last year, which kind of defeats your point. Consoles had that worry free stability factor to them in the 90s or early 2000s, but that's long gone.
- Lol... You can do same with pc. Just needs configured 1 time.. Using a linux distribution you could boot into same interface like steam deck. You can emulate the consoles too well not newest gen but who cares. You can configure the whole PC for lazy using too...
- You can get a steam deck then if you are worried about all of this and it would still be cheaper than console as well as portable.
  The console argument just doesnt make any kind of logical sense.
- PCs can do all of this and much more.
- Steam Deck has turned that around somewhat. It's pretty close to an easy console experience, amd you can play on your couch, in bed, or on a plane.
- One rebuttal: Steam Deck.
- Another big thing for me is that I’ve worked on computers as part of my job for the last 15yrs. The last thing I wanted to do was come back home to sit again at a computer chair on another computer. Now that I work remotely, there is even less of a separation of my life since I am in my office a lot. I mentally can’t have my work station also be my gaming station, it’s just not healthy for me, I’d never move from the same place. Maybe one day when one of my laptops is old I’ll finally install steam, but for now having a switch and ps5 works wonders for the separation.
- I've been PC gaming since 8-bit computers. I eventually bought an Xbox One as my first console and a Switch some years ago. I just couldn't get into either of them after the initial novelty wore off. PC gaming is so much more convenient for me. I'm already at my PC, I just need to start a game. And I can multi-task with other apps in the background or on my second monitor. Going to the living room to play on a console on the TV, or switching inputs if I keep it attached to my PC monitor, both are too much hassle. I only ever use the XBox for Just Dance (nothing beats Kinect for it) and I've played many more hours of Switch games on an emulator on my PC than on the actual Switch.
Because you can just plug it in to your TV and play. That's the target demographic.
- I do that with my steam deck
  Edit: I actually never bought a steam deck have a PC set up to be like one but you can just dock the steam deck and use it that way
Besides plug and play safety as mentioned, two other cool things:
Monthly Netflix-style rental service. For people who want to try a lot of games to find their niche, PS+ and Game Pass are great.
Sleep mode. Being able to pause a game for days on end is incredibly convenient. PCs have attempted to have this feature, but very inconsistently, and it often means you cannot web browse when finished playing.
- PCs have all of this and much more.
- Gamepass is on Windows and Linux too
- Sleep mode. Being able to pause a game for days on end is incredibly convenient. PCs have attempted to have this feature, but very inconsistently, and it often means you cannot web browse when finished playing.
  The fuck are you smoking? My parents PC from the 90s had a sleep mode that worked exactly like a modern console's would

Man i was just told pc gaming would be dead in 5 years

Huh, I'm kind of surprised that's a new thing. I would assume way more people own computers than consoles in modern times so you would think that would always mean more sales

Thoughout history a typical gaming machine could run you over $1000, game consoles often cost under $400. Consoles are very often sold as loss leaders to promote software sales, PCs are not. Oh and that's just the cost of the box itself; a console is usually designed to attach to a television which has built-in speakers and consoles usually have at least one controller packed in. Computer monitors are sold separately as are any sound equipment. Normie PCs like Dell ~~Inspiron~~ Basic Plus machines might come with a keyboard and mouse but gaming PCs sometimes don't because they expect you're going to buy premium peripherals. You've got a desk to put this on, right?
Oh also there just isn't much of a PC gaming culture in Japan. It may be increasing now but in the land of Nintendo, Sega and Sony they play console games.
On the other hand, a PC is good for things that aren't gaming, like work or something.
- People are less likely to own a TV already these days though than they used to be so the price calculation for consoles favors them a lot less if you take that into account. Not to mention that console games tend to be more expensive than PC games, especially indie PC games now that triple A is more of a warning label than an indicator of quality.
- I mean yeah but you don't need an expensive computer to play games. In the mid 2010s I spent loads of time playing games on my ~$200 something Asus netbook, and more recently I was using an old Dell Precision from 2011 I got for $25 and put a $75 GPU into from like 2018 until 2023.
  I guess maybe the difference is that people who don't buy expensive consoles or computers also don't buy expensive games. For the most part I don't buy things unless they have a sale for like under $30, so even though I've bought a lot of games I've probably paid less total money for games than the average console player.
- TVs are also sold separately though if you are gonna count monitors as extra for PC, wtf. Also you literally have to pay to play online for consoles, thats a joke. Ive saved an insane amount of money by gaming on PC for decades and forgoing consoles overall and its not even close.
Piracy is a lot more accessible on PCs than consoles
- Piracy doesn't really decrease sales though, in fact it might increase them since it generates word of mouth from people who wouldn't have bought it.
- If i count all the media I've consumed in the last 8-9 years as savings, piracy has paid the price of my 1000$ ~~entertainment console~~ PC so, so many times over.

It's not like there needs to be a winner here. Console or PC gaming is just a personal preference and will always 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.
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.
- consoles are a big source of e-waste
  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.
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.

Also with things like Steam Deck now as well, consoles to me seem like one of the worst purchases for gaming you can make.

There's no way I will ever get rid of my desktop PC (and my 3DS I guess).

Is it weird that I'm about to go full circle? Started on consoles. Switched to PC around 2010, and now I'm kind of leaning towards consoles again. Maybe it's my setup for my rig, I can not stand headphones, a smallish monitor, or a computer chair to game in anymore. I've setup myself to be able to play games on my couch with my pc, but the fact that I never own a physical copy of a game bothers me so much - as I've gotten older I cherish the physical copies of games that I have and it's nice to go back and boot up my old console and play it no problem whenever I want. Can't really say that about PC barring GOG's attempt to preserve games. Because as it stands now, at some point a game played on PC will be rendered unplayable unless you really go through some hoops to get it running right. A small example would be Fallout 3 needs a mod to properly use RAM because it was only designed for a small amount (if I remember correctly).

Your physical copies are not immune to that. GOG is likely as good as it gets. Physical copies often still need patching out of the box, and the consoles that they run on are so inherently tied to the internet and their operating systems that it's a risky wager to bet that they'll last as long as your NES. For what it's worth, Fallout 3 is running quite well via Proton, but I did have to edit an INI file to lock it to 60 FPS on a monitor that exceeds that refresh rate; your console version would have its own compromises to wade through, because it's not exactly an immaculate piece of software.
- My man, if you read what I said on this thread, you'd understand that I've recently moved from mainly gaming on a traditional desktop setup to gaming on a couch. I was only voicing my new feelings I've developed about gaming on my desk instead of couch. For a long time I didn't mind it but the past year or so I've had a different opinion. I was talking about making a little setup for using keyboard and mouse on my couch on a different comment. Sorry if I didn't clarify this well enough.
- So while not entirely related, I have a question.
  I've got a Windows 10 box hooked to my TV and you're right, it's great.
  Until you end up with fonts so small they're unreadable, even with a 300% scaling on the 4k TV because it seems like every third random gaming piece of software just fucking ignore scaling.
  You ever find a working solution to that?
  My ass is old, and trying to do couch gaming from a PC means it's a 50/50 chance I'm either squinting and giving myself a headache or having to walk over to the tv to read whatever stupid shit some game has decided to use 8pt font for.
It might still be best just to convert your desktop into a couch and tv device at that point. Or a steamdeck.
- I still have my desk setup for when I want to use it, but I've ran a HDMI cable under couches and rugs to my TV to use as well. Variety is the spice of life I guess lol. I don't HATE playing certain things on my desktop setup, but I would much rather my couch setup if possible.
  My next thing is to figure out how to use a keyboard/mouse while on the couch. Thought of making a little wooden contraption to sit over my lap with one of those bigger mouse pads glued onto it.
Time always marches on. Nothing is immune.
- True, but I would like to prevent anything I can from happening in the name of longevity and preservation. Simple steps now could prevent bigger issues later when it comes to what I'm trying to accomplish here.

Ya consoles suck. Not a surprise. It’s always been this way.

I call BS on this. This is only true if you include gambling proceeds like CS skins, etc.

I’m not really surprised, you do not need the latest computer to play the latest games.
I can play almost any game released on low settings with an rx 470. I admit the games will not run at high fps, but they are still playable.
So think of all the people who live in poorer countries that still have access to older hardware but can’t afford a ps5. Especially with regional pricing for games.
- Awwww shi 470 gang
I don't know, I only got into PC gaming about 3 years ago but my library is easily twice as large as it was when I only had consoles for about 20 years. The initial cost of getting a PC with all the peripherals is quite a bit higher than console but the games are almost always significantly cheaper. The most recent AAA games and some studios like FromSoft are usually the only games selling at $70. On console, the price of a game barely gets lowered. I have a switch and wanted to buy overcooked to play on the go and it's still $20 dollars and has very few sales. On PC it's hard not to find it for less than $5 and that's not even counting key shops.
There’s no way to trade loot boxes between players but there’s gambling on consoles in the same way as on PC. Even if you count Steam Marketplace transactions fee there’s definitely plenty of EA Football Club players on consoles offsetting this.
- I had forgotten about EA. What has gaming become...
- Can you get the money out on console though? I think that's what ultimately makes it gambling and why people are giving Valve shit about it, because you can trade in-game items for money using unofficial platforms (that go against the TOS, but are still out there)
We've been able to measure it in games like Elden Ring and Guilty Gear Strive. Games that traditionally didn't have PC ports until long after the console versions, because they were seen as genres that only did well on consoles.