Are consoles a rip off?

[ethansito]

I only use my PS4 for Netflix, and my TV can do that too, so...

[Aidy]

You, overall, sound like the infamous "console peasants" who will defend their console brand to death. Being a console gamer doesn't make one a console peasant automatically, however this behaviour over there does.

Don't worry if you don't have any intelligent arguments; insults and name calling is just as good.

[Sovendovah1]

I personally don't think it's a ripoff. I think the most important part of this opinion is the preface. It's important to scale your judgment for the time and place of the birth of console gaming.

The Nintendo 64 was released in 1996. At that time, computer developers were beginning to see the value of PCs in gaming. Early games were mostly text based adventures and other simple games. In 1996 you had games like Quake and Nights come out on PC. Keep in mind Quake was offered on the Nintendo 64. It really feels like gaming consoles were an easier alternative to PCs because game developers saw the purpose behind proprietary software that they could easily control and work with verses the ever-changing properties of PCs.

If you scale it forward to now-a-days, there's hardly a difference in performance between console and PC gaming at comparable hardware. Zelda Ocarina of Time came out in 1998 and was a landmark achievement in gaming. It featured complex mechanics such as 3D movement, day-night cycle, complex particle effects, Z-targeting, and (too an extent) dynamic dialog options. On PC in 1998, you had landmark games such Half Life 1 and Starcraft. While technically impressive games that nobody could argue against the fact that they were key contributors in what gaming has be come in the current era - They offered a different experience then what is comparable to the single player adventure that is Ocarina of Time.

Top downs and FPS were much better suited for PC gaming while single player adventures could be enjoyed on your couch with a controller and friend. It's a really subjective topic and there's no truly correct answer. Both have their places in gamer's hearts and it depends on your personal preference.

That being said, I would say that modern consoles aren't giving you everything you could get on PC. I feel the console exclusive games such as COD and BF5 aren't going to give you a rich fulfilling experience that you'll want to come back to day after day in their modern iterations.

Thanks for reading my post.

[Kharn]

I don't think they are a rip off, but they don't quite offer the same value as a PC. Even if i have an old piss poor PC that is around the spec of a PS4/xbone (i3/750ti) or less, I can still play thousands of games without spending too much money. Whether it's modern games or just using dosbox to play older retro titles.

I have zero interest in consoles today, other than to check it the odd exclusive. Even then, i could just borrow a console for a while.

[Tonic]

Definitly a ripoff. A PC can do everything a console can and muuuch more. Performance is better and this silly "I want to play on a couch with a controller" """argument""" is void aswell. There is nothing stopping you from doing that with a PC. Other than the anti consumer exclusive titles, the only reason to buy a console is because you're dumb, lazy, or poor. Of course there is nothing inherently wrong with any of those reasons ...except exclusives. Fuck that.

Calm down, you can express your views without being nasty about it.

[SBFC Boyd]

Embarrassing really isn't it? Item X that costs 5 times the amount of item Y can do much more. I'd love to know what OysterHead would view as a fair price for console games? And yes, the """argument""" is entirely valid. Never seen someone with a PC under their lounge TV to use when mates are over.
I love the logic of buying a console makes you poor... yet it's also a ripoff even though you're getting specs that PCs of similar prices couldn't get near.

Live and let live people.

[Oysterhead]

How was I nasty? I am very calm, sorry if I triggered you with my honesty.

@sbfc The argument is not valid for the reasons I explained, you happening to not know somebody doing it doesn't change that. Noone said buying a console makes you poor. Further those are seperate reasons that can, but don't have to relate to each other. There is no logical fallacy, as I simply presented a list of possible reasons. For example, you could be poor and dumb and think, hey a console is cheaper, buy that one and in the end pay up more anyways. Do you understand? In that scenario, being poor would be part of the reason to buy a console, because the initial pricetag is lower. The console being a ripoff obviously isn't based on one single thing, like the console price. Noone has ever even argued this. This bad chain of "logic" comes from you only. You guys should calm your tits, as I said before, there is nothing inherently wrong with any of the reasons I stated. 40 bucks

[Biggiejoe]

Consoles was such a big part of my life before. Now I kinda think they're hurting the game industry... I don't wanna get into all of it but my main issue with consoles is that they used to be the main system for getting together with a couple of friends to shoot things in the face and have a beer. All these online or singeplayer games would be better optimized on PC imo rather than forcing developers to crunch deadlines just to port the game on both PC and Consoles which usually makes for pretty shit UIs.

[Astraea]

For me PS4 is just the best way to play. Since;
1. I don't want to bother with upgrading my PC and choosing the components every so often
2. Compatibility for games is guaranteed
3. I prefer couch + controller
4. I grew up with some series that are (timed) exclusives on the platform like MGS

I can't do without at least a mediocre gaming pc though, because I like to play strategy games once so often.

[Profiterole_Vaccines]

It depends what you want out of a console.

I like that (in the past) you could get a console and some games, go home, plug it all in and play. Then, you could invite friends over and shoot stuff in the face. And drink whisky.

It it was quick and convenient.

These days, you have to install games which takes ages and there’s not a lot of couch co-op available. (That was one of the things that made Halo so good. And the whisky.)

i have friends that love building and tinkering with their PCs. In much the same way as other people like old VWs. I have another friend that likes Android devices and likes to strip out the software on the device and then install the stuff he wants.

Me, I don’t care. I just want to play some games and have a laugh. I still play my old consoles. Probably more than my Xbox one which I haven’t really been that into. My Switch gets more use.

Its just a case of what works for you. I happen to like the ease of consoles and playing games on my couch. And whisky.

[nmlss]

in the long run you will save money having a gaming pc than a Console

I mean, I bought my Xbox One on 2014 for like 300€ (around $342 and including two Tomb Raider games) and I can still play the latest releases nowadays. Yes, of course it's not going to be 4K and 500000fps, but for that price?? Try building a PC for that price that runs Quantum Break, Doom, Rise of the Tomb Raider, Sea of Thieves or Forza Horizon 4.

I pay for Gold not for the online (I HATE playing online), but for the Games With Gold. For less than 45€ I can get a lot of games every year or pay 10€ a month and try all that Game Pass offers, which is a big deal during summer or holidays vacations.

I've been a PC player for quite a while (during the Doom 3 and Crysis days) and I'm not going back. Consoles are too convenient for me. And also, I can play God of War and TLOU on my PS4 or Breath of the Wild on my old Wii U, so…

[Seth The Cartographer]

i was saying that in the longrun you'll save money because the PC lasts longer, if i kept my original specs i would be on par with the most recent consoles right now, instead of having to spend a 300-400 every time a new console comes out to play the games you want

[SirWaffles]

Not at all if your not that serious about gaming and just what to play Nba 2k or COD than a console is better everything is wrapped up in a bundle for you and you don't really have to worry about anything just plug and play a PC is just more complicated and i would only recommend someone get one if there really into gaming and are willing to learn about how to fix/upgrade one. Also if you have to travel from a lot a Console is clutch

[Teratus]

It really depends.
In terms of games and exclusives.. nah not really, I quite enjoy having a reason to buy them and exclusives are a good reason to do that.
Lots of people dislike exclusives but i'm the total opposite.. I'd actually prefer there be more purely because games that are optimized for a single defined system typically run better than multiplats and are also typically more impressive games.

In terms of online gaming though they absolutely are a rip off.. there's no way in hell i'm going to pay a subscription for a free service.. and I seriously hate that all consoles have adopted this model despite most of them being free last gen.
This has killed my interest in online gaming on consoles.. and significantly hurt my interest in console games that have a decent online focus, including exclusives such as the recently released Smash Bros Ultimate which I will not be buying.. as well as several other games such as Splatoon 2, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Monster Hunter Generations, Pokken Tournament and Dark Souls Remastered.
All games I want but refuse to buy on the Nintendo Switch because of the online subscription required to access their online features.
Same thing applies to many Ps4 titles as well which I will not be buying for the same reason.

PC is now the only platform I play online and should the day come where that too requires online subscriptions for things like steam etc.. i'll be done with online gaming entirely.

[Wolf]

Sovendovah1
Well made points and arguments.
I agree with you on the the difference in the 90's and 80's for example when the Consoles were quite often leaps and bounds ahead of PCs in game quality and especially user friendlieness.
Setting up games in DOS was a lot of work compared to modern games.
You generally got the same genres on Consoles as you got on PCs, the only time you really to go PC was in certain more niche genres, like flight simulation, racing sims and back then western RPGs.

I would also agree that there generally is no performance difference between a PC and a Console on the same hardware.
However the problem is the hardware has never been equal in the last two console generations, the PS4 and Xbox One being outclassed on release by most gaming PCs and that problem is getting worse over the life cycle of a console.

Now all what I'M saying is not that you shouldn't play consoles if you want, I only think that they are a bad decision in a business sense.

I've owned every console and most handhelds under the sun. Retrospectively, in the long term, I can say they all end up costing much more than my trusty old PC's which I build myself and which typically last me ~4 years for gaming.

Unless you get into console gaming at the ass end of the life cycle, (i.e pick up a second hand ps3 now with a giant batch of bargain bin games for peanuts); a typical console bought on launch or near launch, with a library of ~80+ games you get as they come out will end up costing a few grand. Meanwhile, I have around 800 pc games across steam and gog etc that have all up been had for very little per game thanks to sales . What's more they carry over to my future gaming rigs. My PC's typically always cost under $1,100 to build.

I did the math, during my most enthusiastic console gaming period, I spent ~$8,000 on xbox 360 console and games over the course of 4 years. I bought close to 200 games, close to launch window prices. In the same period (2006-2010) I built a high end gaming rig and bought 300 steam games, all up for less than $3,000. Plus my PC did far more than the xboner360 ever could.

Keep in mind this was the last console generation where console specs vs pc were favourable for consoles. The xbox360 launched with 'high end gpu and cpu' for 2005. When ps4/xbox one launched, they came out with midrange gpu and a low end cpu that doomed them to 30fps for most titles. I did buy both out of simple habit, but they were a complete shitfest value-wise compared to the PC I had built in 2014, just a year later.

Now that is a well made post that unlike most of us, me included, gives actual evidence, now one could say it's anecdotal evidence, but it's not like we have something better so far.

As for saving on sales, I have had a similar experience.
About roughly two years ago, we've had a discussion on a forum that sadly doesn't exist anymore, with certain people who worked for the developer/Self-Publisher of a certain rather addon-heavy simulation about their patch and update policy, as well as their quality control and how it affects sales.
Which wasn't good and we wanted a change.
To drive the point about a patch and update policy, and it's impact on their income, I tallied up my spending on addons over the years, about 4-5 years.

I came to around 3,000 Euros (not bucks) for third party content about 170-ish addons afaik.
Most of that , about 2,000 came from one third-party shop/development team, the other from various other sources. (BTW that site's stuff also came without copy protection.)
I bought most of them at full price, only taking advantage fot he occasional sale,because the quality warranted it.

Compared to that I had spent 1,121.63 Euros on addons on steam, for 288 addons worth 2,533.63 Euros. Savings ammounting to 1,412 Euros.
However, included in that Steam Tallly still were third party addons sold on steam.
After subtracting them, we were at 714.33 Euros paid for 237 addons worth 1,809.53 €.
Savings then ammount to 1,095.20, which should illustrate my buying policy of only buying what I needed for freeware routes and third party content, at at least -50% off.
That was due to the quality not being there, and the patch and update policy being rather non-existant.

Let's just say, my tally and that of some other long time serious players, who had played even longer and had an even bigger collection, proved rather convincing in arguing for a
change in patch and update policy

Guess they really hated how little of the pie they received, about an 8th of the total ammount spent in my case.
Or that the split of money per addon (simple average) was decidedly unfavourable for them at 237/714.33 € =3,01 € per addon.
While the one for the third party was 51/407,3 € =7,99 € is rather more favourable.
Now those are simple averages without weighting the ratio between high content "map/region" addons and cheaper "Vehicle addons", but the one for non-steam Third Party would be even more favourable..

The moral of the story is that if you buy smart you can save quite a bit on games, in my case I payed between half and a third of the full steam price for the content.
And that you can use discount buying as a rather strong tool to influence the devs or publishers, as long as they aren't too big.

Aside from that, steam is generally not worth it outside the sales, as the games tend to be rather overpriced.
So your best bet is to use alternatives like the good old retail gaming store, online shops, specialized gaming stores etc. outside the steam sales.
Devs also tend to offer you their games in their own stores , often with a discount, to cut out steam...as they take a significant portion of the sales.
Some like GOG even offer better conditions like no Copy protection, which makes it as good as buying an oldschool optical medium.

Over 13 Years, I accumulated a spending of 3.4 K Bucks for 155 games +971 Addons/DLC the majority of them addons,not a bad balance I would say.
(Must admit though, I was slightly shocked at the number of DLC/Addons, as that doesn't include those games and addons not bought on steam.)

To be clear what I define as Addons but are counted as DLC by Steam, are things like Arma 3 APEX, or other pieces of additional content for a game that offer significant playtime or additional content.
For example a Route for a Train Simulator with it's own rolling stock is an addon to me, as it offers a significant ammount of content and playtime.
Same goes for a Car Pack like the Assetoo Corsa Dreampacks
After all you don't play them through once and you're done, you can play them for dozens of hours and still be entertained, adding new community content like scenarios or use the assets in freeware routes, or even custom championships.
A DLC to me is something like say a cosmetic pack, or a small quest pack like treasures of the Past for KCD, something which adds little content, and you generally play once and you're done.
Battletech's Flashpoint DLC is solidly one for me, and an overpriced one at that, as it's content is rather limited and it's nothing I couldn't get for free with mods.

And that is only the stuff I bought on steam, nevermind the ton of games I bought elsewhere, the majority of my stuff isn't on steam, or rather in that dedicated games cupboard of mine.

[SnarkyJay]

I don't feel consoles are a rip off at all. I'm mainly a console gamer, and although I do game on my computer occasionally, I prefer to play on a console. When I'm on my PC, I always feel like I should be multitasking. When I game, I like being on a system dedicated to gaming and nothing else. I keep all my old systems, and I often go back and play games on my SNES, or my PS3, etc, so I feel like I get a lot of value out of them. Also, sometimes, PC ports are garbage, and have all kids of issues I'd rather not deal with. I know that if I put a game into my Switch, or my PS4, it's going to work, and it's going to play the way the developer intended (99% of the time, there's always buggy games out there).

[Cratos316]

I think it depends on your perspective. One of the selling points of the new x box one for me was backward compatabilty. I have a game store nearby and i purchase older games for under $10 on average. I missed out on a lot of the games.

Also since bitcoin and cryptocurrency mining has becone popular graphics card prices and ram prices have skyrocketed from that. So for new people entering the computer market they will feel the effects.

[Cratos316]

I dont think consoles are going anywhere. The snes and nes have sold over 10 million copies and that was by October. They had to bring it back after the first batch because of high demand and scalping. Really curious tl see the total sales by the end of the year with Christmas sales added in.