I was seriously considering getting a PS5 until I saw the costs of the games + hardware.
PC player complaining about the cost of a PlayStation is new to me. Isn’t it normally the other way around? Isn’t a PS5 about as expensive as a decent GPU alone?
Yeah the PS5 is pretty reasonably priced for what you get. I think the issue is two fold:
- We already have really expensive machines that probably play games much better than the PS5 in frames and quality so buying another machine for a handful of games is just not in the cards.
- Many of us much prefer keyboard/mouse and using controllers is really hard when you’ve not done it in many years.
I think we just wish Playstation was more friendly to PC players and not have these long exclusives (they’ve gotten a lot better recently though). Microsoft for example is a lot friendlier to PC players than Sony. Pretty much all MS first party games are on PC pretty much day one and many of them are on GamePass day one as well.
All MS first party games are on PC because MS owns the PC ecosystem. Not because MS is friendlier💀
Yeah while MS does also “own” the PC ecosystem via Windows, I’d bet MS probably makes more money off of an individual Xbox player than a PC player which should make them a bit less friendly to PC.
For starters:
- Steam takes a 30% cut of all sales
- Sales and prices are usually much better on Steam than consoles so a lot of people wait for that number to drop over time
- For most multiplayer games you need to pay for Xbox Gold which is upwards of $50-$60 a year (or gamepass which is even more, though you get more out of it).
- You have to buy the console (this really depends on if MS actually makes money on console sales though) to play the game too.
Microsoft doesn’t have to put their games on PC if they don’t want to and in the past they kind of didn’t (no one liked GFWL). They could totally go the exclusive route again, but I think MS knows that Xbox die-hard will buy an Xbox console and obviously buy the games on the xbox store for whatever it cost. PC players will also buy it if it’s a good game and a good price and, this is crucial, is on Steam.
PC players are an untapped resource of potential customers; That’s why Sony finally decided to also cave and put their games on Steam. Money is money, but the difference is MS is betting big on GamePass and good-will right now since they are behind Sony in sales. I think because they’re behind Sony and trying to earn that good-will back, MS becomes more friendly to PC by putting their games on PC day one and on GamePass day one whereas Sony is still going with the 1-year (or more) PS5 exclusivity thing.
The interesting thing will be if MS ever gets back on top again, who knows what that looks like, but it’ll probably suck.
That’s all true and it’s never really bothered me because, possible hot take incoming, PS exclusives are pretty milquetoast. I will concede that Sony’s first party studios have honed their ability to make “open world third person action game with crafting and stealth elements” with impressive consistency, but that’s the most common genre of AAA game and IMO Sony isn’t even making the best ones, just accessible and consistently above average ones.
If you want that kind of game you have a zillion options on every platform.
As someone who played and enjoyed most of the PS exclusives, +1 for the take. What games do you think are “the best ones”?
I just want Bloodborne, Ghost of Tsushima, and FFXVI on PC. The first is a wash, the second might be coming soon, and the third needs a year to be ported.
Pretty decent mix of situations, I guess.
Just quickly checking Amazon, a 3060 will run people a little less than $300. Now, if you want the newest hardware, yeah, it’s overpriced to hell and back and we’ve been complaining about it for about half a decade, but a 1060 6GB from 2016 still handles a vast number of games, it’s what my wife runs in her build to date. In addition, games tend to cost more digitally on console because there’s no competition of storefronts, whereas PC has key and bundle sites plus countless competing storefronts that want your money, or even Epic and GOG that regularly do “please use our service” game giveaways.
Either way though, nobody wants to pay an additional $400 just for the privilege of playing a handful of games. That cost is almost 6 full-priced games alone.
It’s more that a PC capable of playing games is something a lot of PC gamers are going to have regardless of whether the PS5 has exclusives they want to play or not. Its something they might go onto use for stuff like Blender or video editing or any other productivity based work. So the idea of dropping the cost of a GPU just to play exclusive games is not the most enticing, since it’s not hardware that is going to do anything but be able to play games.
So console are cheap to someone that will not have a device that is satisfactory for gaming, but when you already do and will the price is steep. Since at the point you may prefer to spend that money towards more PC upgrades, or buying other hardware that offers something that is lacking in your set up like nice speakers or a VR headset or headphones or just save the money.
So for a console to catch the eye of a PC gamer I think the switch has actually done the best job. It’s not just another display dependent hardware that PC owners already have and will have, but something portable. It offers a unique hardware experience that makes it more alluring to buy than just gatewalled games being what makes it stand out.
If you wait long enough, they won’t be exclusive anymore, or you’ll be able to emulate them.
Loads of other games to get hyped about in the meantime at least.
Pc is the plattform with the most exclusives if you consider many mmorpg’s and a lot indie games.
Not really my type of games, so… They can keep 'em.
Although I am quite against all that exclusivity silliness.
They are more watching than playing. All coming to pc anyway now, so could grab them super cheap eventually anyway if you really wanted.
I do have a firm policy regarding games that are and were exclusives. I don’t buy them even if they eventually come to my neck of the woods.
If they didn’t want my money then, they aren’t getting a dime now. Pretty simple.
But as I said, neither game really had any interest to begin with. So there’s a good chance I wouldn’t have picked them up anyway.
Yeah, was more the point of why even buy consoles at this point if you really enjoy gaming. Consoles are great for quick plug and play sure, but with just minimal setup you can have a much better machine that pays for itself in the long run due to the cheaper games and lack of forced online subscriptions.
I agree, I don’t think any exclusives are good enough to justify buying a specific console.
the whole horizon series is mid at best, I’m craving a ghost of Tsushima port and tlou 2
