• jordanlund@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      I picked up a Steam Deck to get into PC gaming and frankly, I don’t get it. So many games not even worth the bandwidth to download much less actually play.

      And yeah, since Fry’s shut down, I haven’t thought about building a PC again. No Microcenter around here either.

      • UntitledQuitting@reddthat.com
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        6 months ago

        i’m the exact opposite. all my computers are macs so I’ve been gaming on PS5 for years. picked up an sd oled mostly to play hades, but have finished dead island 2, ghsot of tsushima and hogwarts legacy on it. the barrier to entry to play a game is so low with the steamdecks suspend feature, I can just pick it up and be playing 5 seconds later.

      • corus_kt@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        Maybe you’ve just grown out of gaming. The Steam Deck has it’s issues, but the sheer amount of different great games playable on it is debatably it’s greatest strength. Hades, Armored Core, Persona, Dark Souls, pokemon romhacks, etc.

  • jordanlund@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    “Console sales are down. Circana analyst Mat Piscatella marked a 26% decline in spending on current-generation consoles this April compared to last April.”

    We’re 4 years into the generation, sales declines aren’t uncommon, but this gen has had unique challenges:

    1. Covid fucked it all up. Supply chain issues screwed availability, software engineering ganked game development.

    2. Too much emphasis on “Cross Gen”. Why would someone scramble to get a hard to find PS5 or Xbox Series when the same game is out on PS4/Xbox One X?

    Long generations are kind of the new thing, starting with Xbox 360/PS3. Previously they were around 5 years and people are looking for the next machines now.

    • Eeyore_Syndrome@sh.itjust.works
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      6 months ago

      And people cry when games like Elite Dangerous drop console support.

      Microsoft and Sony force them to develop for the lowest spec gen, so no you cannot play on your PS5/X whatever because PS4 and One X cannot run new game engine.

      They were never more than 20% of the player base.

      Also get your free PC copy Here 🥹

      • nave@lemmy.ca
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        6 months ago

        Microsoft and Sony force them to develop for the lowest spec gen

        No they don’t. If the developers wanted they could have dropped support for the last gen versions for newer updates (like what cyberpunk did).

        Also for what it’s worth they even had a ps4 trailer for the Odyssey dlc.

    • Xer0@lemmy.ml
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      6 months ago

      Pretty sure the shortest time between Playstation consoles was 6 years (PS1 > PS2 & PS2 > PS3.) Then 7 years for both PS4 and PS5.

    • ampersandrew@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      I think we’re too far out to blame supply chain issues. PS5 is lagging behind PS4 at the same point in its life by about 20M consoles. #2 is both a symptom and a cause. Developers across the entire industry have bloated their development timelines. That means fewer games and less reacting to consumer tends. When do you think Concord started development, for instance? And do you think it still would have been made if it started after Overwatch 2 came out?

      Plus, consumers seem to be gravitating toward the less restrictive open standard. If you’re in Sony land, you need to replace your old controllers, even though they still work; you have to pay for online play; backwards compatibility is a bit of a dice roll, and if you want features as similar as higher resolution textures and better frame rates, they’re going to sell you a remaster rather than just letting you turn up the settings. In ruling over their walled garden ecosystem and trying to extract more money from it, they’ve given players more and more reason to play on PC.

  • Fizz@lemmy.nz
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    6 months ago

    The money is in the users not selling the hardware. As long as Playstation has hundreds of million daily users they will continue to make insane profit. The people will move up a generation eventually.

      • Fizz@lemmy.nz
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        6 months ago

        Focusing on PC more than ever isn’t exactly a high bar. Consoles (maybe not xbox) are still doing extremely well and consoles are more popular than PC by quite a big margin. I expect Sony and Nintendo to continue to grow their userbase even if the sales on the latest platform drop a bit.

        • thingsiplay@beehaw.org
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          6 months ago

          consoles are more popular than PC by quite a big margin.

          How do you measure this? Steam alone has 130 to 150 million active users, more than Switch customers at a whole. And that does not even include some of the most popular PC games at all. I also expect PC user base to grow, it has more potential than consoles.

          So yes, its a big deal for companies like Sony to open up this big to PC and to be that successful. They don’t even need to sell a console to sell games. Off course consoles will remain popular and for good reason. But most popular games are mulitsystem games and not specific to consoles anyway. In my opinion it is remarkable how much Sony focuses on PC now. I hope they keep doing it; its only beneficial for the players, the publishers and for Sony.

          • Fizz@lemmy.nz
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            6 months ago

            The stats I could find compared pc and current and last gen consoles so ps4 and ps5 era and the split was basically 50/50. But if you think about it that’s not a fair comparison because pc has people who running on hardware worse than a ps3.

            I mostly take issue with the smug tone of the article acting like it’s over for consoles just because they didn’t meet expectations and decided to bring some games to pc. Consoles are still extremely popular and far more powerful than the average pc according to steam hardware survey. They will still be around and successful no doubt about it.

            • AmbiguousProps@lemmy.today
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              6 months ago

              that’s not a fair comparison because pc has people who running on hardware worse than a ps3.

              This is a benefit of using PC, not a downside. Unlike consoles, you aren’t forced to upgrade every few years and you actually have the ability to change graphics settings. Even if you want to upgrade your PC, you don’t need to get an entirely new build.

              That’s also missing the fact that plenty of people don’t need or want to play the latest AAA title.

            • thingsiplay@beehaw.org
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              6 months ago

              I mostly take issue with the smug tone of the article acting like it’s over for consoles just because they didn’t meet expectations and decided to bring some games to pc. Consoles are still extremely popular and far more powerful than the average pc according to steam hardware survey. They will still be around and successful no doubt about it.

              I agree with you here. These articles are stupid telling people it would be over for consoles. It’s just clickbait or they are uninformed. Maybe besides your point that the “average pc” is that weak as you say. Most are at a level of PS4 or stronger. But that is not all you need to compare if you want to an analysis. This topic is extremely complicated. You can’t just take the average. There are far more PC users than console players. Its like taking the Game Boy into account and saying that the average game consoles is weak. That’s not the full story.

              In example most monthly active users on consoles play games that could be played on a potato PC or last gen consoles too and these people probably do not buy newest games. Similar to the situation on PC.

      • Fizz@lemmy.nz
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        6 months ago

        Yea because ps4 is still getting all the releases and ps5 is really expensive. I have friends who still play on ps4 and I went to their house and they’re playing games on like 20fps having a blast. It was kinda wholesome I just wish they weren’t getting scammed by Sony and chose pc so they could play games that actually run on their hardware.

    • Delusional@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      And then there are people like me who buy all the consoles just to have them and barely use them all and mainly game on the PC.

  • juice702@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    I’ve never been into this pc vs console cringe fest of an argument. I’ve always been a pc gamer, but guess what, some exclusives only come to consoles. If I want to play that exclusive enough and I have expendable cash, I’ll buy it. I still prefer to play on pc over any of the consoles, but a ps5 is a solid system.

    • lilja@lemmy.ml
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      6 months ago

      I haven’t had a gaming-capable PC for about a decade and I’m very happy with my PS5 (and the PS4 before it). Sony bringing exclusives to PC don’t feel like the end times as it’s just a way for them to make more money.

      I’m genuinely glad that PC players will get to experience some of the great games that have been on the PS5 in the last few years.