Since PC’s have been able to do other things besides word processing and spreadsheets, we have been playing games on them, and since the late 80’s when the NES was originally released there have been debates on which platform is better, PC or Console. With the steady increase of consoles since the mid 90’s the PC has been losing it’s grip on the gaming market and major decline early on in the New Millennium with the addition of the Xbox and PS2.
The PC definitely has the edge on console gaming in areas. For instance, consoles will never be able to keep with the constantly changing PC market. In the first year of a console’s lifespan the PC will have upgraded it’s graphics and processing power close to three times. So with this increase in products for the inside of a PC also comes one of it’s major downfalls which the mobile market is currently working around as well, fragmentation. PC’s can vary so much that when playing in any sort of multiplayer situation you can either live or die just by a few months difference in the rendering speed of your GPU. Also battling with driver issues (even though it’s not nearly as bad as it used to be) can make some games unplayable if you don’t have the latest version.
Another reason to love the PC is the fact that most of the games that we play today wouldn’t exist without the PC. The first person shooter genre was born on the PC. I personally didn’t get into the FPS genre on the PC because the keyboard (even though now I find it relatively simple now) was intimidating to me. Using the WASD keys for general movement and the mouse for aiming was like trying to juggle flaming chainsaws at first.
Now for the current generation of Consoles, Xbox 360 and PS3, are still selling and selling quickly. Most recently the Xbox 360 posted over 236,000 sold in the month of April alone. That is 6 YEARS after the consoles original release date. The consoles are definitely starting to show their age though. If you look at any PC game released in the last 6 months and their console counterpart, the PC blows the game graphically out of the water.
The console is also a lot less intimidating to the new player than the PC. All you need is your console a TV, and a game (sometimes just the console if you go the downloadable games route) and you’re good to go. The PC with it’s tower, monitor, keyboard, mouse and speakers can seem like a lot.
If you’re into DLC and getting games first, the console is the way to go as well. Games and DLC and generally released on consoles a week or two or even sometimes a month ahead of the PC. Also on the DLC front there has been a recent trend of Day 1 DLC and on the Disc DLC which has whipped the internet into a frenzy, and I understand why. Making customers pay for data that’s already on the disc they paid for is kind of ridiculous. I understand it is a way to curb the piracy of games but that still doesn’t stop a lot of pirates out there.
So to me, at this moment, I would have to give the console the edge. Yes, the PC is more powerful and always will be. But the console gives players a Base 0 when playing multiplayer, everyone is the same and takes away any hardware advantage. Also instead of spending $1000-$2000 on a gaming PC you’re going to spend $300-$600 for a console that can play at 1080p on your TV without any complex settings that need to be changed.
Thanks
Zach
Nerdhood 