There's been a murder!
I got a new telly during Black Friday. It’s an appalling beast that’s forced me to acknowledge that my eyes are too big for my belly, turning my humble living room into a tiny IMAX cinema. Honestly, I’m a wee bit embarrassed. Nobody needs a screen this big—though it’s far from the largest on offer. Since I don’t drive, this is effectively my red sports car midlife crisis purchase. The thing I bought when I should be saving to fix up my ratty old kitchen.
When I got my previous telly, the first thing I did was fire up my brand new PS5. I was excited. My first 4K TV, and my fancy new console. My body fused with the sofa for, I cannot lie, the entire day, the power of my new gadgets overcoming all biological impulses.
This time, it took me a week to even remember I had a PS5. Instead, the TV became the latest in a string of Moonlight devices, used to stream games from my home office to my living room. I jumped between Cyberpunk 2077, Metaphor: ReFantazio, and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, marvelling at how much the frankly insane real estate provided by this ludicrous screen drew me into the games—like one of those horrendous adverts where a shrieking teen is engulfed by whatever generic, explosive game it is they’re playing—and how everyone was right: OLED really is the way to go.
When I finally noticed my PS5 under the all-consuming glow of the screen, I felt like I should probably give it at least some love and diligently hooked the old boy up. The last thing I’d played, quite some time ago, was Final Fantasy 16. It’s not very good, but I fancied hanging out with my big dog and melting some monsters again. Five minutes later, I quit, turned my PS5 off, and went back to streaming my PC.
I just can’t do it anymore, folks. Even on performance mode, with VRR and HDR, it looked dated and ran like shit. I tried again a bit later, with different games that perform better and which I actually like, but the result was the same. I was having a significantly worse time and not enjoying a single benefit.
The reality is that it’s been this way for a while, but after playing every single generation of consoles since the NES, it’s been hard to really accept. It’s taken a new telly to hammer home just how hard it is for consoles to compete with PCs. Granted, this is specific to my situation, and there will always be reasons to opt for a console—just not for me.
Every muddy texture, every example of dodgy anti-aliasing, every lurch and judder—all blown up and impossible to ignore.
I have smartly chosen a dog instead of ruining my life with expensive and disgusting children, and while much of UK games media is centred around Bath and London (two of the most expensive locations in the country), I refuse to leave Scotland. This is all to say that I’m in the extremely privileged position to be able to make frivolous PC gaming purchases that put the hardware inside this generation of consoles and almost certainly the next to shame.
So while my PC games all looked incredible on the telly, it only highlighted my PS5’s imperfections and concessions. Every muddy texture, every example of dodgy anti-aliasing, every lurch and judder—all blown up and impossible to ignore.
When I first got my PS5, being able to choose between performance and graphics modes felt like a game-changer, but now I can only see them as two equally disappointing choices: nauseating performance and graphics that still can’t remotely compete with what I’m able to enjoy on PC, or a slightly better but still pretty low frame rate, with none of the bells and whistles. I was previously limited by my old TV being a 60Hz deal, but the new one matches the performance I get when I’m sitting at my desk. It almost feels insulting to use my PS5 with it.
Streaming isn’t perfect, though. My internet connection is medieval, and will be until next year, when my neighbourhood is getting full fibre broadband. I could probably do with a new router, as well. So that means I do experience some hiccups and a bit of colour banding in some games. But upgrades to my home office setup mean that I’m more than happy to play my PC games locally, as much as it can be nice to escape the room where I spend all day pretending to work.
Until recently, my primary monitor was 1440p. Arguably a waste given my GPU, a 4090. 4K monitors ain’t cheap, though, and games still look incredible at 1440p—plus I could get them running at even higher frame rates. You can find some pretty great deals on 4K monitors these days, though, and now that I’m living that 4K life, I can’t believe I’ve been missing out for so long. I do still think some folk over-egg how big of an upgrade it is, but it’s still a noticeable difference. At 32 inches, it’s a pretty big screen, too—at least for my desk. Moving from my living room to the office, then, no longer makes me feel like I’m sacrificing anything.
Between these two options, I’m finally taking full advantage of my PC, and it’s just completely ruined my PS5. I almost feel guilty. It just sits there in its little nook, waiting to be played with. “I still have some exclusives left,” it quietly cries. But we both know that they’re only the less noteworthy ones, and they’ll all be on PC eventually.
Consoles have just lost all of their advantages. Compact living room PCs and streaming have negated their convenience. The loss of exclusives has killed off their unique gaming hooks. The only thing they have left to fight with is their comparatively low price.
Back in September I had the gall to suggest that, actually, $700 ain’t that much for the PS5 Pro given what we spend on PCs. I still think it’s fine. You can also build a solid PC for $700, but it won’t be blowing the console out of the water. If you just want something you can play games on out of the box, and not need to worry about peripherals, you could do worse.
For every buck you might save, though, you’re sacrificing a whole heap of things: flexibility, upgrade potential, the vast PC gaming library. And while PC gaming can still be prohibitively expensive when it comes to high-end rigs, the price gap is a lot smaller if you’re looking at mid-range PCs.
Nintendo has protected itself a lot more deftly than Sony or Microsoft from this obsolescence. It continues to keep its first-party games away from our platform, so unless you’re up for emulation or unofficial ports, you need to pay the plumber. It also makes consoles that aren’t just shit PCs.
In every console generation, I’ve always had a Nintendo device because they are always completely distinct. I’ll even go to bat for the much-maligned Wii U. Nintendo consoles are weird, wonderful toys, and while most of the competition has desperately tried to appeal more to ‘serious gamers’ and boring adults, Nintendo has always stuck to its guns, embracing the playful joy of gaming. For the longest time, I couldn’t have imagined not having one in my home.
I already have a better Switch. It’s called the Steam Deck and it’s murdered Nintendo’s best console.
My love for them continued with the Switch, not least because it meant I could finally get away with just one Nintendo console instead of shelling out for both a home console and a handheld. But now I’m genuinely considering skipping the Switch 2, whenever it appears. I guess it depends on what it actually ends up being, but it certainly seems like it’s just going to be a better Switch, and I already have a better Switch. It’s called the Steam Deck and it’s murdered Nintendo’s best console.
With the Heroic Launcher letting me play nearly all of my PC games, not just the ones on Steam, and a few tweaks that automatically change my host resolution to 1280×800 when I use Moonlight on my Steam Deck, Valve’s miraculous handheld is just as potent as my desktop, which has been disastrous for my sleeping habits. I ain’t snoozing when I can play my entire PC library in bed. It would just be a waste.
So I guess I’m splitting up with Nintendo, too. Even if it means I’m going to be missing out on a generation of the venerable publisher’s games, that’s not going to be the joyless existence it once might have seemed. PC gaming is so vibrant that I will never be able to play even a quarter of all the games I’m interested in, so if anything, cutting out the next Zelda or Mario romp is actually a good thing. Sure, I’ll get some FOMO—I’m a fickle, easily-tempted boy—but I think I’ll be able to handle it.
Four years ago, Evan wrote “Well, I guess we won the console war“, but it’s only now that I’ve realised what that means for my relationship with consoles. I just don’t think I can justify investing in them anymore. The very thought of turning on my PS5 or digging out my Switch, when my desktop and Steam Deck library is right there, bursting with all of gaming’s possibilities… well, it just seems incredibly silly. Also, I don’t think I’ll be able to afford a new console if I want to pay off this stupid telly anyway.
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