5 Things Consoles are killing

Many Potential PC Gamers

The great thing about consoles is their price relative to gaming PC rigs. With the Xbox One currently at £430 and the PS4 standing at £80 less, it’s no wonder so many gamers flock to consoles instead. With the same amount of ‘console money’ you’d only manage to buy a ‘student’ PC and by that I mean a computer that handles Microsoft office and RuneScape if you fancy a bit of that. For you to handle a hardcore game such as Battlefield 4 or Crysis 3 at decent frame-rates and maxed out settings, you’re looking at easily over £1000. With the current state of tuition fees, I don’t think any university gamer has that amount of free cash lying around.

Backwards Compatibility

Before buying a next generation console, whether it is a PlayStation, Xbox or Nintendo, one of the main gamer concerns, is whether they can play their old games collected over the past decade on the new systems. It is never more dismaying to find the many game titles on your bookshelf that you still haven’t touched or completed unplayable on your new system that you’ve invested in. By that ladies and gentlemen, I’m referring to the Xbox One which does not let you play 360 games which is such a shame considering many big titles being released recently on the 360 such as Battlefield 4. PlayStation 4 certainly isn’t off the hook either, but at least they’ve tried to remedy their ‘hardware mishap’ by allowing previous console titles available via online streaming.

DVD players

Since the release of the PlayStation 2 in 2001, consoles have had their own inbuilt DVD, and now, Blue Ray players. The only place you would find a DVD player is e-bay, and even Blue Rays are starting to feel the market shift. Of course, the internet, gaming consoles partner in crime, is also responsible for this killing off, with live streaming and pirate downloads of movies.

Skill

I’ll probably get a lot of hate mail from fan boys for saying this…but in my humble opinion it really does not take long to master the console controller especially if it’s ergonomically designed specifically for gaming and ease of use. If you compare it to using a keyboard and mouse (yes, I am a PC gamer) you will find it’s a lot easier to execute your commands on time that make getting that head-shot a lot simpler. How to test my claim? Try playing FIFA on PC using a keyboard and you’ll see what I’m talking about. Also have you ever wondering why no one’s ever implemented cross platform online gaming? Because being a console gamer in a Call of Duty Lobby with PC gamers is like finding yourself in a lobby full of noobs – as in, it’s not exactly fair.

Free Online Gaming

I actually considered re-evaluating my decision on the cost effectiveness of consoles compared to gaming PCs. This is because now, you have to pay for online/multiplayer gaming on both the Xbox One and PS4 which 99% of gamers will get either one, the other or both. When it was the 360 vs. the PS3, the main benefit the PS3 had was that you didn’t have to pay extra fees to game online, unlike the 360; you’d just have to buy the console, the game and you’re set. Now, it costs $60 a year subscription fee for the Xbox one and $50 for the PS4. Fairly ridiculous if you think about it, the main reason I buy games is for the online content and playing with some guy across the globe in Hong Kong (who’d probably wop my ass). Console story mode and online gaming are like two sides of a coin, you can’t get a coin with a heads side but no tails. Subscription fees for online gaming certainly make it seem that you can actually find coins with only one side in this world…