Ask Lemmy

Do you have friends who want to play games with you? Get whatever system they have.

PC has been getting lots of PS4/5 and Xbox "exclusives". The term seems to only apply to the console war anymore.

I game on the PC because I'm sick of companies trying to compete for exclusives. Which was all fine and good until Epic Games came around and started gatekeeping AAA games with exclusive contracts for at least the first year.

But I digress. When Microsoft and Sony started competing with each other for consoles, I opted for a Nintendo console instead. Nintendo was releasing unique, creative games, and they weren't bothered with trying to compete for the market.

Nintendo's innovation actually impressed me; I ended up with a Wii, Wii U, and now a Switch. The only downside is that they don't have high-end graphics in their games, but it keeps their consoles super cheap compared to Microsoft and Sony, and their gameplay can mimic high quality visuals without top-of-the-line graphics.

On the rare chance I end up getting one of the big two brands, I usually opt for the PlayStation, just because they had so many exclusives, whereas the rare Xbox exclusives would occasionally port to PC eventually.

Now Sony is releasing some of their console exclusives on Steam, so I don't really have a reason to buy their console anymore. The last one I bought was the PS3 in 2009. My wife bought me a PS4 a few years ago, but besides playing a few exclusives, I haven't really used it.

If I want the console feel, I just plug a controller into my PC. And it's much cheaper to upgrade my PC components than buying a brand-new console every couple years.

I used to buy only Xbox. I specifically hate buying into exclusive markets, and back in the day when I was getting started on gaming, xbox was the only real functioning online service outside of PC games with server managers.

Playstation took a long time, like late PS3 maybe even into the PS4 era to have a legitimate online network that wasn't being hacked constantly.

Nowadays, I built a PC. Best of all worlds.

Honestly, if you have a PS5 already, why not just save up for a PC? Use the money that would have gone to buying an XbX and buy a graphics card. Just slowly buy your way piece by piece.

It's so worth it, but that might mainly be because I'm pretty techy and can run every emulator under the sun and rig custom dedicated servers while managing mod lists.

It's not too difficult, but it might have a small learning curve.