What Made You Leave Consoles?

Saints row 3 killed my Xbox for me it looked like garbage compared to the pc version, although games like l.a noir started my transition the frame rates were terrible on xbox. However saying that I'll probably buy the next Xbox and probably get suckered into a ps4 and at sum point I'm going to end up walking home with a wii u. I'm a gamer I go where the games are I don't care if it's a pc or console or toaster

Games are cheaper

Wider Selection

Better Graphics

Increasing number of Xbox Gamepad support

Left home, mom kept PS3.

I had a gaming PC that I 'used' and now it's my gaming machine, so yeah. There's that.

I personally left consoles (but still own and RARELY play them) because of their lack of visual fidelity. Not just because consoles aren't always rendering the games in actual HD, but because most console games suffer from serious framerate issues and bad tearing. I also enjoy getting my games for especially cheap :)

@GrandHarrier said:

I left PCs for consoles. Does that count?

I did this as well but I've come back now and I dunno. I'm not HAPPIER I just seem more disappointed in some of the console versions of the games. Seems like some games literally got worse over time. I think Borderlands 2 is pretty bad on consoles in terms of looks and performance to a certain degree and this is a very late cycle release. Games like Gears of War or Dead Space look pretty great on consoles in comparison.

I have left my 360 alone for a bit though mostly because I got so burned on Borderlands 2. Not to harp on it too much because it was a good game that I enjoyed but the constant texture popin was abysmal. This led me to getting Dishonored for PC and obviously XCOM as well. Both ran fine although something about Dishonored made it kinda chug at random and I can only narrow it down to my old hard drive. XCOM looks great and I don't even plug in the controller for it because the mouse and keyboard seems perfectly adequate.

@OmegaChosen said:

I didn't realize there was a growing crowd.

The South is (in the process of) rising again.

While I have every console and handheld (Vita, 3DS, Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii), I play 90% of my games on the PC and will always choose PC for almost every single type of game, given the choice.

The original reason why I switched to PC is simple: I live in a house with 4 other people, who like to use the TV. I can't play when they are using the TV

The other reasons are:

1. I don't like people hovering over my shoulder asking questions about the games I am playing. When I play on my PC, I play in my room in private
2. I dislike using controllers for FPS games. And, I can use a controller with my PC when I play racing games or platforming games or fighting games
3. I can store all my games on my HDD, and I have them accessible and instantly available whenever I want.
4. I can patch games very easily
5. Games are often cheaper through Steam discounts or from G2Play or Gamers Gate or any of the digital stores.
6. Games tend to look a bit better on the PC - I won't say that I find the difference between console and PC graphics to be as mind-blowingly huge as some PC gamers, but the difference is often there and it is noticeable
7. I don't have to pay for multiplayer (I am aware that the PS3's multiplayer network is also free).

As I've said - I own all the consoles. I enjoy using consoles. But given a choice, I will pick PC. Sometimes I don't have a choice - sometimes the game is a console exclusive, and so I will play on a Console. Red Dead Redemption, Killzone, Halo 3 and 4 Super Mario Galaxy - all console exclusives which I have enjoyed. I do not hate consoles. They're fine if that's the way you want to play - maybe you have a GIANT TV that you're lucky enough to use by yourself. Maybe you prefer playing games in your lounge. Maybe you like your Xbox or PS3 friends list and don't want to part with that. Maybe you just don't want to bother buying/building a good gaming PC. All of those are perfectly valid reasons to stick to consoles.

However, the Seven Reasons I just gave are the reasons I stick to PCs whenever possible.

I purchased my first gaming pc to play SWTOR. I believed that game was going to be great. I was wrong about the game but not the pc. Since then between Steam sales and Amazon sales I have purchased more games for the pc than i ever had for any console. I used to believe that playing games on a pc would be difficult. I realize that probably sounds stupid to pc gamers but I've been a console only gamer until recently. I rarely turn my console on anymore. I do not think I will get any of the next gen consoles when they launch, I'll just upgrade my pc .

@GrandHarrier said:

I left PCs for consoles. Does that count?

Left PC as my main platform but i always had something there i couldn't play on consoles (MMOs).

Now i'm back but not entirely, there will always be room for both.

Well, I didn't leave consoles behind (currently enjoying Forza Horizon) but I started playing PC again after several years when Dark Souls PC was released. edit: Oh, and because of the great indie games.

I missed the unique types of games that the PC had. I was a PC person back in the 90's and then switched to consoles for a couple of years convinced that I could get better experiences there. Consoles is the bigger market so they should have the best games, right? It turned out I needed the huge old school RPG's, the strategy games, the weird indie games, the mods. In short, I missed the scope and the rough lawlessness of PC game publishing.

And since most good console game ends up on the PC nowadays, I see absolutely no reason in going back.

And also multitasking. Playing a game, writing in a forums, chatting with friends, reading some news, spamming that ALT+TAB

I haven't played console games in awhile because of two reasons:

1. I'm in college, and not all colleges are happy if you take the TV's in the dorms and try to hook a game console up to them. With all the stuff I carried to college, I don't know if I could fit one in the car with all my other stuff, either.
2. I simply don't have the money even for the console itself, let alone any of the games. I already have an okay computer.

That doesn't mean I don't miss console games terribly. My PC can't run Skyrim or Mass Effect, and I'd very much like to play those, if only to know what my friends are always talking about. I'd like to play Uncharted eventually, or get into the stealth genre, finally. Maybe when the PS3's successor is finally on the horizon, I'll be able to afford one and catch up.

I did it for: cheaper games; the exclusives (both big budget and the indie stuff); better looking, smoother looking games; mods; the M+KB works better for some games and I can use a controller for the games that play better with a controller.

I still game on consoles (and 3DS) for the stuff that don't make its way to the PC.

When 'Next-Gen' hits I'll have a PC+WiiU combo. Best of both worlds.

@HumanoidTyphoon: Just so you know, you can disable seeing those ads pop up when you exit games and you can set it so that when you launch steam it opens directly into your library rather then the Steam store page. That's another reason Steam is so awesome. If you never want to look at the store you have the options to turn it off. Personally I leave them on because Steam is always doing crazy good sales just because they feel like it so I would miss out on a ton of sales by not checking those out regularly.

I could afford a new Pc.

But really, I never "left" consoles. I still play most third person games on them.

I'm married now with a kid and I don't have the opportunity or time to dominate the TV and the living room by playing games. So I've decided to invest in PC gaming. Got a nice new rig, a wired 360 controller and I'm set. All the games I had on consoles (except for stuff like Uncharted obviously) are on Steam and they run at 1080p/60fps maxed out. Also backwards compatibility is no longer an issue.

I'm interested in getting a WiiU (after a price drop), because it's been a while since I've owned a Nintendo console and that's one that I wouldn't have a problem with my kid playing. I still have my PS3 to watch blu-rays and for the occasional exclusive, but PC is where it's at these days.

@crusader8463 said:

@HumanoidTyphoon: Just so you know, you can disable seeing those ads pop up when you exit games and you can set it so that when you launch steam it opens directly into your library rather then the Steam store page. That's another reason Steam is so awesome. If you never want to look at the store you have the options to turn it off. Personally I leave them on because Steam is always doing crazy good sales just because they feel like it so I would miss out on a ton of sales by not checking those out regularly.

Ah, thanks for the heads up! That's just it, they're always having deals so it's in my best interest to be exposed to their store/pop-ups. I don't mind ads if they're relevant to my interests and save me money. :D

@HumanoidTyphoon said:

@crusader8463 said:

@HumanoidTyphoon: Just so you know, you can disable seeing those ads pop up when you exit games and you can set it so that when you launch steam it opens directly into your library rather then the Steam store page. That's another reason Steam is so awesome. If you never want to look at the store you have the options to turn it off. Personally I leave them on because Steam is always doing crazy good sales just because they feel like it so I would miss out on a ton of sales by not checking those out regularly.

Ah, thanks for the heads up! That's just it, they're always having deals so it's in my best interest to be exposed to their store/pop-ups. I don't mind ads if they're relevant to my interests and save me money. :D

No worries. When I'm trying to save money I force myself to go set it to load into my library and not see those pop ups because it's the only way to stop me from spending money on Steam games. Remove temptation and all that.

@DarthOrange said:

My PC is crap. I ask people where I can buy a PC that will run games decently (I played through Portal with the thing jumping around the whole way through looking like pixel hell, even Bastion stutters) and I get the response "Don't buy a gaming PC, it is a rip-off! Build it yourself!" When I ask how they point me to all sorts of weird websites that all disagree on how to build a PC, and the commenters all disagree as to what is good and what is shit. Fuck the PC community for having a wall of exclusion higher then the one set by the fighting game community for new comers. I'll stick to my console games thank you very much!

As someone who regularly helps purchase, build, and troubleshoot pc's for friends and family, I can tell you that the people you are talking to are dumb (what a surprise, you are asking random people on the internet!). If you are really interested in a gaming pc, the most important thing you need is a budget, patience for all the comparisons you will inevitably do, and a few good sites (tomshardware being a great example of a useful and only a little overly technical pc parts site). Hell you can post your info on these forums and people will fall over themselves to try to help you.

If you want to stick to console gaming that's your prerogative, but don't get mad at the platform because you are so easily intimidated by general internet stupidity.

Never left? Consoles would have been nothing to me if PC ports or whatever hadn't turned to shit because devs didn't care anymore. I'll always have a nice PC for work and hobby, consoles will always be second best unless some altered reality shit happens.

If I didn't know new IP's would be coming out with new consoles I'd wish they kept this shitty ps3/360 bonanza going longer so i could keep getting the better pc versions. Who knows maybe they won't forget about PC's again but I doubt it.

I like all kinds of gaming, limiting myself to one platform isn't my style. 

My mate got a console last year he asked what games he should buy, I recommended Red Dead Redemption, Fallout 3, Dead Space, GTA IV, Mirrors Edge, Halo Reach, Mass Effect and Batman Arkham Asylum. He got all those great games for 70 bucks, makes you realize how great this console generation has been.

I started playing with .ini files and I was hooked from then on. Now, whenever I play a console game and there is something about how the game plays that kind of rubs me the wrong way, all I can think about is how can I tweak it to make it play better, then realizing that I can't tweak anything, and then I get sad. Also, mods. Mods can be pretty cool.

Honestly, Steam was a big part of it.

I made the jump when I got my new PC in late '10 and have made a full-scale switch to PC gaming. My 360 has been packed up in a box for the last six months - will be unpacked when I get Forza Horizon - and the PS3 is basically a Blu-Ray player that also happens to play Journey. Just none of the console manufacturers offer an experience for the serious and discerning gamer that can match Steam. I value the convenience of not having to deal with physical media and consider it to be the future of the industry, so when I was presented with the prospect of buying newly released games on PC, where they're cheaper and look better, it was a no contest. The sales allowed me to build up a large catalogue of PC games quickly, and there have been some kickass PC games in the past couple of years, like Civ 5, M&B Warband, the Total War games etc. Also I bought a new high-res PC monitor around the time that Skyrim came out, and my TV isn't that great - 32", not full-HD - so really it's a no brainer for me. I even sit at my desk while playing games with a gamepad and think it's a great experience.

I get that PC gaming is not for everybody, but as it turns out, it's for me. I won't forget the endless hours of fun with my 360, but switching to PC gaming was one of the best gaming decision of my life.

The lack of my favorite titles on consoles. I haven't left them forever, it's just I play them very rarely.

I've been doing the same thing for as long as I can remember.

Had consoles first because that was more common than an in home PC back in the day.

Once I had my first PC, I've always had a PC, consoles have come and gone.

I'll have a great PC (seemingly at the time) and then a new console will come out and I'll move focus to that for a while.

Eventually that console will grow stale (more so this generation than any) and some new GPU will come out for PC that raises the bar.

I've never ignored PC entirely but I've already sold off my 360, PS3, and Wii.

@ki11tank said:

Never left? Consoles would have been nothing to me if PC ports or whatever hadn't turned to shit because devs didn't care anymore. I'll always have a nice PC for work and hobby, consoles will always be second best unless some altered reality shit happens.

If I didn't know new IP's would be coming out with new consoles I'd wish they kept this shitty ps3/360 bonanza going longer so i could keep getting the better pc versions. Who knows maybe they won't forget about PC's again but I doubt it.

On that note, it seems to me like a whole lot of former console gamers (such as myself) left for PC and now that they've explored it and seen the better prices, graphics, framerates, mods, etc., they're not going to want to switch back. PC ports have gotten a lot better these past few years (Skyrim, Saints Row the Third, Deus Ex Human Revolution, etc.) and I don't think that's because of people bitching on forums, I think it's because that audience has grown significantly and they've been able to make more money off of it. Publishers have even pushed back release dates so that developers can make sure the PC version works right - see: Batman Arkham City and Assassin's Creed 3.

I don't think they'll forget about PC's now that there's a much larger crowd that strongly prefers it.

@ChadMasterFlash said:

I go both ways.

I haven't really left consoles, but Steam was a big part of me mainly playing on PC now. When I can just wait a little bit and get 60 dollar games for 25, and smaller games from 2.50-10.00, 60 bucks for one game starts to sound insane.

I havent leaft consoles as I will still buy exclusive games on them but for me a lot of my move back to PC was simply that I could finally afford to buy a computer that would run games again.

For me it was something that just happen near the end of the ps2 cycle I tried medal of honor allied assault and fell in love with FPS mp games.Back then before I didn't even know what PC could even do for gaming didn't even know the graphics could be better I was in for a nice surprise.But mostly since I just play FPS and third person shooters PC is the perfect platform for me.Now I'm so comfortable with the mouse and keyboard I can't imagine ever playing a shooter with a gamepad .Also I like to do mapping off and on sometimes so PC is for me.

I've always been a PC gamer, I had a ps1 but games were very expensive. On PC I could just get infinite abandonware and free trials. Plus in the UK there was this Sold Out Software line that sold loads of older PC games for about £5 each, it was great.

Nowadays I don't really give a fuck about the whole PC master race thing. I mean I play a large amount of games on PC with a controller anyway, I still keep my consoles around for exclusives but that's about it.

i have gone both ways back and forth. PC gaming can be a big money pit.

I dabbled a bit in PC gaming for a couple years before eventually retreating back to console gaming... Due to my own incompetence I might add. I just couldn't make heads or tails about anything on the PC side, so I finally gave up. The thing that'll make me ditch console gaming for good is when I can connect a blue tooth game pad to my iPad and play all my iOS games with a controller.. I'm dead serious. I enjoy the games on the App Store a lot, they're cheap as dirt and apple makes quality hardware. So in short; I would love PC gaming if I weren't so damn inept with anything remotely technical.

@WinterSnowblind said:

@Village_Guy said:

I think what mostly holds me back from the PC is that I have always found it uncomfortable to play games with a mouse and keyboard.

I can relate to that, but with Windows 7 onwards, pretty much every PC game natively supports the 360 gamepad. HDMI cables are also very cheap, so you can play your PC games on your TV, sitting on a couch, with a 360 (or PS3 controller if you really want) very easily.

Yeah, I have been looking for whatever-it-is-called-that-is-used-to-connect-the-360-controller-to-the-PC for some time now, but I can't find it anywhere. No stores where I live or the usual online stores I use seem to have any.

I originally became a PC gamer when my parents refused to buy me a PlayStation one so to get my gaming fix I turned to the family PC in the late 90's. Fast-foward to today, I have a PC thats lasted me years with the cheap occasional upgrade that will play everything on high at 1080p at 30-60 fps, but what I really love is Steam.

I only buy a game full price at launch like once a year, everything else I just wait for a steam sale. I save tons of money AND have a massive list of games.

It's so much cheaper to buy games. Look at indie bundles where you can get 5 games for $1. Or look at Steam sales where you can get a game that's a couple months old for $20 when it's still $60 on console. Also like the fact that most games are mod-able on PC. You also get better graphics and performance too not to mention there's still communities online for ridiculously old games. I play Team Fortress Classic all the time, it's 13 years old with a decent size community considering it's age. You can host your own servers which really isn't the case for console and that means you can still play really old games.

@canucks23 said:

Better looking games, a more customizable experience (mods, etc.) , cheaper games. Overall it's just a much better experience to me than playing on a console.

Same + steam

Steam sales + New MacBook.

I still play tons of console games, but those two things got me back into PC gaming pretty heavily.

Steam sales. And a wider variety of games to play. Plus, I like having all my games in one spot. I have a few PS3 games, but I don't go to them nearly as much as I do my PC.

@jsnyder82: If it wasn't for bluray I would have locked away my PS3 with where my Wii is until the Last of Us releases. I really need to get to putting a bluray drive into my desktop.

I just sort of got fed up with consoles and took it as a signal to finally get myself a beast of a PC. I literally haven't turned on my ps3 in months. Plus the PC has the whole indie scene going, along with being able to use mods n'shit.

@Colourful_Hippie said:

@jsnyder82: If it wasn't for bluray I would have locked away my PS3 with where my Wii is until the Last of Us releases. I really need to get to putting a bluray drive into my desktop.

Yeah that's pretty much all my PS3 is for, too. I built my PC and didn't even think to put a Blu Ray in it. Then again, I have a PS3 and a 50 inch plasma, so it's all good.

No point in leaving one for another. moding games on the PC though makes it my first choice if it's a multiplatform game.

I hate to be "that guy" but the graphics.

Seeing games that I had played countless hours on consoles completely maxed out on PC kind of spoiled me.

The games are cheaper. In the last year I have probably saved as much money on games as I spent on my computer in the first place. It's amazing being able to get games a few days after they come out for 25%-33% off and not have to pay any taxes on them. It makes $70 games into $35-$45, which is amazing. That's not even counting the games I can wait a few months on and get for 75+% off.

Modding.

I didn't. I play on (all) console and also PC, because certain experiences work better on certain hardware and I'll probably always prefer the console exclusive stuff to the PC exclusive stuff.

Xbox Live made me leave consoles. Steam sales helped, but I was getting super tired of paying $50+ a year just for the "privilege" of playing against others online.

Microsoft should definitely reconsider their strategy next go-round, unfortunately I don't think they'll need to.

i overall mainly use my PC for most of my gaming experience, but i would be lying if i said i don't do a hybrid of both, because i still do play with my 3DS, Wii, and PS3 on occasion. But really for me, converting most of my gaming to the computer is more convenient for me for a couple of reasons. one main reason for instance is that most games that do come out on console come out on the PC as well, and sense my personal desktop is in my room, its just easier sense i don't have a TV, to play games, but that's just a strictly personal reason. another reason that many other people can agree on is that its just better for most games to play with the keyboard and mouse then a standard console controller, like first-person shooters for example, i find to be more flexible to play with the keyboard and mouse, cause there is just more options on it that the console controllers just lack. Overall, I'm mainly a PC gamer, but i do think that some games that are made for consoles are only good on the consoles.