What Made You Leave Consoles?

(PLEASE READ OP BEFORE COMMENTING, THIS ISN'T ANOTHER PC V. CONSOLE DEBATE)

This question is obviously directed at the recent growing crowd of people who are making the switch from consoles to PC gaming. I personally didn't leave consoles for good because I still have all of the current gen systems (and handhelds) but my PC has become my go-to for playing games.

I made the full switch a year after getting a laptop for college that was capable of playing a decent range of games and even at that level I was enjoying some games quite a lot because they ran better than their console counterparts. I think that's what gave me a taste for the PC side of things so once I was able to I finally got a proper desktop and I haven't looked back since. Looking into the future I think I'm going to stick with PC for a while because I'll be able to watch how the next gen will turn out without worrying about investing into one console ecosystem at a time. I'll most likely pick up a Wii U though once the Nintendo games come around, I always considered their consoles as a companion machine with whatever other system you have.

What are your reasons for moving onto PC? Anyone out there who are on the fence about taking the plunge? I'll admit that it seems daunting at first because of the initial price tag but holy shit the deals on PC games and the flexibility of how you want to set everything up is nice.

I left PCs for consoles. Does that count?

Upgrading.

Probably my biggest reason was financial reasons. When I can play some pretty decent games that came out a years to two years ago for 4 bucks on sale from Steam, Amazon Digital Download, GOG, and yes Origin that's good enough for me.

I have always played PC games.

However, I still play console games.

Consoles come and go but PC is forever.

@I_Stay_Puft: About a month and a half left till the Winter Steam Sale....get ready...

@GrandHarrier said:

I left PCs for consoles. Does that count?

I'm so sorry.

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.

I'll cheat: I never actually left PC gaming. I've always favored PCs over consoles, though I dabbled in some (SNES, Xbox, GameCube) and I've bought every single major handheld Nintendo has released (from the original brick GameBoy to the current 3DS... though I skipped some, like the GB Pocket or the GB Micro).

I have a 360 and, while I love most of the games I play on it, it equally drives me mad sometimes. There are some minor issues that can be easily fixed on PC, but become game breakers on consoles. FoV in FPSes, for example. I don't get dizzy or anything, but I really need to be aware of my surroundings in an FPS. I get why consoles FPSes (and games in general) have low FoVs, but I just can't stand it. Too bad some shitty developers still try to feed that shit down our throats on their lackluster PC ports of already mediocre games...

So, yeah, in a nutshell: PCs are better overall, IMO.

Why can there not be both? I play PC games, I also play games on my 360 and PS3. I love everything.

I've got nothing against consoles. I just had a bunch of petty cash leftover after tax time and decided to build a gaming PC. So far, no regrets. 
 
EDIT: Like most everything else is saying, I do indeed use both. Though I've been playing multi-platform games on my PC, I still like to play stuff like Persona 4 Arena, Okami HD, and Halo 4.

I do both because im not crazy and realize that there are unique experiences on both.

If anything my recent upgrade makes me just wish new consoles would come sooner, sure I can play some very pretty games but it's not really doing it for me.  

I'm in a similar boat, got a laptop for uni capable of playing games, now I have a whole library of games available.

But I'd never switch to just one platform. There's enough exclusives on every system to justify owning one.

Nothing. I still use both.

I recently got a new PC (of the expensive gaming kind) and I will choose a PC game over a console game any chance I get.. But I still actively play my consoles, and buy games for them, there is merits to both.. Also most of my friends play on Xbox Live so thats where I get my MP games for..

College. I didn't want to have to bring a TV with me to game so I bought a gaming PC instead.

@jonny126: @Demoskinos: Despite what the thread title says if you read the OP you'll notice I'm not exactly advocating for a mass exodus from consoles. I'm mainly referring to having PC being the place to where you would go to play games first. I would have sold my consoles a long time ago if I suddenly stopped caring about the exclusives. The convenience is nice but the games are what will always attract me in the end.

@Genkkaku said:

I recently got a new PC (of the expensive gaming kind) and I will choose a PC game over a console game any chance I get.. But I still actively play my consoles, and buy games for them, there is merits to both.. Also most of my friends play on Xbox Live so thats where I get my MP games for..

I wish I didn't love Gears 3 MP so much so I could ditch Xbox Live for good. Luckily my friends have moved to PC so I play with them regularly on TF 2 and stuff.

@ViciousReiven: For me it's the framerate. I'll drop any visual flairs if I can get higher framerates. You can't beat 60 frames. (well you can but you know what I mean)

I just don't have the space for a dedicated desktop PC and I'm not really sure where I'd start going down that route, I feel I'd just mess it up if I bought one and have no clue what I'm doing. So, I'm a console idiot for now!

I go both ways.

So many people completely skip the OP and answer based on what they think the thread is about...

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!

@midnightsandwich said:

I just don't have the space for a dedicated desktop PC and I'm not really sure where I'd start going down that route, I feel I'd just mess it up if I bought one and have no clue what I'm doing. So, I'm a console idiot for now!

Start small if you can. If you can a weak system that can play simpler games you can start by learning on how those games run and the whole process of installing and running games and picking graphics settings. It's basically how I started.

@JoeyRavn said:

So many people completely skip the OP and answer based on what they think the thread is about...

No fucking kidding, it was my fault for how I worded the thread title.

It's mostly price as well as the spirit of innovation on the PC platform. These sixty dollar mass appeal console games fail to appeal to me anymore with very rare exceptions. More often than not, it's the 15 to 20 dollar PC games that give me genuine enjoyment and satisfaction (though there are PSN and XBLA titles that fill that same role, they are much fewer in number). I can't think of a single 60 dollar game that wasn't a major disappointment in some way this year; it sounds like XCOM is the only exception (which actually released at 50 dollars on PC, not 60). My PS3 library in general is weak and miniscule compared to my PS2 library.

My games of the year are To the Moon, Kerbal Space Program, Crusader Kings II, and possibly FTL; most of which only make sense on the PC in the first place.

The current consoles are just getting a bit long in the teeth; so, I've started going more toward the PC angle.

That will probably change within the next year thanks to the release of Microsoft and Sony's new offerings, but, for now, I'm definitely leaning more toward the PC. :)

It basically boils down to my parents not letting me bring the Xbox with me to school and me convincing them to buy me a laptop capable of playing games. I was allowed to bring my PS2 (that I bought with my own money), so that's collecting dust while I don't play Silent Hill 2.

@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!

Have you tried asking this community? The PC enthusiasts in these forums are some of the nicest, knowledgeable people out there.

@TruthTellah: There will be a reset for sure once the new batch comes around but it will be safer and cheaper for me to stay PC and make sure my first big console purchase will be a good one because it's MS's game to lose if they manage to stumble right outta the gate.

I still play consoles, I have all of them, but I simply prefer to play games with a MKB and will always choose PC over console when I have the choice. Up until around 1999 to the early 2000's I had been nothing but a console kid. Then one day I rented this weird game called Command and Conquer Red Alert for my PSX. It was my first real experience with RTS, FMV, C&C and a few other acronyms I won't bother saying. I was instantly hooked on both RTS and Command and Conquer and it blew my mind that this thing existed and that I had never experienced it until then. When I found out that there was so much more of both C&C and RTS games on PC I knew then and there that I had to have one of these PC things to play them. It took me about a year, but eventually I beat my mom down to agreeing to the idea of going halfers on one and throwing out the "obvious" benefits of being able to do school work so much more efficiently if I had one to write reports on and how the whole world was run by computers these days anyway so she would just be holding me back as a person to not learn how to use one.

Once I got one and started using it I could not go back to consoles. The Mouse and Keyboard just felt so natural to me and every game just felt right to play and command the characters around. From there I just feel in love with the games that you could only find on PC. Shooters, RPG's, and Strategy games became my companions and best friends. While I kept buying and playing console games, and even grew to love several of them, at the same time they just felt simplistic and could never hold my attention for long when compared to what I was doing on PC. When you compared console games where it felt like nothing was more complex then you run to the right and jump from time to time to playing games on my PC where I built empires, commanded armies, grew entire squads of people into bad ass saviors of the world and conquered the world several times over there was no way console games could match them in my eyes.

When I got my PC is when I realized that I loved games that rewarded being able to use your brain to beat a game and not need to simply press buttons really fast or hit in combos thousands of times until the credits ran at the end. I enjoyed games that rewarded strategy and patience to slamming buttons over and over unending.

And as I mentioned above, I just never felt comfortable with playing games on a controller. It always feels like I have to spend more time fighting with the controller to get the character on screen to do what I want him to do far more often then that guy spent fighting the enemies he was supposed to be fighting. Yet as soon as I laid my hands down on a mouse and keyboard it just felt right.

@Colourful_Hippie said:

@TruthTellah: There will be a reset for sure once the new batch comes around but it will be safer and cheaper for me to stay PC and make sure my first big console purchase will be a good one because it's MS's game to lose if they manage to stumble right outta the gate.

I have a good feeling people are going to quite like what Microsoft's new platform will offer, but we'll see. And really, most games that really take advantage of the new hardware and tools will probably be 2014 releases. So, the truly next gen is still a little ways off. PC should get a bit of a glimpse at that future starting in late 2013 or early 2014 though. :)

@DarthOrange: Have you looked at this yet?

@TooWalrus said:

Though I've been playing multi-platform games on my PC, I still like to play stuff like Persona 4 Arena, Okami HD, and Halo 4.

Let me use your time machine....please?

@DarthOrange: It's solid, it could be 6 months and still be good. The only changes to consider in a year or so is if you want the next gen Intel processor or the newest graphics card and in most cases no, you don't need them.

A mix of Steam, deals from Steam/GoG/Amazon, upgrading to a PC with a good mid-level video card, and 360 PC controller support becoming standard. There's always classics to replay, interesting smaller experiences to uncover, and setting up the living room TV as a second monitor is easier than ever for the big games that warrant it.

I don't really see it changing all that much when the new boxes drop. They'll likely have a handful of exclusives to make them worthwhile investments, but PC just feels like a much more stable environment to keep a library long term, with everything readily available from multiple machines. Even waited on Mark of the Ninja to come to PC, when a few years back I would have picked it up on the 360 day 1 without blinking. Great times for the platform right now.

@Colourful_Hippie: Which, is exactly my point. There are some games that are unique still to consoles that I think its worth having both a Ps3/360 around for.

@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!

One of PC's greatest strengths and weaknesses is it's ability to have so much variety. Because of this no two people are ever going to agree on every aspect of something with as many components as building a PC so someone coming in fro the first time without knowing this it can seem scary as all hell. As someone who just build his first PC for the first time a month or so back what I suggest is to just pick your source and say fuck everything else. I picked Will Smith and just followed along with the tested video they did a few years back when it came to building a PC with Jeff. I didn't have any of the same parts that they did but it's a guide for you to follow along with to make sure that you check everything off the list. It took me all day, and now that I did it the once I could easily do it in half the time now, but it's so dam rewarding when it's all done to stand up, connect all the cables, hit power, and see it fire up.

That said, if the idea of building your own PC is too much of a hassle there is nothing wrong with buying a pre made PC despite what some fools would like you to think. They are the exact same thing as you buying all the parts and building it yourself. Just know going in that you will pay an extra $100-$500 depending on where you buy and how crazy high end you get, and at the end of the day you will not get as powerful of a PC as if you built it yourself. That pre-built premium is what I call the pain in the ass tax. It's up to you to decide if finding the afternoon of free time to sweat over user manuals, forums online, and trying to figure out what that last fucking cable is supposed to plug into is worth saving that extra hundred or two hundred dollars and knowing that you could be playing your games at an extra 5-10 FPS then what you are. If that doesn't matter to you, or you are not inclined when it comes to building things, then just buy a dam pre-built.

Just go to some tech sites and see what they are recommending as a good pre-built right now that's in your price range. Then in 2-3 years time when it starts to not be able to play games the way you want it to, pop in a new video card and you will add another 2-3 years to its life. You will pay more upfront, but they are not the buckets of crap in a PC case some people would have you believe it to be and are exceptionally well put together machines. The average person won't be able to tell the difference in performance and a lot of these places offer amazing support call centers with your purchase should you need help fixing problems and warranties to cover faulty parts.

@TooWalrus: I know, I was just goofing but I forgot about that HD remake not being out yet.

I have all the current gen consoles but mainly use my 360 as a media streamer than a gaming console these days.

Recently got a new computer as my favorite games are strategy (eg Civ V, Total War etc) and also we only have 1 good TV and wife likes using that for TV purposes.

Just need a second monitor and I will be set.

I think for me, I resented the idea of having to pay extra monthly fees for the right to play online games with friends. That, and the fact that whenever I need to, I can use it for like...PC stuff. 
 
Plus it's way cheaper and easier

I don't use my 360 that often since I stopped paying for live. I mostly use my ps3 for psn games.

I switched to PC because all the friends I made in school were PC gamers, and I felt that the 360 was too fucking loud, and didn't give me the freedom I wanted. So I bought a PC. Never going back again.

Dashboard advertising nonsense. Gillette Fusion vans ruining my Burnout races by crashing into me. Constantly patching games and the consoles themselves. Slow download speeds on DLC.

I would have no issue with PC gaming except that I can't afford to keep my PC at that top level needed for modern games. As it is now it can play a lot of games but it is really struggling with newer stuff and I still have XP running on there which limits me even more. At the moment I can't afford to upgrade anything on it as opposed to my 360 where it is just a matter of put the disk in and go.

As others have said, online stores such as Steam and GOG etc have made PC gaming worth it due to the massive savings you can get on older games. I will most likely upgrade my PC again sometime in the next few years but until then I'm sticking with my consoles.

My PC gaming started out as a way to play all of the stuff that I was never able to play on consoles but then between Steam sales, MMOs, better-integrated online modes in games, and a more enjoyable control scheme, I ended up making the switch for good.

At the very beginning of this generation I left PC for consoles. I haven't switched back yet, but I'm very strongly leaning in that direction. I'm just sort of waiting to see what the new hardware from Microsoft and Sony (perhaps Valve as well?) is going to be.

The reason for the probable switch? Simple. I like video games, and there are a lot I missed on the PC over the last several years.

@mrfizzy: You don't even really need it to be on that much of a high level to push your games at the moment. I'm trucking along fine with a GTX 555, the only newer thing is the i5 but I understand if you're at that point to where if you need to replace something you might just have to overhaul the whole thing.

@Phatmac said:

I don't use my 360 that often since I stopped paying for live. I mostly use my ps3 for psn games.

Umm, ok.

@Soapy86 said:

At the very beginning of this generation I left PC for consoles. I haven't switched back yet, but I'm very strongly leaning in that direction. I'm just sort of waiting to see what the new hardware from Microsoft and Sony (perhaps Valve as well?) is going to be.

The reason for the probable switch? Simple. I like video games, and there are a lot I missed on the PC over the last several years.

You can probably get a solid two years on catching up on PC and still enjoy current games while you wait and see how the new consoles shake out. I'm personally waiting past the launch period to see what happens because it won't be cheap to find out that you ended up backing the wrong console at the start.

Several reasons. My main gaming platform before moving to PC a few months ago was the Xbox 360. On that system, I really didn't feel like I was being treated well as a customer. I paid for Live, I bought all of the exclusives, I spent tons of money on the Xbox, yet I was still assaulted with ads for things that weren't even gaming related and every update only made it worse because it just made the Xbox slower. Honestly, it felt like MS was purposefully filling it up with adware. Yuck. The whole thing just felt worse and worse, and it got to the point where I set the Xbox to load straight to the disc so I could skip all of that. I saw the dashboard as little as I possibly could.

However, if I really wanted to avoid all of that I could have just gone the PS3 route. I picked PC over that for several reasons. For one, games are much cheaper on the PC than any of the consoles. Two, I get to use any number of different control setups and if I want to change the controls, I can do that with no problem. Three, and probably the one that has wowed me the most, I can keep a consistent sixty frames per second on everything. I used to think that Dead Space 2 on the Xbox ran as smooth as butter, but I went back to it a week ago and damn, that looked about as un-smooth as I could get. I played it some and it was fine, but I couldn't shake the feeling that it was really jerky and janky. I won't lie and say that graphics aren't much nicer on PC, but I consider that a perk. I will sacrifice graphics for framerate any day of the week.

Anyway, another reason I switched is mod support, something I haven't taken a ton of advantage of so far.

Do I think I'll ever switch back? No. If current trends keep up, then I will not be going back to using consoles as my main gaming platform. I might pick up next generation's consoles, but that will not be something I do until they've taken big price drops.

@believer258: Now that I can easily tell when something drops below 60 I've been making sure that I can keep games at that level, everything just feels perfect at 60. Next gen will most likely stick to what works now which is going for more visual flair and have 30.

The consoles just don't have any games I give a shit about that I can't just play on a PC where they will look better and I get to use my preferred method of control. Also the online community is of a much, much higher standard. And there's a billion other things I can't be bothered to list as other people will have already.

My main reason is that my consoles keep breaking and after replacing the xbox 6 times this generation and having spent all that money replacing them i decided enough was enough i had the money to replace my current xbox which will no longer read discs but i also needed a PC for school so i looked into both but in the end i'd had enough and shelled out that little bit more on the PC which would let me play some of the PC exclusive games i had always wanted to play through which at the time was Diablo 3 and the witcher series along with pretty much every strategy game of the last 6 years.

Once i got onto PC and got steam and origin installed it felt natural to move in a direction which had me gaming on a system where i could use my controller or the keyboard and mouse if it felt more natural, never having to ignore a game because it didn't feel right on that system was no longer an issue and it seemed much cheaper to get throwaway games for a few hours play on a sunday afternoon without even relying on stock at a local store.

I still play my xbox from time to time, mostly with my kids on some minecraft or things like rayman and the advantage there is that there is still a prevalent couch coop component which is often left by the wayside in the pc version.