Should I go PC and skip the new gen consoles?

Hi everyone. Will start by saying I currently own a 360, PS3, Wii and 3DS. My current "pc" is a cheap HP laptop good for surfing and that's about it.

Looking for some advice/feedback on a choice I need to make. I'm thinking of going back to PC gaming and skipping the "next gen" consoles. The reason being I don't want to spend $1500 + on a solid rig AND buy new consoles. So does the gaming market look like that's a good plan or should I just wait for the new console release and dump my money into that?

Thanks.

My short answer would be:

That plan works out until the moment there's a game you want to play which is exclusive to consoles (eg. Red Dead Redemption and numerous others).

I'd say plan to buy at least one of the consoles, and factor that into your future expenditure projections no matter what the best option looks to be in the present.

Arf. I'd say nex-gen console man. I mean your message here says you already have a pc. ~ Do you want another pc that also does Chrome? That one does Steam too. Your old consoles don't do next-gen games, but those new ones Do; And exclusives!

Man. Do what your heart tells you. Was that a fart? Ask him too.

Build a PC now. Buy a console two or three years from now. If you feel like you must choose, then go PC.

I'd hold off and see what the next generation has to offer before dropping a substantial amount of money on a gaming rig. Are there any particular PC exclusives that interest you?

Join us brother.

If you're into MOBAs, MMOs, multiplayer focused team based games or RTS than go wild with PC. If not, you will get a much better value out of a console (first releases, no upgrading for 5 to 7 years and exclusives you care about). Now is about the worst time to get a gaming rig anyway since you will need an upgrade soon due to console uptimisation. Keep an ok PC around though, for indy games and the interesting kickstarter projects.

Depends on the genres you play also. I would buy a PC thou just too many indie games atm for me to even consider giving up PC gaming atm.

@believer258 said:

This seems like the wisest choice. If you don't need to be totally up-to-date on console exclusives then you might as well wait until next gen consoles, and said exclusives, drop dramatically in price (and likely undergo some hardware revisions).

Do not be the swayed by the console peasants! Their inferior machines will only make you regret in the near future. Join the True Cause! PC Master Race! /end sarcasm

Back onto topic, I primarily game on my PC and haven't really been wanting to go back to consoles. For myself, I am heavy in JRPGS and RPGS like Persona 4, Fire Emblem, Ni No Kuni, etc. That is why I am buying a PS3 this late just for that one game and I will buy a Vita when they cut down the price for Persona 4: Golden. Just took several years to get a good JRPG that I am interested in. Here is another thought, if you do go PC, you will not like console shooters afterwards if you are planning to use KB+M. Trust me, controllers are very slow to shooters are playing with KB+M for one summer.

Xbox doesn't really have anything in terms of exclusives. Not unless you are a big Halo fan or Gears of War fan.

Like people here are saying, pretty much depends on how much you like some of the exclusives. I personally like my PS3, but PC is great for performance, and often gets the best versions of games.

Do you feel like you need to get your Sly Cooper and/or Halo on?

Whisper: "Get whatever your friends get. Its better to game with them, than to Minecraft mod it alone."..

If the types of PC exclusives you want to play are already the kind you play on pretty much any rig that has steam than I say pick up one of the consoles. If you're fine with just not playing every exclusive game and you want to at least play the multi plat stuff in it's best form than just go PC.

At this point you're going to have to build what would be a higher end PC though if you want it to last through out the next generation. I honestly don't see the point in building a PC that has something worse than a 680/670 or a 7970 at this point. I think otherwise 2 years from now you're going to look at the consoles and wonder where your money went. Why isn't my PC getting better performance than these consoles? At the same time I could be totally wrong, MS and Sony could go conservative spec wise and games will be less power hungry than I think they will be.

I do think if you wait till 2014 to build your PC (or at least get a decent gpu) than maxwell will greatly reward you. Kinda sounds like nothing will be coming out this year though other than TITAN and re branded cards with slight improvements.

Great thing about pc is that it's not going to force a wii-like experience on you (unless you're into that sorta thing). Direct you hit a button and things happen interface. Really hope the rumors about the new consoles are false, but I'm prepared for disappointment/upgrading my pc.

Imo there are far more interesting exclusives coming out on pc, might not always be the bing AAA titles but in general most console games will get a port and PC gets all the crazy ass sims, RTS, and MMO's. I plan to upgrade my pc as soon as theirs something i want to play my 6970 cant handle, and get a PS4 for my baseball fix a year or two in as i love The Show.

That's really your call duder. You have to weigh title exclusivity of the two platforms, as has already been alluded to earlier. Truth be told, the genres I really love the most are all on PC so I have ended up as a PC gamer. I mean, you just don't see things like Star Citizen on consoles.

You monster. You just had to go there and pick the scab of my festering Red Dead wound.

Hah - I'd say I feel your pain, but personally I played 20 mins of it then put it down because I disliked the controls... I still haven't picked it up again, though it's on top of my pile under my desk.

If you don't allow yourself to get swept up in the hype of every game that comes out you can easily get away with only one system, especially one as well supported as a Windows PC, a 360 or PS3. There are good games available on almost every platform, but I don't buy the credo that every system must be owned to enjoy gaming--just as I don't buy any argument in favor of one system as the end-all for games.

Just make your choice and resolve to enjoy it.

Next gen consoles for sure. Getting a fancy PC might be nice, but only for a few months before you start running into problems. Before you know it your drivers will go wacky or some software will screw with certain games and half the time you won't even be able to play the games you pay for. Besides would you rather pay $400 for a next gen console or $1,500 on a gaming PC?

The next gen console will get you at least 8 years of gaming that is just as good as the average PC. I still think games on the 360 look as good as most people running games on their PC.

Wait to see what the consoles are, computer parts usually get cheaper during a console launch year.

If your not "PC gaming" at max level what are you doing. You have to buy that $1,000 video card in order to enjoy PC games at all. Console will stay "UP TO DATE" just do it.

go to the platform with the games you want to play.

wait to see what gets released and announced for the next console systems. It kind of depends on what you like to play. I like action and arcade games on the consoles and RPGs and strategy on the PC. Although with the new wave of controller support in most games and Big Picture Mode the PC is moving into the action/arcade slots too.

@bored_ming Build a PC now. Very rare are the times when a launch game (especially the last two generations) is something you absolutely need to have. Build a PC, catch up on a few years of games that you've missed that have been on the PC, check out the amazing mod scene for certain games. Summer is fast approaching. If you budget 100$ for the Steam Sale, you can walk away with at least 40 great titles. That should tide you over for at least a year, during which time the developers will just be starting to get the hang of the new consoles, and the prices will drop for the games you've had your eye on.

NeoGaf knows a thing or two about putting together PCs.

If you go the PC route wait to know what hardware the next gen consoles will have. You can better judge what you need to insure you won't have to replace it in 2 years. But then again if your willing to spend 1500$ on a PC you'll most likely be fine for a good long while no matter what the console can do.

absolutely.

every platform has its relative strengths and weaknesses. there is no definitive answer.

i will say this much- the pc is a wonderful platform. it has its own share of exclusives (blizzard games, mmos, innumerable indies and kickstarters like FTL or squadron 42), and steam doesn't have a monthly subscription fee, and you get absurd sales. expect to spend something like a grand though (you can go cheaper, but a grand will get you a machine with pretty good longevity).

then again, consoles will get you a lot of muscle for your money- but expect to pay something like $500 for a premium machine and subscription fee for multiplayer. they also have fantastic exclusives, but you tend to do much worse for sales.

my advice is see what the console announcements offer, and then weigh that against the pc option. also bear in mind that consoles have the weakest value proposition at launch (no price cuts or large libraries). and for what it's worth- i'm personally going to wait and see with the consoles...i already have a decent pc, and you never know how hardware will shake out at launch.

It depends. If you're looking for exclusive titles, like something by Naughty Dog or the new Halo then you should clearly go with the console of your choice. But, and I would stress this part here, based on rumors about the new XBox (always needing a Kinect, completely eliminating any form of used game) you really have to make sure that's what you want if you have to plan this far in advance. In an ideal world you could get what you wanted when you wanted it, but I understand that we don't live in an ideal world.

I would say go PC for now and wait to see what Sony and MS do, both for their business decisions and to see what exclusive games come out. If MS requires you to need a Kinect or they eliminate used games from being able to be played on the next XBox factor that in to your purchase if you need to. The fear that I have with the next XBox is that that decision will look so enticing to publishers and so repulsive to consumers that we could end up with a stalemate for awhile, but the people with the money and product will always win. It will segregate gaming into this weird thing where publishers want to develop for MS to get theirs, consumers don't want to buy the next XBox because of the business model, and Sony will be stuck somewhere in the middle being the good guy for gamers but publishers might be less apt to develop for them because of the used games.

And besides the PC is never limited by hardware, control options, has free online through Steam, and the games are cheaper. Master race bro. Master race.

It does depend on what kind of gaming you're into. If you really need Halo, God of War, Uncharted or whatever, then console gaming is probably the best choice as they offer a lot of exclusives that aren't going to come to the PC. In my opinion, the indie/Kickstarter scene is much more interesting though.

However, I think a lot of people severely over estimate the cost of PC gaming. You can build a decent rig that will drastically outperform the PS3/360 and judging by the leaked specs of the new systems, you won't need to worry about upgrading it for a long time. Not to mention the amount you'll save from buying games far cheaper will quickly offset having to spend slightly more to build a PC over buying a console and that's not even factoring in Steam/Amazon/Holiday sales, where games are literally cheap as dirt. PC gamers spend a fraction of the amount console gamers do on games.

My advice would be to go with the PC and wait it out. The consoles will undoubtedly have at least a few exclusives you care about, but leave it a few years and pick them up when they're a lot cheaper and there's more of them.

You're definitely better off investing in a PC; but if you're extremely hell-bent on specific console exclusives, then maybe that's a better option for you.

You should always go PC.

Honestly? The latter.

Go PC. Spend a little more money on a decent rig, then laugh at how much you save buying games during steam/digital retailer sales. And you could have bought a gaming PC 2-3 years ago and I would still overpower any of these new consoles that will be released.

And in an age with fewer and fewer exclusives, it makes it really easy to skip out on the few (worthwhile) exclusives. The controller argument doesn't even hold up anymore with most cross platform games coming with excellent controller support. You don't have to pay monthly just to play online (Xbox).

Hook a good PC up to your tv and you'll forget consoles ever existed.

I can't stand having a big ass pc-case at home anymore with all the ugly cables, dust and noise it comes with . McBook Air + PS4 for me.

Good arguments on the value side thou.