this post was submitted on 16 Oct 2025
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Console gaming is so anti-consumer. Who would prefer to use a console if they are even the slightest bit savvy with a computer?
Console gaming is also easy for casual gamers and people who don't want to fiddle with tech.
I don’t think there is really much fiddling these days. It’s probably about as much as setting up a console.
If you build your own, then sure that’s more work. But people can buy prebuilt, laptops, or handhelds.
Yes there is, you're just used to it. There's all the Windows 11 annoyances, anti-virus, fiddling with controller setting and blue tooth, GPU drivers, DirectX crap. It's easy for you but if your tech experience is basically just turning on your phone then that is a lot.
None of those are things people have to deal with except in very rare circumstances. All the driers are basically handled by windows update or are already in the kernel.
You do not need to do anything with antivirus these days.
Windows 11 makes you sign into an account, so do the consoles.
Pairing a Bluetooth controller technically is something you need to do, but let’s be honest. Is it really challenging?
All those things you have to deal with at least once.
So for someone who doesn't know how to do any of them, it is a barrier of entry. Why should they learn when they could just buy a cheaper box and be done with it?
Eh... There was an issue a while back with Nvidia drivers causing all sort of issues and requiring a rollback. While it's not something you would have to deal with often, from the perspective of the technically inept, that one tine they may have to do this would ruin their day and also whoever they're calling for support.
The average person is far less competent with technology than you may think.
This is still a stretch. Don’t consoles also have issues like this? What about the red ring Xbox 360s? Didn’t ps3 have issues with Skyrim saves becoming corrupt?
Can't say I've ever had any of those consoles, just playing devil's advocate here. Personally as a PC gamer who's been called on for support countless times for driver issues, launcher issues and what not, that's all I can attest for.
Steam Deck is as easy as any console, at least
No it is not. Computer gaming is easy peasy these days see my above comment.
Before the steamdeck my gpu was an rx 740.
I never needed to tweak settings on a per game basis.
Just go into game options and hit auto detect or select a preset.
It’s really that easy.
before you got a steam deck you hallucinated your imaginary pc with an imaginary gpu?
It is way easier than this to game on PC these days than this person is talking about.
Buy a gaming computer that has good recent ratings across a few sites like Google, Amazon, Tom's hardware.
Thats its! Lower the graphics settings in the game if you are experiencing issues.
Thats it! Play most all games for the next 5 years before worrying about upgrading.
Then when you do upgrade components be fascinated about how easy it is with a tiny bit of googling how to build a computer/upgrade hardware.
Thats it!
TPM/Secureboot in BF6/Cod 2025
Windows Update Driver Updates -> System crashes
There's more technical troubleshooting that goes beyond the scope of the typical tech illiterate human than you'd think. There's a reason IT support requires no education and still pays decently well, because way too many people can't troubleshoot at all.
That is the thing, consoles don't experience issues for the user, like ever.
If they do encounter an issue, it is up to the developer to fix them, not themselves.
If it is a hardware issue, they just bring it into the shop where they bought it or buy a new one.
That is the power of having standardized hardware/software. You offload every single technical knowledge you should posses in order to use it to the companies.
It is the same with cars. Some people like to tinker with it. Others are afraid they will make it worse if they do anything themselves, including changing oil.
Steam Deck
Battlefield 6 (also bf2042)
Call of Duty 2025 (whatever they're calling it these days)
R6 Siege
Monster Hunter Wilds
PUBG
F1 2024
FC 25
Madden 25
Those are just a short list of popular titles that cannot be played on the deck, and in the case of BF and COD this year, possibly on your PC without tinkering. I don't play most of these titles, just MH Wilds. I do know a LOT of people do play them though.
Consoles satisfy the lowest common denominator which covers most people. They're easy and just work. Buy the game on a disc and put it in your PS5, let it update and you're off to the races and very unlikely to have issues.
Windows PCs require minor tinkering from time to time, but they do need tinkering. Driver autoupdates in windows and you start crashing? Yeah, that's happened a couple times in the past year. I had to get optiscaler going to keep framerate as well as settings high despite having very powerful hardware in Expedition 33 this year in windows, and it's not even particularly demanding perf wise.
The deck though has tons and tons and tons of titles that need a little bit of poking or prodding, I love mine but it's got many limitations. I've got games that just aren't properly recognized by gamescope and thus no perf overlay works. After tinkering on linux i'm pretty sure this is a proton issue where it doesn't properly recognize the game vs a launcher or anticheat.
I game a lot. I have a 9800x3d and a 9070xt running Pop OS (linux) and I can play basically anything I want to play, but it's certainly not everything. I definitely need to tinker to get stuff to work on Linux, but it's fairly painless once you figure out you need to carte blanche apply a pulse audio 60ms setting, and you get a good proton switcher to go between cachyos/GE/Proton latest/Proton Experimental versions depending on the game to find one that works without extra tweaking. It's not easy for a layman, though anyone who has been a PC gamer and has built a couple of systems can probably manage it with a heap of patience and a dual boot config to fall back on when patience fails.
There's no doubt that the steam deck has made linux more approachable than ever for gamers but it's hardly a perfect implementation. All PCs require tinkering, and windows sadly is still the easiest among them. It is nice seeing a green checkmark on the deck for a game, but as i've seen with Eternal Strands this year, that's hardly a guarantee that the game will be enjoyable without tinkering if at all.
I mean sure, but should we also list all the games you can’t even purchase on consoles?
The “poking and prodding” is literally just settings that you are locked out of on consoles. Literally just purchase games that are verified steam deck compatible, and you’re golden.
If you can't even purchase a game on a console, you will never struggle to get it to run or pick it up at retail only to find when you get home that your TPM/secureboot config isn't up to snuff, which is the bleeding edge trend.
I wish the verification process was bulletproof, but it's not. Stuff like Eternal Strands get released and manage that coveted green checkmark, but end up performing poorly and looking like hot garbage. Looks and plays great on a normal PC though.
Generally the verified deck games are great but the verified profile for that game just... isn't. It's certainly playable, but the framerate drops are frustrating in a game that isn't very easy. There's no particular objective measurement that gives a game a certain level that i'm aware of.
Then there are games that are given a black mark of "unsupported" by the Steam Deck verification system but run wonderfully like Ghost of Tsushima. There's a multiplayer mode in the almost exclusively single player open world RPG that doesn't work on the deck, so it's entirely disqualified despite being completely functional, absolutely gorgeous and running at very solid framerates on the deck.
Don't get me wrong. I love the deck and think it's a giant leap in the right direction with PC gaming, making it a lot more console-like for the plebs. I am realistic for this though. It's still a poweruser tier device, especially if you want to play niche games or indie titles. The best experience imo is when you tinker and get it to run all manner of programs from competing app stores... and then you're completely away from the on-rails console-like experience. Even getting chiaki4deck going is a poweruser task.
I get you're trying to dump buckets of rain on our entire thread here, but can you acknowledge that educating and inviting console users to the PC platform is beneficial for those users and the community as a whole?
There are definitely those who you can't teach, can't convince, who are too stubborn to believe there's any other way than paying eighty dollars for games and spending hundreds of dollars on already obsolete hardware with a mandated walled garden.
However, there are many users who are simply not educated rather than inept, and when you show them the benefits of the PC ecosystem (Steam sales/alternate store platforms, no online fees, modular hardware, etc...), it is entirely possible to convince people to convert (I've done so myself), and they find joy in learning.
Additionally, there are solutions to the problems you listed that aren't a flat out "won't run" (Windows 10 IOT Enterprise LTSC comes to mind for a less bloated experience for those locked games, for instance), and while no solution is perfect, let us not make perfect the enemy of good here. Console users are fed up with their circumstances. Let us inspire them to join the other side, not feud.
I'm not trying to rain on anything. I'm just injecting some reality. It's very approachable but you have to know how to research solutions occasionally, which is a pretty low bar. Nothing is flawless, not even consoles.
The deck is an amazing thing that is making PC gaming way more approachable for countless people all over the world. It's something with a lot more support than any typical gaming PC build.
ProtonDB/Proton has been an amazing resource for streamlining gaming in the linux world, which I believe is the future of gaming some day.
Look at OS user numbers, most people aren’t the slightest bit savvy with a computer.
I’ve run into a few games that only have split screen on console so there’s that I suppose.
As I just found out, if you want to play any borderlands split screen, that's console only.
Borderlands with a controller? Oh boy ;p
Motion control is amazing if implemented well. Nintendo spoiled me with the WiiU.
Valve did it again with the Steam Deck. I hated first person in general with a controller. Now I prefer to play Deck over mouse.
Could run it through an emulator depending on what game in the series you are playing. I've done that for a few titles when couch co-op is happening.
That's a reasonable idea. It's just hard to fathom why this is a feature not commonly supported on PC despite being available on less powerful consoles. To play local co-op on PC, I need to buy the full series for each additional player who are then required to have their own hardware. Not economical when you just want to play with your kids.
Suddenly it seems reasonable to buy one console and one copy of the game.
I believe steam remote play and Family Sharing are both designed to accommodate that issue - although that doesn't solve the hardware problem admittedly.
I'll have to look into that. My understanding was that only one account in the family could play the same copy at a time.
For LAN/Offline play I believe there's no limitation. You can also have "multiple" copies (get the game for 5 bucks on a steam sale compared to console), for multiple user online play.
Remote play is for games that support local multiplayer to have another user "route in".
I play both. Couch gaming is simply more epic (also comfy). Glorious 7.1 surround on a couch? chefs kiss
You can sell it or give it to your kids?
Same with a PC lol. Hell, it probably would be more useful overall.
Can't give them your steam account.
You literally can? You can add any amounts of games to a family share and even play LAN with them
You can't transfer your steam account, eg when you die. Against terms of service.
An who's going to enforce that? No one is broadcasting to the newspaper that Someguy3 died and now their son is using their account.
It's a wink wink situation
One area that I'm glad to have my console is for games that I expect the publisher to include anti-consumer bs but I still want to play. I dont gaf if they install a kernel mode anti-cheat on my ps5, but I'll never install that on my PC.
That said, I don't spend much time doing that anyways and don't have any plans to get another console in the future. And in case nintendo is listening, the switch 2 would have been an exception to that if you weren't so lawsuit happy.