- Diminished Benefit of Game Consoles
The way I see it, there were a few reasons one would opt to buy a game console:
- Convenience. Computers take more effort to configure and aren’t optimised exclusively for gaming, so there is more to go awry.
- Physical media. Owning games in a tangible format is pleasant, especially with included extras like posters and manuals. Discs can contain the game, removing the need for the internet for licence checks or lengthy download periods. A disc also cannot be entirely revoked in the same way a digital licence can. In 50 years, assuming I can find a working Xbox 360, a physical copy of Halo 3 will be playable without strife. Also allows games to be shared or sold, allowing for the existence of a second-hand market.
- First-class controller support. Consoles are set up for use with controllers, and everything on them can be done via controllers. You never get into a state where you must reach for a mouse or keyboard during a console session.
- Standardised hardware for optimisation. As the details of a console are known and fixed, developers can target this hardware in particular and achieve performance that isn’t possible when targeting a wider assortment of target platforms. Consider the quality of games on seventh-generation consoles despite their low specs.
- Hacking and custom firmware. I’ve loved exploiting consoles and customising them or installing homebrew.
- Console personality. Console interfaces used to have such character that made using them an event.
- Social features. Consoles make coordinating gameplay easy. Being able to see friends online, create parties, easily voice chat, send messages, and invite people to games was a big deal. Almost every game with social features supports the console’s global social features, including things such as showing achievements.
- Price. Due to being closed ecosystems with all games being produced via the console manufacturer, consoles can be sold at a loss.
- Game exclusivity.
However, the ninth-generation of game consoles seem to have done away with most of these reasons, and the tenth-generation looks positioned to take it further. I’m struggling to see the benefit of consoles going forward. No physical media, no personality, very few exclusives (beyond Nintendo), lessened convenience (so many updates, system instability, advertisements and pop-ups everywhere), and increasing console prices.
I struggle to justify the price of a console when my computer will respect me more as a user, now has first-class controller support, allows me to play a wider variety of games (including emulating my existing collection), and the (very slightly) increased cost is offset by my computer being a general purpose machine. The only console I can see value in is a handheld console for the form factor, but even most of those are just general-purpose computers in a handheld form, rather than true console software experiences. Nintendo are perhaps the only member of the big three (Xbox, Sony, Nintendo) who have a device worth purchasing in the Switch. It isn’t perfect, but at least offers experiences that aren’t better done by a computer.