This checks out. PS has mostly all the exclusives anybody would care about. Anything Xbox exclusive is likely available on PC. also PS5 related—I'm still appalled that a proper web browser was not included.
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Microsoft finally admits Xbox One sales were less than half of the PS4
61–70 of 108 posts
Re: Microsoft finally admits Xbox One sales were less than half of the PS4
#62Consoles seem like a dumb idea to me. They were great when split screen was the main form of multiplayer. Now multiplayer has largely moved online. Finding local co-op / competitive games is kind of hard, and of the few that still come out, few of them are console specific. If you're colocated with your friends, playing together may not be possible unless you want to bring along another console and hook it up to anot…
It's much simpler. You turn on the console and go to the game you want, opening it. There might be an update, but nothing close to the annoyance of using a windows PC and custom launchers (linux is slightly better in this regard, but requires a lot more fiddling to get started & compatability). There are no launchers, no multiple stores, just a single, integrated UI that works great on a big screen with a controller.…
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Re: Microsoft finally admits Xbox One sales were less than half of the PS4
#63Consoles seem like a dumb idea to me. They were great when split screen was the main form of multiplayer. Now multiplayer has largely moved online. Finding local co-op / competitive games is kind of hard, and of the few that still come out, few of them are console specific. If you're colocated with your friends, playing together may not be possible unless you want to bring along another console and hook it up to anot…
If you're gaming in a living room there's something to be said for consoles just working. Steam's controller support seems to have gotten worse and worse over the years. I keep a wireless mini keyboard/touchpad on my end table just because Big Picture Mode is a load of suck. PC goes to sleep, controller never comes back. Controller goes to sleep without a game running, never comes back without closing Steam and opening it again. I don't understand how one PC game can be using it fine, then when you close that game and open another it won't pick up the controller even though it worked fine yesterday.
With the console you just push the button and it turns on and your games are right there.
Re: Microsoft finally admits Xbox One sales were less than half of the PS4
#64Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why can't you turn on your pc and play games?
Surely a person with the username "spywaregorilla" can understand the annoying overhead involved in owning and running a Microsoft Windows PC.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BonziBuddy
I really don't think there's any overhead with running a windows PC...
Re: Microsoft finally admits Xbox One sales were less than half of the PS4
#65The generational gap is insane. In Finland a vast majority in the PS3/360 days were in the green team. The next generation? It was rare to see anyone with an Xbox One. The pendulum swang hard. As a 360 user those days I saw some of the writing on the wall. Xbox E3 events focused hard on American features which turned the Xbox to a smart TV box. Aside from games we gained nothing for most of Europe. With the upcoming…
They lost a lot of customers on the "you won't own the game on your disc" debacle, too. The idea that the publisher would get a portion of every resale of a game, even on disc, really pissed people off. The publisher was even able to deny the resale! Who thought that was going to please the end user? It's so customer-hostile that I couldn't believe they said it out loud, let alone at a major conference. https://gamin…
This one is really fascinating. Now, ten years later, physical sales are trending towards nil, and all digital sales are permanent with no resale at all. They had their eye on the future, possibly even a better future than the one we ended up with, but they were too early with it. And the messaging was absolutely godawful, as you say.
Re: Microsoft finally admits Xbox One sales were less than half of the PS4
#66Isn't this basic information that every shareholder already was supposed to know?
MS stopped releasing those figures. Their official reasoning was that it doesn't really matter since the money is in the software (true). The real reason IMO was because they were embarrassed.
Re: Microsoft finally admits Xbox One sales were less than half of the PS4
#67The generational gap is insane. In Finland a vast majority in the PS3/360 days were in the green team. The next generation? It was rare to see anyone with an Xbox One. The pendulum swang hard. As a 360 user those days I saw some of the writing on the wall. Xbox E3 events focused hard on American features which turned the Xbox to a smart TV box. Aside from games we gained nothing for most of Europe. With the upcoming…
I stuck to XB1 for backwards compatibility and Gears of War, but on the other hand I failed to see an obvious advantage to the PS4. What's the "killer app" of the PS4? Apart from exclusives, both seem similar. Both seem to be considerably worse as a media box compared to the good old 360 with it's magnificent built-in DLNA compatibility and CD-ripping.
Killer apps for me: Games was HZD and Spiderman. Hardware was rechargeable controller, and the PS4 itself. All my friends' xboxs would get stuck updating and they would have to force restart several times. Nothing like that has happened to me on my PS4.
Re: Microsoft finally admits Xbox One sales were less than half of the PS4
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
I turn on my console and it plays games. I'm not messing around with maintaining yet another PC and all those headaches.
Why can't you turn on your pc and play games?
Not sure why are getting dowvoted. Honestly every MS thread here on HN is a shit show. Maybe I live in a fairy land but I never ever had a problem. Cold boot Windows 10 + launching any game and I'm in the main menu in 50s (and I only have an i7-7700 + GTX 1070). Have a PS5 right next to me and I can't start games faster at all. The claims here in the comments are especially baffling when I assume HN is a very technically capable audience. Maybe I was wrong.
Re: Microsoft finally admits Xbox One sales were less than half of the PS4
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
I turn on my console and it plays games. I'm not messing around with maintaining yet another PC and all those headaches.
Why can't you turn on your pc and play games?
From turning on my PC to being able to play is 1) 2 minutes to get to a Windows login; 2) 1-3 minutes to get to a desktop; 3) 10-20 minutes whilst {Steam updates, GOG updates, Oculus starts, GeForce desktop deigns to launch, etc.} making everything else unresponsive; 4) 2-5 minutes for a game to start - assuming it does, I think I'm currently running 50-50 on Binding of Isaac launching correctly vs just hanging.
Minecraft is even worse - starting ManyMC is under a minute (good) but then launching (a medium-ly modded) Minecraft is sometimes 15 minutes of wait. In contrast, the same version with the same mods on my M1 Macbook Pro is under a minute (including starting the launcher.)
Re: Microsoft finally admits Xbox One sales were less than half of the PS4
#70Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's much simpler. You turn on the console and go to the game you want, opening it. There might be an update, but nothing close to the annoyance of using a windows PC and custom launchers (linux is slightly better in this regard, but requires a lot more fiddling to get started & compatability). There are no launchers, no multiple stores, just a single, integrated UI that works great on a big screen with a controller.…
> There might be an update, but nothing close to the annoyance of using a windows PC I generally can just come home, turn on my PC, and double-click the shortcut for my game. I have hundreds of games in my Steam library and maybe 4 have a custom launcher, which I agree can be a bit annoying but in 90% of cases just means I am clicking 2-3 more times before the game starts (adding ~10 seconds, maybe). Regarding multip…
If it's within steam (IMHO the best option for a big-screen experience), it takes ~30 sec to start the launcher, connecting to the server, wait for it to update itself, logging the user in (sometimes needing the password) and then splashing an additional screen while the saves are synchronized after starting the game.
It's also only in a single place in the start menu. But the start menu isn't a great place for big-screen gaming. It doesn't have the sorting features, metadata (play time, friend are playing, screenshots, ..) and is not usable with a controller. It just isn't intended as a game library selector. If you want to integrate them into a single place with at least some of the features (like Steam) it's additional effort (in the worst case, per game).
Purchasing the game isn't always possible on GOG or Steam. EA didn't have all their games on Steam for a long time, Epic has their exclusives and probably some others I'm forgetting. You also always have to interact with stores from other companies, even if you buy within steam. I have 7 accounts only for PC gaming that I'd still need even if I didn't chase lower prices. That's one on consoles.
Windows also has popups on startup, trying to get you to do something and updates take much longer than on console (and can also delay startup after the last shutdown), sometimes driver issues. A couple of launchers start in the background, popping up because they want an update, some special one-time event and so on .
To get it all running while using a gamepad on a TV, without needing a wireless keyboard during a typical gaming session, is a lot of tinkering that many would like to avoid.
If I just want to play a game for 20-30 minutes, that's a lot of friction and annoyance.
Playing older games often requires a separate console (increasing cost) but generally works. On PC it's often pretty painful (controller config doesn't match up with DirectInput vs XInput, compatibility patches needed, other weird issues).