Virtual reality promises to be a mega-trend that upends how we use computers and just plain get along. So why's it such a snooze at the world's biggest tech expo?
The Outerhaven writes: After decades of gaming, I explain why rising prices, subscriptions, lost ownership, and control issues finally pushed me away from modern consoles.
"I’m starting to see games starting at $150"
Well, i feel sorry for Australia game price tags.
"most games are not living up to their price tags, with less content than ever before"
Opposite is the truth. Most games are 30h long at least plus online MP which adds a ton of fun. Let's compare original Metal gear solid to MGS4 or MGS5, original Gran Turismo to GT7, Resident evil for PSX to RE Village, Medal of honor to BF6 or COD BO6, God of war 1 to God of war Ragnarock, Super Mario for NES to Mario Odyssey, Tekken 1 to Tekken 8 etc.
"outside of Nintendo being the last company that have exclusive franchises"
The only console offering all of it's games on PC day and date is Xbox. You are clearly an Xbox owner if you feel that way.
"These days, gaming is all about maxing out how much money you are willing to spend to give you less content than before. Today, you never just see a game get released and that’s it"
This point has nothing to do with just consoles. So you say PC games have no DLCs? Again, let's compare the roster of fighters in Tekken 1 and Tekken 8 without any DLC fighter.
"it should make you sick, but people are buying these things faster than ever before. Why?"
Why? Because it adds something extra to an already full game. IMO I love some DLCs and the best part is you are not forced to buy it.
"strangling the life out of the console market, is subscription services. PC does have these things, but they are still optional"
Do you ever owned something other than Xbox?
"When was the last time you actually bought a game"
Yesterday I bought Silent hill f, in december i bought beside SH also MGS Delta, Metroid prime 4 and Lego party.
From PC/console debate you shifted to subscription services killing the industry. You sound like an angry Xbox gamer after another price hike but i tell you a secret - there are other far better consoles to enjoy with plenty of exclusives without the need of subscription.
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A single format, but it's never going to happen. Download whatever games you want on your PC/laptop, Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo using the same tech, so crack on and choose your system. What sales would Nintendo hit with its games and also it back catalogue? I'm not a sales and marketing expert, but picking out Nintendo, games sales would explode if it pulled out of the console market or as mentioned, a single format. Most of us are getting tired of all these consoles and if the likes of Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo are turning a blind eye, we're going to see another gaming crash going back to 1980. With that, Nintendo rebooted gaming with the NES and others followed. After the Xbox 360 and PS3 generation, gaming slowing sailed into dark waters.
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Ahhhh im an Aussie aswell and i game on all consoles as well as PC.
I can assure you there are no sta dard edition games that are priced at 150, the write is stretching on that one, game are 120 which is still a heck of a lot but not 150.
Pc gaming isnt getting much better atm, with the rise of ai, pc parts are becoming incredibly expensive, just look at the recent increase in ram which has 3x in price.
Im lucky I got in with my new 5080 pc before this happened but console gaming is by far better value. Especially now..
Overall it though it is very sad to see a hobby i love so much going towards something only rich families can enjoy now. Gaming was supposed to be for everyone.
This guy is full of shit $150 must be buying limited edition. I buy all my latest games this holiday all under $60 at Jb hi fi, or big w or amazon. From games like Death Stranding 2, Yotei, KCD2, Expedition 33 and mafia old country etc all under $55. And if you want digital there a massive sale on PS store without the needing of subscription Alan wake 2 is currently selling for $27 AUD. If he want to into PC exclusively good luck on buying those rams.
Whole article is just a PC guy crapping on consoles while still acting like you can get a cheap PC to match or exceed PS5/xbox oerformance, you haven't been able to do this for years. Has this guy looked at GPU prices in recent years? RAM prices in the last few months?
Xbox consoles might be dead, but PS5s and Switch 2's are still flying off the shelves. And of course the same pathetic xbot using his alts in the comments to upvote himself, holding up his PC and Nintendo shield, always moving the goalposts lmao.
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I wouldn't call him a PC guy because he is writing from a firsthand point of view. A PC guy would not know that much about console gaming without actually owning those devices.
The point of the article is that the benefits of console gaming are being eroded by the increase in prices on hardware, games, and subscriptions. With a console being in a closed ecosystem, a console only gamer has no choice but to pay whatever price is set by Playstation, Nintendo, or Xbox.
On PC, it is true that the hardware is getting increasingly more expensive, but you are still able to build something within your budget, or you can build your PC over time when the price of each part is within a price point you are comfortable with. All PC components do actually go on sale at some point in the year.
Another thing to bear in mind is that consoles are not flying off the shelves like previous years. The NPD data shows this Black Friday period had the lowest console sales in 30 years. When compared to last year, Xbox dropped by 70%, Playstation dropped by 40%, and Nintendo Switch 2 dropped by 10% compared to last year's Switch sales. Nintendo especially should not be seeing a drop in momentum in its launch year. I think we can all agree that the price increases, in addition to the lower release cadence of compelling 1st party games, are what is contributing to the decline in console sales.
Some fair points.
Declines in america are not too surprising with general economic woes, inept tariff nonsense from the orange dictator in the white house, and with those consoles being at the end of the 5th years on the market, PS5 just sold an absolute crap load in Europe, Switch 2's are flying off Japanese shelves, America isn't the whole world.
The american console decline is notable for sure. The general economic woes worsened by a dumb tariff policy, and big tech american companies trying to ruin the fun for everyone by buying up chunks of the component supplies, all in the name of AI slop.
Anyway my main point of debate is that, PC's are just not the same value compared to console performance than they used to be, it's just a fact these days, it's not like in the PS4 era where it was easy to build a decent PC for the price of a PS4, that then outperforms it as well. The point of entry for a good PC is just way higher than it used to be, and it still lacks the ease of use that consoles have, sure it can be mitigated somewhat, but only to a degree. I used to play a lot more there, but in the last few years I've just been really put off investing more in to it, then getting crappy unoptmised ports and sick of the daylight robbery nvidia demand for meager upgrades on their GPU lines.
edit: LOL all these upvotes and downvotes appearing out of thin air in like a minute 0-2 on mine and 0-3 to 8-3 on the one above in an instant lmfao, spends more time spamming this site with alts than playing on his Xbox/PC/PC with ah xbox sticker/Switch 2/whatever is the flavour of the month for his fanboy arguments, what a sad case smh
@DivineHand125, the problem with this article and others like it is that its almost completely detached from the expirence many people are currently having with console gaming, no matter the platform. Millions of people right now are playing various games on a variety of platforms and enjoying themselves, not contemplating the "problem with console gaming" lol. Who speaks for those who enjoy gaming today and want to be informed about what is coming to next to be excited about. Relentless negativity gets clicks but holds very little value.
Happy holidays to all.
There’s no pint on buying a Xbox as long as consoles exist with their simplified controller there PC will never be the single choice for gaming with their components that cost close to more than some consoles regardless of what the Xbox spammers say with new accounts every day.
Shit man my Pro is pretty on par with high end PC’s at a fraction of the cost of RAM alone. This guy seems to be advocating against consoles with very selective facts.
But yeah prices are getting crazy, for everything.
Replies(2)The PS5 Pro is a powerful console, but I would not compare the PS5 Pro to a high end gaming PC. The CPU in high end PCs, such as a Ryzen 9000 series, is about 3 to 4 generations ahead of what is in the PS5. I would also consider a high end GPU to be a 4080, 5080 or 90 class GPU, which again is far ahead of what is offered by the PS5 Pro, as AMD has no actual consumer grade GPUs that can compete with those offerings.
Another thing to note is that even if the PS5 Pro were comparable to those high end systems in terms of performance, you would still not be able to do as much, as Bloodborne and Red Dead Redemption 2 still run at 30 fps on the Pro. You are still restricted to what Sony allows.
If you are a gamer first, I would say try getting into PC gaming at some point as you enjoy the hobby. You may find yourself discovering things you never knew were possible.
I agree with everything you say and I’m sure there is a ton of experiences that Im missing. But that is not to say that the opposite is not true also. PS/consoles has a lot that is not available to PC. And the difference between these ultra high end PCs and PS5 Pro is simply not great enough to justify the cost for me. I have owned PC before and I love it, but to maintain it with all the highest parts etc was too much for me. Im playing Ghost of Yotei right now and I dont think there are many PC games that look as good.
Samsung Electronics today unveiled Galaxy XR, introducing a new category of AI-native devices designed to deliver immersive experiences in a form factor optimized for multimodal AI.
Hyperkin is showing off its latest Xbox and PC controller called The Competitor at CES 2025, which is a PS5-style gamepad with back buttons and Hall Effect sticks and triggers.
ehm so...
this looks Exacly like a Dualsense.
wonder if theres gonna be a lawsuit ha
No lawsuit. Also this is really cool. The controller is the number one reason why I don't Xbox.
@gold_drake I can't believe how many people agree with your statement. The layout of the DualSense is not copyrighted, the design of this controller is not 100% similar to the DualSense's. You don't get lawsuits for designing your product similarly to another's unless they have the exact same layout including button placement and shapes, symbol design, logos, etc. which this doesn't. You will find several 3rd party controllers that look very similar to DualSense's design and they haven't been sued.
@ninja:” Plenty a PlayStation controllers look like xbox ones so I see no issues“
Name 2 besides the sense since there’s plenty 🤦🏿😩
@CrimsonWing69 - The Nacon and Razer Wolverine controllers for PlayStation look more like Xbox controllers, they even have the offset control sticks as opposed to the Dualsense style. Scuf offered one before called the Vantage.
Razor wolverine v2 v3 Vitrix bfg pro any nacon pro controller. Not hard to find I've owned each off these currently using razor wolverine on my Ps5 Pro. So yes I've seen these controllers. The Vitrix controller even has modular analog modules that can be change to ps are xbox styles. People here can be dense at times.
If the shape of the controller would be 100% same then sure they would have some case. Buttons are Xbox labeled, xbox button, no touchpad and I dont think sony has patented the look of the D-pad or the position of the sticks.
I think the d-pad is patented. It used to be anyway. They shouldn't be able to patent geometry though, i.e. the shape of the controller, but I don't know.
Hyperkin wouldn't have made it if they thought they were going to be sued.
They worked with Xbox to remake the Duke and the 360 controller.
I think they understand what they can and can't.
@gold_drake - a patent for the shape of a controller? Maybe if they have an industrial design patent.
I'm willing to guess their patents include the functionality and unique features of the controller, not the shape considering we've seen countless PS4/PS5 controllers that could be said to resemble an Xbox controller with no issues.
Symmetrical analog sticks on an Xbox controller? Nah...
I rather wait for Sebile.
Symmetrical analog sticks are like kryptonite for the green fans since apparently they don't have symmetrical thumbs like the rest of all normal humans on this planet.
"It looks like a Sony controller."
Indeed. It does.
@Aloymetal
Still most gamers prefers the Xbox controller since it´s the best selling controller. Ask the PC fans.
Also interesting that this "new" Xbox controller with haptics for Xbox just popup at the same time the rumor about the Xbox Prime coming in 2026 hit the internet.
Very interesting indeed.
@Gamingsince1981
I think it´s a far better name than Playstation 5 Pro or "Professional" if you will.
Xbox will be entering next generation sooner to do their own thing, just like Nintendo. HYPED!
@Aloy
The sticks are asymmetrical for ergonomical reasons. Your thumbs naturally rest in those positions so that's where they placed the two most used parts of the controller - the face buttons and the left analog for movement. It's fine to prefer one or the other, but each controller has a reason behind its design.
PS created their controller at a time where analogs were new and movement was usually done with the D-pad. So prioritizing the left analog didn't make much sense back then. PS aren't going to change that now, their fanbase has grown up with that setup and it's synonymous with the PS brand. While it may not be as ergonomic from a technical point of view it isn't by any means uncomfortable, so it ultimately doesn't matter.
@Obsecure
"Still most gamers prefers the Xbox controller since it´s the best selling controller." I don't know where you got your stats from but based on NPD, the dualsense has been the best selling controller for quite some time now. and..."ask the PC fans"? really? ask those who prefer kb+m on which controller is best?
@Obscure_Observer
"Still most gamers prefers the Xbox controller since it´s the best selling controller. Ask the PC fans."
Windows doesn't exactly play nice with DualShock 4 and DualSense controllers (there is no native support for DualShock 3 or earlier PS controllers on Windows) with almost 0 games supporting DS outside of PS 1st party PC ports. Plenty of gamers including myself will not go out of their way to download 3rd party apps just to provide compatibility, where none exists officially, just to use a controller. Where available, I use DualSense on PC.
There really is no excuse for the shocking lack of support for PlayStation gamepads because they do function as generic joypads with each button showing and working in Windows' built-in gamepad testing/configuration tool. We have better native PS controller support on Android than Windows and Xbox controllers are $10 cheaper.
Gee, I can't even imagine why PC gamers - with well over 90% of all PC gamers being on Windows - would just choose the cheaper more widely supported option that is the Microsoft Xbox gamepad where a K/M just isn't optimal (i.e: racing games) over Microsoft's direct competitor's more expensive, poorly supported controllers?
There's absolutely no reason whatsoever for Microsoft to go out of their way to limit their direct competitors controllers functionality on their own PC OS and Microsoft are definitely not doing that wherever possible, right?
I'd be really surprised if MS is investing in the console space at this point. If anything is coming out next year I'd guess it's a streaming stick or something.
With XSX sales being worse than XB1, there's no way they'd release an incrementally better console next year for a super small set of customers. Phil alluded to that in an interview and said they're focusing more on the PC space, whatever that means. A new console with a new controller feature set is pretty unlikely imo.
I will be really surprised if they don't. Their ecosystem is still estimated to include close to 30 million people. No matter what fanboys say, this is a lot of people buying their games, purchasing DLC from their store, buying their overpriced accessories, etc. Not to mention that, for their streaming service to function, they need console hardware, as moving to PC servers would add an incredible overhead to their operations and eliminate any compatibility with Xbox One and Xbox Series games.
What I don't think they'll repeat next generation is the idea of having two different classes of devices—at least not with both being home consoles. Whether they choose to focus on the more powerful but less popular device, or the less powerful but better-selling one, only time will tell. Personally, I feel it’s going to be the former, with the latter being replaced by Xbox Cloud.
@crazyCoconuts
"I'd be really surprised if MS is investing in the console space at this point. If anything is coming out next year I'd guess it's a streaming stick or something."
Brace yourself for a rude awakening, pal.
Because that "streaming stick" of yours will be powered by some powerful AMD´s next gen RDNA 5 (or UDNA) GPU paired with a brand new Hybrid Compute System Architecture ARM64 vs x64 (Zen 6) O.o
Xbox Prime will be a very powerful full-fledged next gen system and NOT some mid-gen refresh system like the PS5 Pro or some ordinary streaming device like you´re predicting.
You heard from me first, so, mark my words!
Obscure, you are saying ms gave up on the series x and s by 2022? Because 2026 wouldn't leave much time for r&d otherwise..
@Vits, "for their streaming service to function, they need console hardware" - not sure i get what you mean there. The strategy from their perspective is that you pay hardly anything for the hardware (a streaming stick and controller) and then pay more monthly as a sub, which is right in line with what they've been pushing with kinda everything from Office 365 to Azure. They currently have Xboxes racked up in their data centers, but they're pushing for cross platform saves so that they can move to non-proprietary tech to host the games in the future, or just have Nvidia do it for them with GeForce NOW. So if you don't really need more power, just stick with the consoles you have. If you need more, rent the most powerful servers ever and stream it wherever you want.
No, they don't want to leave their user-base behind, but they're going to push them to a different future vs. what they think is continuing to make the same mistakes as the past - going head to head with PS is getting them diminishing returns.
@crazyCoconuts
They’re not pushing for cross-platform saves to transition to non-proprietary tech. In fact, this approach is the opposite of what Microsoft is doing with their cloud solutions. The reason comes down to a little thing called overhead: commercial PC hardware is absurdly expensive and offers extremely diminishing returns when used for streaming. That’s why both Stadia did and Amazon’s Luna still operate on relatively weak hardware, and why Nvidia’s service is so costly, limits gaming hours, and includes ads.
And again with the fanboy mentality. Microsoft isn’t concerned about Sony earning more revenue, as long as they’re expanding their ecosystem and bringing people. And for that, consoles are still a extremely important tool, one that gave them 30M this generation alone.
@mkis007
"Obscure, you are saying ms gave up on the series x and s by 2022? Because 2026 wouldn't leave much time for r&d otherwise.."
I´m not really sure if I´d understood what are you´re talking about, honestly.
So I´ll just go ahead assuming that you might be wondering *when* R&D for Xbox´s next generation console started. If that´s the case, it probably started prior to the Series consoles even hit the shelves.
They will throw something out there, but it will be even more of a cheaper and inferior product than this gen.
@obscured: “
Still most gamers prefers the Xbox controller since it´s the best selling controller. Ask the PC fans.”
.
Sure buddy whatever let you sleep at night, can you please remind us old timers how many times has the Xbox won a generation since it inception with “ the best selling controller “ .
If assuming you’re right it says a lot about quality of the product that you have to buy multiple time because of failure out of warranty.
PC = ⌨️🖱️………
🤦🏿🤣
Lol i genuinely tried using the Dualsense for shooters due to the gyroscope as I thought it would be more accurate and immersive.
But the sticks were just horrendous and the triggers are terrible. It's not just that it's symmetrical either the sticks are too close together. It's just a terribly built controller ergonomically overall. The buttons are all mushy as well. I gave up and sold it after a month of trying to get used to it.
People overhyped the Dualsense. Probably because it's the best Sony ever made. But it still doesn't compare to what I'm used to from Xbox. It just needs a gyroscope now.
I’ll stick to my Elite 2 controller. They may have questionable build quality but they feel premium and fits my hands perfectly.
i guess some people are waiting for some must have titles. you have big games on consoles and the pc that can sell hardware, i haven't heard anything yet in regards to vr.
I just think VR is the latest thing to have suffered from overhype in the gaming industry
It's not VR is the content needs to come out faster.
I read this last night and the guy seemed like he was waiting for the ultimate next phase in VR when most companies that went to CES were showing updates to help VR grow. Very negative read.
Valve/HTC brought tech that turns regular objects into trackable VR items, one company brought shoes that allow you to feel what it's like to walk over and in terrain and water in VR, an adapter was brought there to help PC VR be more mobile with less cables and a battery pack. Announcement of VR streaming service, more competing headsets shown like lenovo, etc.
But this guy was looking for something beyond which was unreasonable. Just read some of the comments from the article that slides out from the right. You'll see the usual knuckleheads thinking VR is like 3DTV. Bit the Majority could see some advances in tech that are helping VR grow into the next optional interactive experience.
As others and I have said, VR is not a "one year slam bam thank you ma'am here it is mass market eat it up right away" kind of thing. Cellphones we have today didn't just "happen." It took years for the phones to get better, smaller and more useful and networks to get better to provide the experience consumers expect. And we got people expecting VR to just explode overnight like this article writer.
It's like people today have no clue how the things we use today came about and the work and long road to get there. VR is new and has a long road ahead.
Let's give it time to mature before knocking it. I haven't jumped on the hype train either and I always wanted to give it at least two years. Hopefully, developers really showcase what it can do this year and beyond.