We’ve seen the signs for years now, but it seems like everyone is finally accepting it: the “Console War” that has raged since the 80s has finally… sputtered and died. I figured it was a good time to post some closure pages for my comic series of the same name. That’s not to say I won’t still do a Console War comic from time to time if I see a really great opportunity for it, but… this metaphor doesn’t have a lot of teeth left if these companies are no longer really competing with each other.
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There’s that meme floating around that the next “XBox” is going to have PS exclusives because it’ll just be a PC in a console skin and with Sony porting almost every game to PC…
Probably won’t happen but it’s funny to think about.
I think consoles have been PC with a skin (+OS) for a long time. Their advantage is standardisation. Pumping the exact same hardware in massive volumes, with games where you can optimise the absolute crap out of it makes for relatively cheap and well running hardware compared to PC. However, everything has become pretty powerful. So much so that modern relatively low spec hardware can run so many games decently. Take a modern laptop vs a console. If you can also write your assignments (with chatgpt), watch YT in bed, live stream, and do your finances for a little more… Read more »
The Xbox (original, launched ~24 years ago) was a Pentium 3 PC in a box. The 360 was a bit more unique, but the XBOne and the XBSeries are both just AMD PCs in boxes.
The one that’s really playing with the console formula is Nintendo. Their hardware is notably more unique.
Yeah and the biggest advantage consoles have over PCs is still simply “I can buy a game for my console and know that my console can play it.”
No worrying about this component or that component, amount of VRAM available etc. The game will run on the hardware.
Steam’s work with the Steam Deck and SteamOS has really helped this on the PC end of things. I put Bazzite on my ROG Ally X (basically SteamOS) and I play it more than my Switch or PS5. With Sony putting their exclusives on Steam I’ve found myself not even buying their first-party stuff on their own console anymore. The portability of the Ally and the fact I don’t have to dedicate my TV to it (but can hook it up if I want), all of their games being verified as working on Steam Deck, and the limitations that digital… Read more »
I think I disagree. Computers haven’t upgraded much in the last 10 years. You can run any major game at an acceptable framerate on PC with a 10 year old rig.
Been waiting for years for people to wise up to this. Bought my current PC in 2016 for 1050 € with a 1080 (and with each passing year I’m happier that it’s still going strong), it’s hooked up to my 86″ TV and I use it with Bluetooth periphery. The convenience factor of a console in my mind is only for people who have the luxury of having a separate home office room that would mean a lot of extra effort to connect the PC used for work as well as gaming to the living room. Also, apart from 2D… Read more »
There’s still a fair amount of cases where certain subsets of players want to keep it separate, or don’t want to buy an expensive one size fits all PC, when a less expensive console can be plugged and played for a bit after work. The entry cost to PC gaming is now always higher than the entry cost to buying a base console+ a couple games. You could probably get a cheaper PC, but without the optimization of the console, you definitely don’t get near the same overall performance, unless you spring for more expensive parts. Some people are not… Read more »
The optimization argument also lost its teeth compared to old console generations.
Older hardware had so weird designs (e.g. the PS3 SPE coprocessors) that it took years for devs to really take advantage of them.
Modern x64/ARM consoles don’t have that. They are clear, standardized, easy-to-use, well-documented platforms where your bog-standard dev tools. Most optimisations are done on engine-level, so game devs hardly interact with that anymore.
The only real benefit you get from console-specific optimisations is a slimmer graphics options menu.
This comic, and especially the reaction in the last panel, hits hard.
The console wars never really benefitted gamers and there hasn’t been legitimate hardware reasons for certain games to only appear on certain platforms for a very long time now. But to have it all be actually finally ending is sort of surreal.
Outside of kids, who will always wage non-rational battles over things, the console wars were always just weird flexes by capital G “Gamers” to try and ego boost themselves.
We are all just growing up and getting old.
Compared to family, job and the world burning in general, it really doesn’t matter which device I switch on for some escapism.
…I hope it’s just the world burning, not you family and job.
Nintendo is off just doing its own thing, Playstation is trying to claim the throne, Xbox has found its far easier to milk multiple avenues than fight for them, Atari still hasn’t managed to figure out how to get out of the box.
They finally found out that cooperating to extract as much money out of their customer base as possible is soooo much more lucrative than competing by offering better quality. Sigh.
If there could possibly be anything it’s more of a cold war situation at most.
Somewhat appropriate that it happens on the 100th entry!
Kinda fitting for the 100th page.
Let’s face it the minute Sony went “Meh let’s sell our games on PC” I knew the console wars were winding down more so when Microsoft said they would look to selling games on Playstation. Even Sony has admitted PC sales of there exclusives even if they are on Playstation for a while first has made them a ton of money
Giving this sub-series a closing arc is a really nice idea. This comic series has brought me so, so much fun and awe. So it deserves a (kinda-sorta) ending is as poignant as the actual end of the console wars. I think you could do a really fitting parallel to be made between these fictional gassed up militaries not doing much, and the limited scope of what consoles offer people now (not that I’m one of those people thinking consoles should just go away). Or all the past soldiers being spent like ammo, and customers realizing that we, the playerbase,… Read more »
Its the end of an era… man it just feels so bizarre to really think it. Nintendo gets to keep the young gamers and the fans of their series and both Microsoft and Sony are just kinda “eh… we’re done. GG KTHXBYE.”
Looks like the Xboxes learned that the only ones who win wars are the military industrial complexes.
Honestly, I don’t think you’ve had a real console war for several generations. It’s FAR more common for consumers to own multiple consoles these days than it was even 20 years ago, and you simply don’t have the sort of “brand loyalty” that defined the 8-bit, 16-bit, and early 3D eras.
Maybe they can all sit around and cry into each other’s arms saying the war is finally over.
This was my favourite series on the page… sad to see it’s ending 🙁
Next serie : Console oligarchies.
It may be bleaker than real life, though…
This is too true.
and so the console war ends.
Xbox is selling their games to all consoles.
PlayStation is starting to end their exclusivity and elitism and started porting to PC.
Nintendo just never gave a shit.
PC is still just watching from the tourbus.
First, Matt from Demolition Ranch retires, now Console Wars? March is going out like a lion…
Just wanted to say, I’ve really loved this series.
Forza Horizon 5 is almost out on PS5. Strange days indeed.
The fact that they’re all porting their games to PC shows that they know they’re on their last legs
I think the handheld PC form factor just won.
Getting Lord of War vibes.
The end of an era, I know it’s overall good for gaming but I will miss these comics being a more regular thing.
I would end this with the pc just receiving sells from the other armies and then xbox just announcing a pc hybrid handheld , with steamdecks proving themselves in the battlefield and so on.
And steamdeck retreating every Tuesday?
Joint session of PC Congress/Parliament voting to deploy peacekeepers (Steam Deck etc) to monitor the fragile peace.
Did it end because every one got tired of their crap of not having all games work on all systems?
Nah. I mean, it’s been over for a while now but there are even more factors than what I’ve mentioned before. Take hardware as an example. There is no advantage to hardware production anymore and plenty of downsides. Look at Playstation’s history. PS1 was about pushing the CD format (which also went to selling more music CDs which benefited Sony Music). PS2 was about pushing the DVD format (which also went to selling more movies which benefited Sony Pictures). PSP was about trying to dethrone MP3s with ATRAC as well as push UMDs (A notable failure.) PS3 was about pushing… Read more »
A barren wasteland remains. Discarded lootboxes and arms litter the ground. Destroyed skyscrapers dot the landscape, game studio logos half buried in the rubble. A mass relocation effort to PC land is underway with transports from Steam(tm) ships.
A tent sits in the middle of the rubble. 4 Switch2s are playing mario party.
What exactly are we fighting for in the end? The war went from living room dominancy to mobile gacha games with pulls ranging from Pokémon to big-tiddied ship waifus. There is no reason to fight now. The gamers have changed.
Let’s see if Microsoft attempts to acquire Nintendo again
Peace in our time. 🙂
This is why the so much of international relations has been focusing on trade. Several world wars taught us that the only way to really stop war is to force everyone to be dependent on international trade to the point that they can’t afford to go to war with one another. ALOT of the effort of major nations around the world after WW2 was in creating that environment which we now live in.
The console war ended the way all wars do. with trade.
Because trade…
trade never changes.
God, I’ve been waiting for the death of video games for some years now.
(I’m not Jack Thompson by the way)