Which platform is your favorite?
With the next generation of consoles (PS4 and Xbox One) releasing in a little more than a month, the battle for the video game market has never been more competitive. Not only are these new consoles coming out but, with Valve’s announcement of the Steam Machines and the Steam OS, PC gaming has never looked stronger. A third major player in the game platform war is the smartphone and tablet format, which has been rapidly expanding and changing.
Although many of us will likely use all three platforms in the coming years, it is interesting to consider which one you would choose if you could only pick one. Let’s take a look at some of the pros and cons of each game platform.
Consoles
The major players in this market are the upcoming Playstation 4 and Xbox One as well as the Wii U. You could also consider mobile consoles like the 3DS and the Vita to be part of this category because they are distinctly different kinds of machines than the tablet/smartphone market. Here are some of the general strengths I see for consoles as a platform.
Low Cost
Consoles are, by and large, much cheaper than the other platforms. A serious gaming PC costs at least $800-$1200, and that number does not include the price for a monitor and accessories. Tablets are also very expensive, at about $500 for the iPad. Consoles, however, tend to be cheaper (although the new platforms will be fairly expensive for a few years after their release). PS4 will release at $399, £
Highly Optimized
Consoles are highly optimized because they are all manufactured with the same hardware and run the same firmware. This consistency leads to unrivalled stability for games as developers know exactly how their product will run on each and every console unit, making testing much simpler. The PC and smartphone/tablet markets, though, tend to have issues with optimization. PCs have an incredibly diverse array of components, drivers, and software that make optimization of games difficult, while smartphones/tablets often have several different versions of the operating system, which can lead to incompatibility of older devices with new software and vice-versa. Consoles completely circumvent these problems by having a defined set of hardware with updates that apply to every user.
Excellent Living Room Presence
Consoles are now a staple of the living room entertainment architecture in many homes. The PS3 especially became popular as an entertainment center because of its early adoption of the blu-ray format. People are used to having consoles in their living room, and this will likely lead to them purchasing the new versions of these consoles.
Some of the weaknesses of the console format are:
Lack of Modding
Games like Skyrim suffered on the console because they could not be modded by user-created content, one of the most enjoyable parts of the PC experience. Because development on consoles is generally closed, modding is not a feature the console market supports well.
Aging Hardware
Towards the end of a console generation, the hardware in a console is often very underpowered compared to the latest PC hardware. This problem is the unavoidable trade-off for the high optimization of consoles because consistent hardware means that any upgrades to the system will have to take place in a new console generation, and manufacturers simply cannot do so every year. The real problem with this issue is that aging hardware can sometimes hold back gaming in general if consoles are the target market; developers do not want to develop something too powerful for their largest market to play.
PC
When I speak of PC for this article, I am really referring to any computer platform, so Linux and Mac are included, although I recognize that Macs in particular do not share many of the same characteristics as PC gaming nor is it compatible with a wide range of games. Here are some of the benefits I see with PC gaming:
Customizable
Everything about the PC platform is compatible. People can even build their own PCs by picking the parts and assembling it themselves. Even those who do not make this kind of commitment can still choose the parts for their PCs and change them out when they become obsolete. Many games for PC are also highly moddable, allowing for players to customize their games as they see fit.
Ease of Development
The PC is arguably the easiest platform on which to develop because of a wide range of options for coding languages, low cost of entry into the market, and lack of close supervision by a company like Sony or Microsoft. The PC has become the focal point of the Indie market precisely for this reason.
Wider Range of Games
The PC has the most games of any format for two major reasons. Firstly, the PC has the most backwards compatibility of any format. I can run a game I had as a child on my PC with some very minor tweaking, something that would be unheard of for those wanting to run a Super Nintendo game on a Wii U, for example (without buying it digitally, of course). Secondly, more genres work on the PC. Specifically, the strategy genre simply does not work on console formats and is very limited on smartphone/tablet platforms.
The weaknesses of the PC as I see them are:
Lack of Optimization
With the launch of Total War: Rome II, I personally experienced the issue of optimization in PC games. There are simply too many different system configurations out there for developers to consistently test every single one for issues. Most of these problems can be patched, but it is difficult for a PC game to launch without a hitch.
High Cost
PCs are the most expensive format for games if you are interested in playing the most recent games. Gaming PCs are simply expensive because the parts used are generally top of the line and not manufactured in large quantities. This high cost is a huge barrier to entry and prevents the PC from holding the largest market share.
Tablets/Smartphone
Here I refer to the iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad family as well as various Android devices both in smartphone and tablet forms. Here are some of the strengths of this format:
Low Cost of Games
Games for this platform tend to be either very inexpensive or free. Very few are more than $5 and even fewer are more than $10.
Innovative User Input Mechanics
The touchscreen is really an innovative method of user interface that has completely changed the way we interact with technology. The smartphone/tablet market is especially exciting because it is using a relatively new technology and developing a whole new class of games with never before seen mechanics and control methods.
Extreme Portability
These devices are built to be carried anywhere. They are small and easy to carry with good battery life (for the most part). This feature allows gamers to take gaming to places no other platform can go (with the exception of mobile consoles).
Some of the weaknesses of this format are:
Relatively Simple Games
You simply will not see a triple A quality game released on a smartphone/tablet. They simply do not have the hardware to run such intensive games. This limitation also means that games for this format are relatively short.
Restrictions of the App Markets
To market games for this format, generally developers need to deal with the app stores of the companies that control the various platform (mostly Apple and Google). This limits some independent developers and restricts what kinds of things get to the market.
Overall
Overall, my preference is for the PC platform. I simply enjoy the extremely large library of titles and the ability to customize my experience both in terms of hardware and software. I also like to support independent developers and the PC is the best platform for these developers; when I buy on PC they get a much higher percentage of my money than on other formats. I do not mind the high cost of a gaming PC, although I am still saving for one, because it is for the best hardware you can get for the best experience possible and it is completely upgradable.
So what do you think? Which is your favorite platform and why? Comment below and let us know!
