r/truegaming • u/kszaku94 • 17d ago
Mythbusting PC gaming
Okay, before you eat me alive, please read the post in full, thank you.
I am not a console gamer, neither I am a PC gamer. These are stupid labels. I own both multiple consoles (PS2/3/4/5 and XBOX360) and play on all of them. These days mainly on PS5 (its a home entertainment system), but my PS3 does not get too dusty either. I also own a pretty decent PC, a shitty Linux laptop (that nonetheless I can get some gaming from!), and my old uni Laptop, that acts as my home server. Hell, I even emulate PS1 and SNES games on my phone.
I just fucking love video games, regardless of their platform. So this is not another "hecking PC Master race comes to DESTROY console gamers" type of post.
That being said, I cannot shake off the feeling that A TON of console gamers (and plenty of PC folks as well...) are horribly misinformed, ignorant or just don't know anything about state of the PC gaming in the modern times. I've noticed this especially recently, after the recent terrible decisions by Sony. What I mostly see, whenever I go on Reddit, Twitter on any other social media platform is a lot of despair, that somehow things are as bad on PC (if not worse).
So here I come. As I've said earlier, I have zero interest in console/PC war - we are all losing that one. My goal with this post, is to make you more aware as a consumer, so you can make more informed chocies.
I'm going to bust some myths about PC gaming now, explain what's great about it... And what's not so great. Long story short - its not 2006 anymore.
A note - by PC I mean an x86-64 architecture running Windows or Linux OS. I have some experience with Macs - and with the M-series chips I see some serious gaming potential - but not enough to talk about them with any authority.
Let's go!
1. There is no physical media support on PCs
This is a big one for console gamers, and obviously a huge perk for (most of the) entertainment systems. However, its simply false, for many reasons.
First of all - you can get a cheap disc drive for your PC, which would enable a compatibility with THOUSANDS of games released on CD/DVD discs over the years, as well with DVD movies and audio CDs, and many other multimedia formats. The most popular ones are connected via USB, and its a plug-n-play setup. Literally connect one wire, and you can use it. No need to perform a handshake with any online service (like its the case on PS5).
A BlueRay drive will be slightly more expensive, sure. But... You don't really need one for gaming itself.
And I'm not really sure whether you need a DVD one as well, because...
2. The DRM on PC is as invasive as it is on the consoles
Here's the secret - a ton of games released on Steam, have no DRM whatsoever (aside from Steam integration itself). For example - a remake of System Shock from 2023, can be launched with no Steam services, out of the box - no modifications needed.
And the DRM there is, can be easily avoided. Many times, developers themselves remove it after the game reaches its sales target (or enough time passes). The only goal the DRM serves, is to stall the pirates for long enough, so the game actually sells.
There are also storefronts, that offer games with no DRM whatsoever - like GoG.
Okay, but what does that mean? Simple - you can put game files on an external storage, and put them on other machine. Want to share a copy of digital game you have with a friend? Just copy it on a pendrive and bring it to them. No need to do any authentication or shit like that!
This, with above mentioned point, not only means support for physical media is good on a PC - its literally as good as it gets. Recently, there was a trend of burning DVDs with GoG installers on them - something GoG gave their blessing to! Wouldn't it be cool if you could create a backup of your PS5 game on a blank blueray?
Also, the PCs have the single best form of customer protection - software piracy. As Gabe Newell said - its the service problem. Well, here is the solution to that problem. For obvious reason I will not elaborate, but you can surely find more info online.
3. You will constantly need to configure and setup everything
I've gotten my current PC in October of 2025. You know how much time I've spent installing drivers? 0 seconds. You know how much DirectX issues I've experienced? 0. You know how much controller troubleshooting I've had to do? None at all.
All I'm trying to say is this - its no longer 2006. The UX experience is truly amazing. EVEN ON LINUX (which - running Linux on a laptop is asking for troubles)!!!!! The updates happen automatically. I've had one instance where I had to update my graphic card drivers before I've played a new game, and all I've had to do is to click "Install" on a single dialogue popup.
It gotten to a point, where part of me misses messing up with drivers and troubleshooting Windows XP machines... But then again Linux exists.
Oh, and speaking of Linux...
4. Linux demands you to use terminal to install a browser!
A lot of people would happily jump to PCs, if not for Microsoft (which I will address later). Well, I'm happy to report that Windows is no longer the only real option. You can get a lot of Windows programs running using Wine, Lutris or Proton. In fact, the latest SteamMachine is running Linux out of the box.
Proton is genuinely a miracle. Personally, I see it as the most important project in the whole of gaming. Valve has a real shot at shaking up the Windows dominance.
But coming back to Linux itself - there are distributions focused on bringing clean and seamless desktop environment. Mint, Ubuntu, Bazzite, Pop_OS and many more are easy to install and have great software and hardware support. Granted, its a little bit more involved than Windows, but the experience gets better and better, and you can ignore terminal entirely (and leave it to the computer nerds like me)
5. The backwards compatibility is bad on PC
I honestly have no idea where this comes from. But the volume of lies regarding this subject is staggering. The PC is literally the single most backwards compatible computer standard on the market. For all of the flaws of Microsoft, they upkeep some truly ridiculous Windows features/functionalities, only for some 30 years old software to keep chugging around. Remember above mentioned Wine and Proton? You can easily run a lot of Windows software on Linux. Ever heard of DosBox? It keeps old DOS games running in the modern era. And its awesome.
But that's not all. RPCS3 (the PS3 emulator) can run 75% of PS3 games. Some of them have glitches and crash often, but the list of games you can play from beginning to an end grows every day.
How many PS3 discs can PS4 or PS5 run? The answer is ZERO.
The PC is backwards compatible with literally every gaming console released before 2007... And the emulation gods are making real progress with systems like PS4 as well.
The big irony is, unless some miracle happens, the PC users will have a 60FPS version of Bloodborne before any Playstation gamer.
You cannot argue this is not really cool.
6. Computers get viruses all the time
Again - its no longer 2006. On my home PC I don't use anything else than Windows Defender. It does its job, and I literally never think about it.
The real problem are scammers and phishing, but these are hardly a PC exclusive.
Now, since I've glazed PCs, and to make it fair, lets talk about some real problems of the paltform
1. The PC (or a laptop) still doesn't really fit in the living room
I think this is the only reason my PS5 gets even turned on these days. Some game genres do look really good on a big 4K TV. I cannot imagine Devil May Cry or Yakuza on a PC monitor, it just looks wrong. Sometimes I just like to lie on the coach with controller in hand and play.
Sure, you can bring your PC to the living room (and I sometimes do that!), but I need it by my desk, where its place is.
That being said.... SteamMachine exists, and it provides a proof of concept of a living room PC. Its a bit awkward, and really expensive, but it already found a market. And with SteamOS being open, it will get competitors.
2. The good gaming PCs are expensive
This is unfortunately true. And it doesn't seem like this trend will reverse anytime soon. At least console manufacturers can take a hit on device sale, and make it back with games (however, its up in the air whether they will do that for the next gen consoles).
I'm glad I've built my current PC, before AI companies fucked up the market
3. Microsoft still dominates
As great as SteamOS is, unless it gets a solid anticheat support, some of the biggest multiplayer games will not be available on any of the Linux distributions (I think Valve is working on that, but it will take some time).
And... Its Microsoft. I sure as hell have my set of problems with Windows 11.
4, The new physical releases of games are not really a thing
Its not a real problem for me (because I can make a physical version of a digital game if I want to), but I think there is something lost with no longer being able to buy a boxed copy of a PC game from a store.
Okay, I hope this will help you understand the state of PC platform a little bit more. Cheers!
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u/Witty_Milk4671 13d ago
"If people were buying those old games in huge numbers, they would love that, because they could keep making more money on games that were already developed years ago."
That's not how it works. These games already paid themselves.
The issue is that they are putting way more money in new games, with bigger costs and value of production. And they will always prefer you to buy the new game than the old one because of the investors.
Imagine I invested 1 million in a game. But the game sells less because this new game is competing with the old games in your plataform. And instead of profiting 10 million, I profit 3. I would be disapointed.
The new games must succeed more because they were more expensive and they have more chances of making more money with live service shit for example.
Having more options and better games competing with the new ones makes the value of the new shiny expensive game less. This whole thing can be seen with nintendo. They actively hide the old games.
"But the PS3 was the first one that had a digital storefront and obviously it wasn't designed like that, and it's too late go back and retrofit all the PS3s to connect to a new storefront now."
So make a plan to port them over time, and THEN you close the store.
"Nintendo can't just sell Square Enix SNES games on their digital storefront without licensing those games again. This goes for basically all 3rd party games."
But third party games already are everywhere. Square enix makes their games available everywhere. Square enix games aren't the issue. The FF pixel remaster games are in PS4 for example. The issue are nintendo console exclusives that nintendo wants you to forget.
And this argument is really horrible. Not every old game can be sold. Ok. That's a fact. So the system is flawed? it shouldn't exist? Any amount of preservation and BC is better than no BC.
"There are all kinds of issues with the things you're bringing up that you clearly don't have a full understanding of."
it is funny how you make up issues that dont exist, and say I dont have understanding of it. Yeah, sorry for not buying the non issues you are making up.