Is PC gaming a luxury or a necessity this gen?

I still think PC gaming is more of a luxury than a necessity. I have a gaming rig and still find consoles very satisfying. Some of my favorite games like Bloodborne, Bayonetta, and Mario can only be played on consoles. In all of these games, I never felt like the performance or resolution was hindering my enjoyment. I also think the benefits of PC gaming have been grossly exaggerated. To me, it's just another platform, and more to you if you enjoy the exclusives on that platform. But in terms of performance, only a few games did having a better rig really make a difference. But ultimately, it wouldn't have been the end of the world if I had to play them on console.

What say you, SW? Is PC gaming all its cracked up to be?

@SolidGame_basic: PC gaming is neither a luxury or necessity ... It is the best platform hands down to game on the last 16-17 years , legal or " illegal " way if you get me ( talking about various EMU that you can even play classic games of 70/80s up to now ) ...

It has everything , it plays everything , it has its own exclusives ( and actually are way more than any other console ever offered ) , it has the best possible multiplayer experience , genres that playing only on PC , genres that playing way better on PC because of control theme , it leads in graphics , it leads in multimedia , the last decade or more has literally nothing to jealous of consoles as of its as easy as it gets to connect a controller and plug it on TV and play ala console style and so many other things including free online gameplay , way cheaper prices on many games , best backwards compatibility you can get ( it plays even console games and before you jump on me depends the laws you having in your country it get be as legal as it gets as long as you having the original game !! )

Now add to everything else that you can do 2134124230857035 more things than just play games ... And there you have it ...

From every single angle you might see it ... PC is the best platform you can get ... and now that prices are decent to build a decent PC unlike 10-15 years ago ... I think everyone should try it ( though i best most of us already have years now )

Are consoles a luxury or necessity TC?

It seriously depends on your own preference i mean if you enjoy whatever the PC offering it will always be your goal to game on PC or buy/build to a PC for gaming which mean a necessity to you.

PC gaming in my opinion is a luxury (or more of a unnecessary thing to have.. so far) as i dont find anything worth playing or even remotely interesting like how it is on consoles.

Gaming is luxury, some people in the world not even have food on the table ...some not even have a table either:P

It certainly isn't a necessity. If you want the best graphics, mods, RTS or MMO games though it's the way to go. The backwards compatibility aspect is nice if you like playing older games too. I hate having to keep swapping consoles out all the time, it's a pain.

For me I'm a bit of a graphics whore and I love RTS games and mods so it's an easy choice. I also need a high end PC for other uses so in terms of making it good for gaming it's just the cost of the GPU and more costly PSU. It didn't cost me much more than a PS4 or XB1 would have bearing that in mind, games are cheaper in general and I don't have to pay for online.

Could I live with just a console if it came down to it? Of course. The things I'd miss the most would be RTS games, all my old games and playing FPS's with a keyboard and mouse though.

VG machines are not necessity, end of. :P

Stupidest fucking question ever. All video games are luxuries.

It's a Luxray. :P

PC was luxury many years ago, now it is quite accessible. If you play games a lot then PC is necessary. Consoles for Exclusives and PC for everything else is the way to go. If you only want to own one system then PC... because library is huge.

I love how there's always a few people in the thread who take the question so literally lol

True, but if we're merely talking platforms, then surely consoles are more of a luxury than PCs (of course if we were to build a monolithic quad-sli titanX PC then yeah, total luxury)

Exactly. I mean at least with a PC you could potentially work and earn money, but this is daft even for you TC

I feel if you can afford to game, PC is a good place to start. I usually go with PC, Playstation, and Nintendo every gen.

A gaming PC can have the excuse of of being a necessity because it can run apps that help with high school, college, and professional work. I can game discreetly and then Alt-Tab out to say, MySQL when the occasion requires it.......like when the wife say's it's time for some yard work. "I can't, honey. I gotta get this stuff done."

A console is mostly for gaming. I wouldn't be caught dead holding that controller.

Edit:

There are also a number of content creation apps that make use of CUDA or Stream which also makes it a good excuse to have a gaming GPU in the PC.

PC gaming is always a luxury.

They're all a luxury

But if I had to choose one platform to game on, it would be PC

If I'm not constantly gaming on a PC I start fading away and shit.

I agree, but I think they are a necessity these days :P

All gaming is a luxury and not a necessity you think it just applies to the PC? LOL

And if one of them was a necessity are you saying the platform with the most games the largest backlog the most options and customization anmd the ability to do work tasks and homework etc is a luxury and consoles with a limited set of games and options is a necessity???

Time to take your meds, you bloody fanboys get more nonsensical by the day,its like you start these threads by thinking "how could i possibly say something utterly stupid and get the most amount of people to disagree with me.......OH I KNOW!"

It's like Common Sense died before it ever met you.

- Derp

An absolute necessity, at least for me. I have a PS4 (got it for free) and while Bloodborne and Helldivers are great, beyond that there is practically nothing else on the system I care about. I'd literally have nothing else to play. Meanwhile, on my PC, I can barely find time to get through my back log. If PC wasn't as strong as it is in the types of games I enjoy I probably wouldn't even game anymore.

Any 1 of Pc, Xbone or Ps4 will give you hundreds of good games to play all gen.

It's a damn necessity if you like video games. The PS4, Xbox One, and Wii U have pathetically tiny libraries compared to that of a PC. It's not a preference thing, it's a fact.

Only an ignorant fool would not see that. People who like video games should have gaming PCs. End of discussion.

Personally, i find consoles to be a luxury if you live in Canada due to the current economic situation. While the initial cost of a PC is deterring, I personally find that it is better to wait for a steam sale than buy a console and have to put up with $70 games

They are all luxuries. At this point I'd actually refer to the xbox and playstation brands as the luxurious ones. The consumer doesn't seem to care about all the nickel and diming and the games being more expensive--not to mention expensive peripherals locked down to the consoles.

Like everyone said, they're all luxuries. There's a lot of money to invest, both up front, and in the long-run.

Well, time to shut 'er down

Gaming on anything is a luxury

This.

PC is a necessity for me. So I just made it into a gaming one. And consoles is and always will be a luxury.

This gen of consoles are so underpowered, it has become a necessity. Unless of course you like 900p@30fps and below with stutter, long load times, downgraded graphics, and screen tearing.

This^

My gaming PC comes in pretty handy for content creation (graphic designing and video editing). Sucks when its the only fast computer in the house otherwise tech illiterate family members keep coming to use it because the filled all the others with so many viruses you basically gotta wipe the hard drive clean.

Only a necessity if your main source of income is video game streaming.

I've been using the CUDA/Stream excuse to equip all desktop PCs at home with capable video cards. My eldest kid, for example, is a big user of Photoshop and Premiere. I got her an R9 290X to pair with her i5 4670k PC. If I told her mom it was for Dragon Age: Inquisition, she'd say no. But, I told her it's for the Adobe apps which is also true. ;-D

Damn kid has a better PC than me. But, it's part of her graduation present.

Luxury for me is to spend money for secondary consoles ( Nintendos CEO himself admitted that ) like Wii U just for 4-5 ( 500-600$ or more in total ) of its games and thats a console right there not PC .

Thats what i call luxury ... to spend money on such products . Im not judging the people that did this , its up to them ... but thats a luxury and not by having a PC when you dont even know where to spend your money on from myriad of titles out there ...

@SolidGame_basic:I don't think any platform is truly a necessaity at this point. It's really just a personal choice. The best platform to play on is the one that you choose to play games on. It's that simple. All platforms are luxuries as they cost a good amount of money just to play these games.

PC is really the only necessary one to me, the rest are icing on the cake.

For most of the world, consoles are a luxury item, it's why PC has a larger userbase

All video game machines are luxuries dude.

Someone should make the topic if Steam is a luxury or necessity for PC gaming.

All gaming is a luxury.

is it a luxury? yes.

is it everything its cracked up to be? yes and then some. the PC is, without exception, the finest machine to play games on.

if you love your gaming then you really should invest in a PC and go exploring.

i play on consoles too of course. dammed if im missing out on nintendos finest. but my PC is always my main gaming device.

No form of gaming is a necessity you pleb.

Not that we've established your pleb status, what are the specs of your rig?.

PC gaming, much like console gaming is a luxury. Gaming aint a necessity.

That said, I would urge any gamer to get a PC gaming, and PC gaming has been the norm over here for ages.