Gamescom Opening Night live proved who’s really winning the ‘console wars’
Gamescom Opening Night Live showed us what’s in store for the rest of this year in the gaming world, but it’s time to start talking about who is really winning this generation’s “console wars” — and it’s not Microsoft or Sony.
Gamescom Opening Night Live offered up something for just about anyone, whether you are a diehard single-player AAA fan with Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, or looking for a new hardcore RPG in the latest expansion for Diablo 4.
But, one thing was starkly clear: Owning a console just isn’t as good a deal as it once was anymore. While consoles offer an accessible entry point into gaming, they exclude you from enjoying the exclusives of another platform and limit the number of titles you can play.
Microsoft/SonyWhile Indy is taking a trip to discover treasure over on the PS5 in early 2025, we’re likely not going to see Kratos and Atreus show up on the Xbox any time soon.
But, what if you could have the best of both worlds, albeit with a few strings attached? Well, luckily for you, it exists, and if Gamescom Opening Night Live shows us, it’s thriving.
Gamescom 2024 is all about the PC, baby
From Borderlands 4 to Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 and yes, even Indiana Jones, almost every single game shown off at Gamescom Opening Night Live is going to come to PC, except for Batman: Arkham Shadow, which is exclusive to Meta Quest 3.
With the console generation now around its mid-point, the PC is looking like a better deal than ever. All of Microsoft’s titles are already launching on PC with Game Pass, while previously console-focused games are now launching day-and-date on PC.
Monster Hunter: World previously took a painstaking seven months from its console launch to land on PC, but this time around, Monster Hunter: Wilds is set to launch simultaneously with consoles for the humble personal computer.
Has there been a better time to play games using a PC? Probably not. Even Sony has been getting on the wagon with solid PC ports, albeit after months of console exclusivity. All I know is that you definitely can’t play Spider-Man: Miles Morales on Xbox, but you can if you have a PC.
The barrier to entry is lower than ever
Before I hear you all cry out “But playing games on PC is expensive” or “It’s so hard to build a PC!” – May I direct you towards the Steam Deck, which can play thousands of titles, and comes in at such a wildly accessible price of $399 that it’s spawned heaps of competitors like the ROG Ally X.
Dexerto Is it the most powerful device in the world? No. But I’ve personally played hundreds of hours of titles on the Deck, and it’s the perfect portable console you never knew you needed.
Pair the full Steam integration with its heaps of mods and support for external launchers like the Epic Games Store, and you’ll hardly be missing out on any games on PC, and that’s not to mention its capability to emulate older consoles.
The sky is the limit
Of course, if you want to get more serious about things, a full PC build is always going to be the way to go. While it can be more complicated, and budgets can spiral to the thousands, there are high-end products like the $599 RTX 4070 Super, which can run Cyberpunk 2077’s demanding ray tracing modes at 1440p at over 140 FPS, which is something both consoles could only dream about.
The ability to customize and tune power and settings to your needs is something that just doesn’t exist on console outside a “graphics” or “performance” preset which usually cap out at a maximum of 60 FPS, with very few exceptions.
Meanwhile, the PC can run games at higher resolutions, using more advanced technologies like path tracing and frame generation, while performing much better than what you get on a console. Cyberpunk 2077 on PS5 looks like a totally different game when I boot it up on my RTX 4080-equipped gaming PC.
PC isn’t perfect
It would be remiss to mention that there are problems with PC gaming: Shader stutter on lower-end systems can annoy, while the odd unoptimized PC port can slip through the cracks on occasion, which can be frustrating.
But, the fact that I have grown my library of games for over 15 years; all still fully playable, is a testament to the longevity that PC gaming offers: I’ve spent hundreds on PlayStation 3 games that I just straight-up can’t play on modern systems.
Almost every big release these days comes day and date to PC, like Black Myth: Wukong. But, being able to play experimental titles like Felvidek; a comedic JRPG set in 15th-century Slovakia with PS1-style graphics and an eclectic soundtrack on the platform, I can’t help but feel as though my poor PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series S are more redundant than ever.
So, seeing so many titles inevitably heading to PC at Gamescom Opening Night Live just made me think: Is it worth it to stick to closed ecosystems that limit the number of games you can play, which carry the chance of not being able to play them when the new shiny box comes out, and don’t look as good, too?
All I know is that my wife is probably thankful that I’ll inevitably be playing dozens of hours of Dragonball: Sparking Zero up in the office, instead of the living room, in shiny 4K and at a blisteringly fast framerate that my monitor can barely keep up with.