Platform Wars: How Next-Gen Consoles, PC’s Are Stacking Up Nowadays

We’ve entered something of a video gaming renaissance recently. Three highly varied consoles have been released in the past six months, with many titles out that already have gaming fans drooling. And with internet-friendly capabilities being more and more incorporated into the console, it seems that consoles are mimicking PC’s in the gaming world nowadays.

Does this mean that online PC gaming is going extinct? That really depends on who you ask. Some people are adamant about the rise of The Console claiming victory over computers; others insist that the PC has and always will be the dominant force in video games. I decided to check out both sides of the story and draw my own conclusions.

An article by wse_jack on Softpedia makes a very good point when looking at the war between next-gen’s and PC’s; computers can be compared to NASCAR stock cars, but the latest consoles are sort of like Formula One cars. The point is that your PS3 and Xbox 360 are built to sprint with regards to playability; not only that, these machines are completely designed around gameplay, not the other way around. Contrast popping in Gears of War and turning on your 360 with loading and installing software on your machine to get the picture of what I’m talking about here.

Having said this, I really should note that I’m taking your average PC into battle against the next-gens, thus far. If you really have the money and the know-how to soup up your computer (or better yet, build a machine from the bottom up), then the playing field is simply not level anymore in terms of quality; PC’s will have better graphics, run faster, and will actually be more versatile than a console. And while Sony and Microsoft have engineered their boxes to be more adaptive than previous endeavors, they’re not as capable as being modded as your PC is.

“What about games,” you ask? Sure, there’s no denying that there are some really hot titles out there for the new consoles. But here’s a point to ponder; remember when computer games stayed on your PC, and console games stayed on their respective consoles? Those days appear to be gone forever, my friend. Sonic the Hedgehog, once the icon of the now-defunct Sega consoles, has found his way into his biggest rival of the 90’s; Nintendo. And the fact that Miscrosoft obviously has its hands in the console and PC (duh) arenas assures that many titles will hit both formats. Expect to see a lot of cross-pollenization across the PC-Console schism in the future. If you are, as stated in the paragraph above, running a hot machine, then you will never have issues grabbing console-to-PC games; average PC gamers, on the other hand, might want to take the fallibility of their machines into account.

So, what great conclusion did I come up with? Just this: that there is plenty of room for growth in bot h the PC and console sectors of video gaming. Which one is better? It really depends on your preference. Hardcore gamers will always gravitate towards the PC, with its ability to be souped up beyond the less pliable gaming consoles released. On the other side of the fence you will more likely find the average gamer. Anyone who wants ease of gameplay as opposed to sheer performance will go for the console before grabbing the PC version of a game.

Microsoft has already revealed that work is underway for the next Xbox already; no doubt rivals Sony and Nintendo are looking ahead as well. The PC world itself is always in a constant state of flux, with faster machines constantly being designed. What does this ever-changing world portend for the battle between consoles and PC’s? We might have to wait for the next-next-gen consoles to arrive to find out.