Consoles in general suck today. The games are all about monetization, they can mostly only run one person per console, and you can only get about 5 full games on the drive. I miss getting 4-16 people together on 1-4 consoles. The games were mostly portable via DVD/CD so you could bring a bunch of different options, or people who event bringing consoles could bring extra copies if one of the console owners didn't own a game. Used games could be had for a fraction of the cost. And no paid loot boxes or paying to level up.
I don't think I'll ever buy another console. I'll probably go with PC gaming instead.
The most recent generation of consoles is a pretty significant value, there's not a whole lot of PCs that can rival the PS5's performance for the price, even when you do a 1:1 comparison with their PC ports.
Physical titles still exist, my local library rents out PS5 games.
Loot boxes are mostly in free-to-play titles. Sony's big-budget games like Returnal, God of War, Ratchet and Clank, Horizon, etc don't have any predatory monetization. In fact of the above only Horizon had DLC, a $20 expansion pack that was well recieved.
That's good there are still some physical copies our there. It seems for PC and Xbox, it's mostly downloads. I bought a disk for RockSmith thinking it was a physical copy - all it did was download download and ply it through Steam.
PC is a completely different and interesting history, but for Xbox it's simply because msot people are buying into Gamepass. There are even stories about how some indie developers have considered publishig for Xbox but did not think it was worth it without a gamepass deal from Microsoft. It was that big a deal for visibility on the console.
I feel like you’re imagining a world where only loot-box games exist. There are plenty of couch co-op games if you look for them. You can also still buy physical games, and they are still cheaper used.
I have some older games and consoles. I'm talking about the current games. Do you have recommendations? I've even looked through some lists online for splitscreen games and ther choices are pretty slim for new games.
Really depends on what kind of games you play and how much time you spend with frinds. Games like Overcooked and Jackbox Party Pack can fill the void for more casual play (I even played them with parents). It Takes Two won game of the year 2021 as a game focused primarily on a 2 player experience.
The hardcore market, sure. There is less these days. AAA games are more and more targeted at american adults who are farther away than ever, and we just had 2-3 years of COVID that actively pushed people closeby to be at distance. Online multiplayer has taken over in those regards.
For me personally, I was always a huge platformer fan, so CupHead and Rayman Origins/Legends were some of my go to multiplayer expeirences for more gaming heavy friends back in the day (i.e. 6-7 years ago). As well as Kirby Star Allies that had drop in multiplayer. it looks like the upcomig Sonic Superstars will also support multiplayer as well
Yeah, that part is definitely still applicable to PC. Same with the issues surrounding downloads. I was not really making a PC vs console comparison, rather just how consoles suck now. The biggest factors that made them a success in the past in my opinion were that they just worked and you could get a bunch of people playing together locally like splitscreen. They still pretty much just work, but you won't find many new 4p splitscreen games.
I don't think I'll ever buy another console. I'll probably go with PC gaming instead.