PS4-PC musings

Small bits from my memory, propped up by some Google-fu.

Atari VCS (1977) essentially a repackaged Atari 8-Bit Home Computer. Equal performance, slightly lower price.

Nintendo Entertainment System (1985), high performance custom CPU and solid-state cartridges that made outperforming a PC relatively cheap. An NES with all the extras at launch, plus a few games, would have run you around 350 USD while a PC with NO games would have run you around 800 at the low end, and weaker than an NES.

Sega Genesis/MegaDrive (1988) SNES (1991), PC with similar performance cost 6-10 times as much due to several console graphics tricks and a few games for both consoles containing add-on hardware to aid performance, such as Super FX, Virtual Processor, or additional RAM, but made these games more expensive.

PlayStation (1994), consoles still more cost-effective than PCs. By 1995, PCs could have 3D graphics cards that allowed higher performance than PlayStation. Nintendo 64 (1996) saw consoles jump in power again, though at rising cost starting with the N64. The PlayStation was still favored due to larger space for games on CD-ROM.

Sega Dreamcast (1999), first console with built-in support for online play, first console to support 640x480 full-frame instead of interlaced. Microsoft created the Dreamcast OS, a custom version of Windows CE. Cost-cutting led to high failure rates, and Sega still had financial trouble. They halted production in 2001 and became a 3rd party game developer, also helping Microsoft develop the XBox. PS2 announcement killed a lot of 3rd party software development mid-life. Soul Calibur and Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver sell many people on the Dreamcast.

PlayStation 2 (2000), GameCube (2001), Xbox (2001), Xbox Live beat PS2's online services, Nintendo said gamers don't want to play with strangers, and Xbox failure rates were high. PC multiplayer wasn't very pick-up-and-play yet. Sony introduces EyeToy in 2003, ushering in gesture-based gaming and everyone makes fun of it. PC gamers see performance trading blows with consoles. Mostly FPS, MMORPG, and RTS games seeing huge gains on PC, with FPS, racing sims (Gran Turismo) and sports (Madden, NBA 2K) winning consoles. A large number of console-PC ports when compared with earlier generations, where PC-console ports were more common.

Xbox 360 (2005), Playstation 3 (2006), Nintendo Wii (2006), Microsoft expanded and charged for online services, Playstation adopted a free online service, Nintendo still doesn't want us playing with strangers. Microsoft (and Sony, unironicly) make fun of Nintendo's gesture-based gaming, but make their own versions as hardware addons later on. A clear gesticulation winner does not emerge. Microsoft's consoles keep failing, but now so are Sony's. The Wii sells better than it deserves to sell, even when asking Nintendo fans. Lots of cross-console and console-pc ports, leading to PC players hating low-quality PC ports of console games. Around this time, PCs began to frequently outperform consoles at identical price points.

Consoles started out as mini-PCs. Computers became gaming platforms to compete. The big money in computers was with business use, not gaming, so high-end gaming pcs remained expensive. Slowly, PCs drifted toward affordable gaming as prices fell. Consoles improved from this as well, but at a slower pace. Eventually we reach today, where PCs are finally the cheaper option. Every advantage PCs gained, consoles shoehorned in, even if it ruined their better price points. Console producers need to step their game up and come up with some unique non-PC ideas like the early days.

Nvidia exited the console GPU market because of this, realizing that handheld gaming is today more popular than console gaming. They're working on next-gen smartphone and tablet graphics chips. We're going to see very high-end gaming on handheld devices in a few years.

Despite having their GPUs in both PS4 and Xbox One, AMD won't be making much money from consoles this generation. Remaining in consoles will still improve AMD's brand recognition. Will it be enough to overcome Nvidia's assured income over the next few years?

My PC was built in 2008 and with no upgrades has beaten a 360 in every port so far. Its video card is worth about 70 USD today. If I buy a new CPU and GPU and re-sell my old parts, I'll have PS4 performance for around 250 USD total. I have plans for this system to be a file server and emulation station eventually though, so I'll be keeping the old parts for reuse later.