I’ve been having some thoughts lately that I would have believed crazy just a few years ago. I’m starting to think it might be time to move on from my PS5 and triple A gaming as a whole. I’ve had a PlayStation from the PS2 all the way to the latest generation of consoles. I remember fondly time spent roaming the lands of Fallout 4 or getting lost in the great Naughty Dog games Uncharted and the Last of Us. I was giddy beyond belief when Uncharted 4 came out in 2016 and after a recent replay it still holds up. I’m noticing as I’m getting older that gaming isn’t providing me that same excitement like it used to, and I can’t remember the last time I got lost in a game after Last of Us 2 came out.
I’m wondering if it’s time to pawn the PS5 and move on.
I think the main motivation that is killing my drive is the direction the gaming industry is heading. I was a big Madden fan for alot of years, but now EA has effectively killed that franchise with their unwillingness to invest or inovate. Other games now feel like they are becoming like that and selling out to just get you locked into a subscription model with their game (gta online with their recent subscription comes to mind).
Recently I’ve been cutting out subscriptions in my life as I feel it is better to own rather than effectively rent media. Netflix and Spotify are now raising their prices and looking back, I could have just bought the movies I liked and found another way to stream tv. It’s clear these companies just want to take the power away from you and keep you paying forever for the same content.
I look at my PlayStation and I just see a big subscription box. The games don’t even do it for me much anymore. I’ve been finding the games that do excite me are the small indies like Firewatch in the past and Dredge which I have heard great things about. If I want to play indies, a PS5 feels like a bit of overkill for that. I could get my on my Switch and a laptop. Maybe even a steam deck would be a worthy trade in.
Anyway, I wanted to get others thoughts as it sort of depresses me to think about moving on from a system that I’ve had since childhood, but it also feel like it’s time for a change.
Well I can tell you that a PC is definitely in your interest because not only is there access to great indie games and modding, but it acts less like a subscription service and you get to keep the games on steam forever. Unlike PlayStation, your games won’t be obsolete and you can run them on newer hardware to enjoy them all over again. Want to play Morrowind at 4k, you bet.
That being said, here’s what I would do in your shoes. I wouldn’t invest in a steam deck up front. I think the deck is great for a lot of gaming experiences, but if you’re used to a Ps5, it’s not going to satisfy you probably. Too little power for more complex games isn’t enough for me as my only console.
I would get a cheap computer. Learn to build one yourself if you can, it’s not hard and can be a fun community effort to get parts in your price range. Consult forums for the individual parts. Sounds hard, but it’s not that bad.
The next part will sound weird because subscriptions are bad buuuut I recommend anyone new to Pc games go look at humble bundle and especially at their subscription. They usually provide a good value for games while also donating to charity.
But yeah overall, you should probably take a break after selling your Ps5. I think it’d be a good opportunity to see if gaming still feels right for you.
I think I’m also in the boat of moving into PC gaming soon. I would be interested in doing a cheap build, but I don’t know much about good components and wouldn’t be sure where to start my research. It would definitely be a good project and I would feel more invested with a build I put together and can upgrade over time.
I do think I need a break from the PS5. The thing is that I’m a college student and just started my summer break, so I didn’t play the PS5 for about 6 months. Now that I have time, I pick it up again and quickly feel drained or uninspired by what there is to play. Even going through the store I struggle to find anything worth my time. So my thinking is that if I already need a break again, then it might just mean that I have outgrown the console gaming life and would benefit from moving onto PC or simplifying my gaming to lighter titles that are more story rich.
I think I’m going to take some time to evaluate the PS5 more. Probably if I don’t use it much before Christmas, then I can look to offload it.
Ah, I have more advice then. So most people build their PCs on PCPartPicker. Other than that you can find or make posts on Toms hardware, the LTT forums, the Reddit pc gaming sub, or even probably here. There are plenty of people much more skilled than I at picking parts. It’s somewhat of an art but you have to start somewhere. Also just consider your upgrade paths. Don’t buy a motherboard without knowing that there is a better CPU for the same socket. Stuff like that.
The college life is rough. I do it myself so I’d just keep in mind if you’re moving around a lot, you’ll need to be okay with moving the pc and it’s components. I move mine around often in a large case with a big monitor. It’s a task for sure. So consider building in a smaller case, it’s harder but may be worth it in the long run.
Not sure what kind of games you enjoy but steam loves their sales. Both the sales and humble bundle are a good way to try games for really cheap. Also steam let’s you refund games with less than 2hrs played. So trying things out for a bit and returning them is a very good deal. Also no subscription for online so that’s cool.
While I will always mention how much I love my Steam Deck, I will say having a console you can buy physical discs secondhand is quite nice. Sure the PS5 is a lot of power just to run something like Bugsnax, but I can’t buy a physical copy for my Steam Deck, which I know I really own.
You could even go into a retro game store and see what you walk away with, games you never heard of or just a stack of cheap former AAA games. You could also go on Itch.io and just poke around for any obscure indie that sparks your interest. Once you get away from the glitz and glamour of AAA hype, you’ll get excited about sharing games people haven’t heard about or discovering something you wouldn’t find walking into a GameStop.
To me, having an SD card with DRM free games is even better than physical copies for switch and such. I’ve bought switch games before that aren’t actually on the cartridge and you have to download a bunch of stuff to get it running.
Not only that, but files can easily be transferred and copied wherever you’d like.
Idk if that’s an issue on ps5 and xbox
I got a PS5 and built a Linux gaming PC. I have them both connected to a big TV and game on my sofa now. I figured that I should be able to play just about anything that comes out. I don’t think the next Elder Scrolls will come to the PlayStation. And I am gaming more and more on my PC. Baldur’s Gate 3 is preordered for the PC. I plan on exploring Faerun on my comfortable sofa and using my Xbox controller.
And Steam/Linux works very well. And know Steam has sales all the time.
I would piggyback on the people saying to get a PC, and think about building a home theater PC. You can use steam big picture mode to make it act like a console, but you can also use it for other things. You can even use steam’s streaming capabilities to stream to other devices on your network like your phone or laptop if you want to be elsewhere.
There’s tons of indie games everywhere nowadays, PS5 included, and some of them even launch(ed) day one on PS Plus Extra (Stray, Tchia, to name a few). There’s a great digital selection (you might as well check it out now, since it’s the PSN Summer Sale), and if you’d rather own (physical), then LRG and other limited print companies have been releasing a number of those indie games on PS4/PS5.
If you’d rather play on a smaller screen then you might be better off with a Switch or a Steam Deck (and you might even get a few more indie games on the latter, but that’s debatable), otherwise I don’t really see any reason to trade in your PS5 - but to each their own!
Toss it in the attic or under the bed and save it. You’ll appreciate it differently in the future, and FAR more than any money you will get for it in the short term.
I mean, I’ve never really liked consoles, but it doesn’t sound like the console itself is the issue here. Most of the indies I play on PC also have a PS port, so you should be able to find a lot of non-AAA and non-overhyped titles on the PS platform.
I suppose there’s also the matter of weighing the prices too; for me I always need a pretty beefy PC to begin with so having a console is just additional expense for a worse experience, but that’s for me. You might have to pay quite a bit more and get a lot more games for PC’s cheaper games to break even on the decision to move.
I have a beefy PC because it plays nearly everything. I have a Steam Deck because it plays most of that stuff when I’m on a train. My favorite games of the past few years run the gamut when it comes to system requirements, and since about 2017 especially, I have largely not been impressed by AAA games, with some exceptions. There are some genres that see more love than others, but chances are whatever type of game you enjoy most is out there and just not getting the most marketing. I’ve found some of my favorite games ever by just checking boxes for features that were important to me in Steam’s advanced search. You have no commitment to buy the biggest games just because they’ve got the most hype.
I think that is something I have been experiencing too. Recent AAA games have failed to impress me. I am someone who likes story, so I’ll always appreciate clever dialogue or a well thought out story over flashy graphics or an open world.
I would be interested to know some of the gem games you found using the steam advanced search
Vagante is the one I remember most clearly for that example. I really loved Streets of Rogue, and I wanted another 4-player, online and local multiplayer, action roguelike.
Dead Cells was billed as a metroidvania roguelike, but it’s more like a Castlevania roguelike; pre-Symphony of the Night. So I searched for metroidvania roguelikes and came across A Robot Named Fight. You get a new version of Super Metroid every time you play. It’s phenomenal.
I got really into Fantasy Strike one summer and finally understood what made fighting games tick. I looked for other fighting games that worked on Linux. Today, the only fighting game I know that doesn’t work on Linux is Dragon Ball FighterZ, but at the time, there was literally only one other fighting game that worked on Linux short of emulation, and that was Skullgirls. Skullgirls is now my favorite game ever.
I have nice PC and ps5. Ps5 games are too expansive so it is used like media player with few exceptions like shooters that don’t work on Linux and Hogwarts for gf
I have a disc version. Just bought and sold ff16 with only 5€ lost
Gamestop?
I mean, I’ve never really liked consoles, but it doesn’t sound like the console itself is the issue here. Most of the indies I play on PC also have a PS port, so you should be able to find a lot of non-AAA and non-overhyped titles on the PS platform.
I suppose there’s also the matter of weighing the prices too; for me I always need a pretty beefy PC to begin with so having a console is just additional expense for a worse experience, but that’s for me. You might have to pay quite a bit more and get a lot more games for PC’s cheaper games to break even on the decision to move.
I mean, I’ve never really liked consoles, but it doesn’t sound like the console itself is the issue here. Most of the indies I play on PC also have a PS port, so you should be able to find a lot of non-AAA and non-overhyped titles on the PS platform.
I suppose there’s also the matter of weighing the prices too; for me I always need a pretty beefy PC to begin with so having a console is just additional expense for a worse experience, but that’s for me. You might have to pay quite a bit more and get a lot more games for PC’s cheaper games to break even on the decision to move.
