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.
Who cares what you play the games on. I built myself a decent pc a few years ago just to play Duke Nukem 3d some more. If you’re burnt out, just stop playing. If you dislike “triple eh…” games just play something else. Or play something older. Or something completely out of your safe zone. Play a genre you’d never touch otherwise.
If you need the cash, sell it. If you don’t, then why trade it in to buy something that does the same in a different form factor. But don’t sell something just because it’s too good for the job. A Porsche can still bring you to work.
They are some seriously cool games coming out this year like Starfield, armoured core 6, and Baldur gate 3. Sell your ps5 and get a pc or steam deck.
This is a great time to also be introduced to the patient gamer movement lol
Most games that have come out recently have had their fair share of issues. I like to skip all of those games and instead play older titles that have already been patched, have a definitive edition, and are much cheaper
I can’t remember the last game that I bought on release and tbh it has saved me a lot of time and money. Usually when I start seeing video essays about a game is when I start thinking about getting it lol
It all comes down to personal preference though. I don’t mind missing out on initial hype even if it can be exciting to experience the community discovering new things all at once. Sometimes bashing on the developers/publishers as a community can be just as fun lmao
+1. As someone who’s working their way up through the PS4 library, I can easily say that I’m well fed, and PS+ has actually being really great in that sense. Patient gaming always leaves you with something new and different to look forward to without having to worry about long development times of games these days.
I would consider myself a patient gamer as well. The last game I preordered was Star Wars Battlefront and after that I swore off of investing in a game before it can out. I definitely could spend time going through my PlayStation library and not run out of games for a while.
i bought borderlands 3 on release but didnt even play it until earlier this year lol
i was told i was playing it in the best possible state
i also didnt pick up hogwarts legacy until around a month ago, and the only bugs ive seen are visual bugs that ultimately impacted nothing and fixed themselves pretty quick
New games should be considered marketing material, hence unfinished product like a movie trailer uses bits of the unedited footage, or footage that has been edited specifically for the trailer.
Not sure if I fully understand what you’re saying, but if I do, it’s hard to agree when new games are now costing $70USD
The fact they cost that much doesn’t change the fact that essentially they are unfinished when released nowadays
at least it is fixable now, back then if a game was buggy on release it stayed buggy and you just had to deal with it
PC gaming does appeal more to me lately. The fact that more games are becoming exclusives, might as well get into PC gaming. Lots of smaller games come out on PC as well and it takes forever for them to show up on console if they ever do.
I’ve thought about getting in to PC gaming myself. I have a switch, PS5, and Xbox X (whatever the newest one is). I’d keep the switch and maybe get a steam deck. Have completely mobile games.
Not a bad idea considering that both can be docked for a more traditional console experience.
I use my steam deck the most for gaming nowadays. Plus, the steam deck is basically a console as long as you stay on steam. I have added heroic launcher for games from GOG and even that is really simple
Keeping in mind just how much Sony is moving to have their exclusives on PC. It’s slow going but it is happening. Most Xbox exclusives already come out on PC anyway so it’s a happy medium ground currently. Keep in mind most controllers now work on PC by one means or another and there are ways to PC game from a sofa so it’s not like some years ago when it was almost a rule that one machine was for one setting while the other had to go somewhere else. Personally, I exclusively use my computer from my sofa on my 50" tv because I’m more comfortable that way.
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.
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.
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
In my very biased opinion, skip the steam deck and just go for a PC. Lots of options from small indie to AAA. And lots of options for purchasing or pirating, including DRM-free game stores.
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!
I’m actually finding a lot of neat little indie games that only exist on Playstation because of the PS5. It’s not as big of a market as PC, but the games tend to be a bit more polished.
I initially bought it for Demon’s Souls and Bloodborne because I had already explored every other Fromsoft game on PC and didn’t want to wait for a new one or these to even be announced as coming to PC. I figured since I had to pay to play online, I might as well go all in and got a year of PS+ Premium. Aside from the two aforementioned games and a physical copy of NHL23, every game I have on the system is from PS+.
I’ve been playing it more than my PC lately. They’ve had some good shit the last couple months.
You’re absolutely right that a PlayStation - like a Kindle, or even Apple devices - is a big subscription box.
I’ll echo what others have said: Build a PC to connect to your TV and switch to that for a few years. You can even keep using the PS5 controller. Keep the PS5 around for exclusives and you won’t have FOMO + you can enjoy many years of PC exclusives as well as new, upcoming, early access indie darlings.
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.
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.
It could be more economical to sell it now and buy a cheap used one in a few years though, especially if OP can think of ways they’d prefer to use the money.
Especially if it’s the better selling console. There will be plenty of them on the used market when the platform is 1-2 generations old.
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 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 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’ve been a Nintendo gamer most of my life and recently got a Steam Deck.
I’ve never really played or seen much of an appeal with most US studio games.
With how much many companies are trying to take power away from us, it does feel very satisfying when you find a game that’s available under a free, redistribution-permissive, license that you find very fun. Sadly, those are very few.
