Here at My Dpad, we recently cleared up some common misconceptions about PC gaming. However, PC gaming is not just great for how it compares favorably to consoles, but also on its own merits. This list is far from complete, but here are just a few reasons that people love PC gaming so much.
Cheap Digital Games From A Variety Of Storefronts
If you want to buy a console game, you can either buy it physically from a brick-and-mortar store or settle for whatever it costs on your console’s digital storefront. Now, it is harder to find physical PC games, but if you’re shopping for digital games, you have a bunch of different places to look. For example, if you want to play Gears 5, you can either buy it from Steam or from the Windows Store. If you want to play Disco Elysium, you can buy it from either GOG or Steam.
Speaking of Steam, they let developers print their own Steam keys that can be sold anywhere and redeemed on Steam. This means that there are a variety of places that sell Steam keys, ranging from Steam itself to third party retailers like the Humble Store and Green Man Gaming. All of this means that a number of retailers are competing for your dollar, so it is almost always easier to find cheap digital games for PC than it is for any console.
Emulation
If you want to emulate games on console, you’re pretty much limited to a handful of NES and SNES games on the Switch, which you have to pay a monthly fee to access. By contrast, on PC, you can emulate pretty much any old system you want. This means that a gaming PC can play modern PC games, but also games from pretty much any console you can think of (as long as it’s not too modern).
Infinite Backward Compatibility
Speaking of game variety, a gaming PC can natively play pretty much any old PC game you want. If you have a Switch, you can’t just play your old Wii U games on it. However, if you have a PC, you can play a game you bought two generations ago just as easily as you can play a modern game, especially if you have the old game on Steam/GOG/some other convenient launcher.
Input Variety
If you have a console, you’re stuck using whichever gamepad that console supports. Meanwhile, on PC, you can use pretty much any gamepad you want with some tinkering, and if you’re using something like Steam it probably won’t even require tinkering at all. On top of that, you’re not limited to gamepads, as you can also play games with mouse and keyboard. This means you can play some games with your mouse and keyboard, other games with an Xbox One controller, and still other games with a DualShock 4 controller, depending on your own personal preferences.
Modding
Another great thing about PC gaming is how easy it is to play with mods. This is another thing that Steam makes easier than you can possibly imagine. Casual users who buy a console game are limited to playing that game in its original presentation, but casual users can play PC games with all sorts of mods without having to deal with any sketchy firmware tinkering or anything like that. For example, PC gamers can buy a game like The Sims 4, and they can still try out the expansion packs if they want more variety, but they also have a world of user-created content to play with that is not so easily accessible on consoles.
No Extra Online Fees
Finally, and this is a big one, PC gamers don’t have to spend a cent extra to play games online with their friends. Sure, internet access still costs money, but you don’t have to subscribe to something like Xbox Live/PlayStation Plus/Nintendo Switch Online to access all the content of all of your games. This is one of the biggest advantages of PC gaming, as you don’t have to spend dozens of dollars a year just to get everything out of a machine and games you already bought.
At the end of the day, people should play wherever they want. However, a lot of people don’t know all of the benefits of PC gaming, so I hope this short list helps people make a more informed decision. Happy playing, no matter where you choose to do it.
