Ok, first of all, I've never owned a console in my life and I never will. I just don't care, period.
But I recently had some discussions with my girlfriends little brother (15 years old) who desperately wants to buy his first XBox One instead of investing his money into building a decent gaming PC. I even offered him an R9 290X as a reward for not becoming a console peasant! But he keeps saying that all his friend have Xboxes and that he wants to join them. Appart from that argument ("everybody does it") being the worst possible for doing just about anything, this is driving me nuts.
Anyways, now I heard about the new Xbox App that'll come with Windows 10 and the new game streaming service that Microsoft is planning and that got me thinking: Is this probably going to be the end of consoles as we know them?
Why is buying a console to play with friends who have the same console an invalid argument? It is still the situation he is in, or context, and it is unlikely that will change soon, as the money has been 'invested' already.
Even though 'evil' companies lurk behind the consoles, isn't it more important to just have the kid play with his friends? Else he may just become isolated from them, due to some superiority complex that you have.
Ever heard of the term " Console Kiddy" I kid. Really though. Just let him enjoy the time with his friends. That is the main thing that got me into gaming. Sure he maybe making a significant sacrifice in terms of gaming at high resolutions and framerates but the experience of gaming with his friends will be greatly missed.
If anything not only it is a valid argument to want to game with friends but it is also his money and he should be able to do what he wants with it.
Not only that. You do not invest in a gaming PC, you purchase it. The only redeeming quality may be a grater gaming experience. Only way he would be investing would be through getting the gaming PC and starting a gaming channel or attempt to create a following through twitch.
Ok, I didn't intend to re-open that whole console vs. PC gaming discussion again. Sorry about that.
I have nothing against the social aspect of gaming with your friends, absolutely not.
It's a general console thing. I strongly believe that you can get a lot more out of spending time with a PC that you actually build yourself and have to maintain and sometimes troubleshoot and tinker with than from plugging in a console that you just bought in a store. Kids these days are surrounded by technology erverywhere they go, but most of them don't know shit about how that stuff works. They are called "digital natives" but really the only thing they are native at is consuming content. A console is just that, a device for content consumption. No knowledge needed whatsoever.
Ok, now with that being said, let's please talk about the original question and fight about consoles vs. PCs elsewhere.
I do not believe you brought up PC v Console debate at all. And yeah honestly, I would opt in more for a PC. But that is just me now. When I was around the age of 4 I was introduced to Nintendo64 and NES. I always though gaming was to be done on a dedicated console.
I didn't care if the framerate would drop (unless it became unplayable for an extended amount of time) but then again I would also open up my consoles and see what was inside them.
I played all of the 6th and 7th gen consoles and the experience was great. Not until after the 8th gen came out (Xbone and PS4) did I see it was completely pointless to purchase either of the to when the are so much like PCs that I might as well build one and use it for school.
Even now my buddy is trying to convince me to purchase an Xbox one but I keep pushing back by purchasing PC parts every once in a while. Even if the parts are not for me personally. I just buy them for family or close friends.