Primarily in my life ive been a console gamer. Starting with the ps1 and owning every system released since. Never did much pc gaming even when i had access to a decent rig. For the past few years ive been a collector. Going for rare and cool retro games i always wanted to own. After about a year with the steam deck it all feel so… archaic? Like, i went and hdmi modded my ps2, but i find the idea of booting up pcsx2 on deck more appealing. I dont feel the need to have a new game in my hands physically, when i know its gonna take me months to play it anyway, i can wait for a sale, get it cheaper, play it portably with mods. Console gaming, especially in the last 2 generations, feels like a hinderance more than anything. Why would i want to be tied to one piece of hardware, with a dubious at best chance of carrying my games forward to the next gen every 6 years? The steam deck feels like its released me from the shackles of console gaming. I dont think ill get rid of my whole collection… but my ps5 and xsx have been doing a lot of dust collecting these days.
Anyone else feel the same? Or have i just had an existential gamer crisis?
my last console was a ps2, my first a colecovision, got my first pc in 1995.
Unfortunately my last gaming pc died some years ago and with family, mortgage, children etc etc i wasnt going to splurge another 2-3k to something that lies in a room where i cant be for 99% of my time.
Brought a wii u a couple of years ago, this sparked a bit of return to gaming thanks to the big pad which i could use on the sofa after dinner, then the SD came.
The time hasnt magically multiplied, but for me it’s the perfect solution, i get a couple of hours of gaming every evening more or less, much more than i got when i had a big powerfull desktop.
For the price of my last gaming pc i will pull at least 2-3 or more steam deck iterations, much less noise, much less current drawn, if i need to stop playing just press the suspend button and i can take up where i left in one second.
I dont think i will return to a gaming desktop anytime.