Future of the gaming biz....??? What to buy now?

[NoDoubt]

I'd like to buy a new gaming rig. 

I've always been a casual gamer. When I was a kid I did PC gaming + Nintendo 64... In college I had a PlayStation 2... then didn't get back into I think until 2011ish when I bought an XBox 360... and then an XBox One when it came out.

Since I got married, I gave away my Xbox One and all the games to a kid in my office. Wife wasn't a fan of me gaming in the living room. I have a bit more free-time now, and the wife has relaxed. So I want to get a new rig. 

Option 1 - Easy way out... just wait for the new XBox One X that's coming out later this year. Supposed to cost about $500.

Option 2 - Get a gaming PC. I'm actually leaning towards a gaming laptop that I can plug into my tv via hdmi when I want, and still play with an XBox controller. Gives me more portability too in that I can just play on the laptop screen when the wife is watching the tv, or I could take it to my office.

Obviously a PC is much more expensive. I'd want something like this @ $3500:
Digital Storm Harker Custom Gaming Laptop

Most games I'd play are on Xbox, but not all. I'm particularly following the development of Star Citizen... that looks amazing... and will be PC only.

I still worry though that a $3500 PC is overkill for what I'd use it for vs a $500 XBox.... I'd use it ONLY as a gaming console. (I use a MacBook Pro all day for work + personal computing)

...

All that said, as a side bar, I wonder where the gaming biz is going in general. It seems like the next gen stuff will be a lot more VR type experiences. 

I really like the new Nintendo's approach with the switch. It basically merges an iPad with a console. It would be exactly the experience I want in terms of casual couch gaming without always needing to use the TV... but it wouldn't have all the games I like to play on it. I'm more of a GTA 5 and Forza Horizon 3 kinda player... not Mario Kart.

I'm actually REALLY surprised that Apple hasn't bought Nintendo. To me that would be a perfect marriage. They could integrate the "Switch" gaming and content into all future iPad's and Apple TV's... that's the perfect audience for them. 

For Microsoft. I'm surprised that they haven't done more to merge the XBox world with PC gaming. For example, why can't you just pop an XBox disk into a Windows 10 pc and play it with an XBox controller? I just feel like those should work together much better than they do. They would own the market of PC gamers if the Xbox was more of a seamless extension rather than a separate experience. 

For Sony and the PlayStation. They are doing great as they are... but what is the future for them?? If Apple bought Nintendo and Microsoft fully merged the Windows and XBox worlds.... I could see PlayStation being an acquisition target for Google. (or even Facebook since they have expressed gaming interest with buying Oculus Rift)

[shadowbyte]

If you don't use many PC apps, or need the amazing processing power that 3500 dollars will buy you (here's an example: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/37QHTH), then the Xbox One X makes a lot of sense. In terms of a laptop around that price point, I'd hold out until the new NVIDIA Max-Q laptops release, so you can get a 1080 in a much slimmer form factor, similar to the MBP. The Asus Zephyrus is a good example of this, or, for a 1070, the MSI GS63VR

 

When you talk about merging Xbox and PC gaming, Microsoft has actually done quite a bit so far. If you purchase an Xbox One game, such as Forza Horizon 3, you get the Windows 10 version for free. They're also releasing all future Forza titles on Windows 10 afaik.

[jeffmeyer5295]

Microsoft has made leaps and bounds in merging pc and xbox, as @shadowbyte said. But why do you think Apple is going to buy Nintendo?

[yathis]

Apple wont be buying Nintendo.

[NoDoubt]

9 minutes ago, shadowbyte said:

If you don't use many PC apps, or need the amazing processing power that 3500 dollars will buy you (here's an example: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/37QHTH), then the Xbox One X makes a lot of sense. In terms of a laptop around that price point, I'd hold out until the new NVIDIA Max-Q laptops release, so you can get a 1080 in a much slimmer form factor, similar to the MBP. The Asus Zephyrus is a good example of this, or, for a 1070, the MSI GS63VR

 

When you talk about merging Xbox and PC gaming, Microsoft has actually done quite a bit so far. If you purchase an Xbox One game, such as Forza Horizon 3, you get the Windows 10 version for free. They're also releasing all future Forza titles on Windows 10 afaik.

Like I said, since I use my MacBook for work and personal stuff (photos, web, etc).... I'm looking to buy this purely a gaming machine.

XBox X would be just fine for me except 1) it won't play Star Citizen which would really like and 2) I do like the idea of being able to un-tether from the TV and play with the laptop screen when I want.

5 minutes ago, jeffmeyer5295 said:

Microsoft has made leaps and bounds in merging pc and xbox, as @shadowbyte said. But why do you think Apple is going to buy Nintendo?

Just seems to me to be a natural next-step for the Apple TV and iPad products... owning the rights to all the Mario-type games would be perfect for their customer base.

[yathis]

Just make a mini PC then make an emulator for xbox

[Princess Luna]

2 minutes ago, yathis said:

Just make a mini PC then make an emulator for xbox

I often still emulate PS1/PS2 for the classics on my rig, it's a good idea for sure.

[shadowbyte]

1 minute ago, NoDoubt said:

Like I said, since I use my MacBook for work and personal stuff (photos, web, etc).... I'm looking to buy this purely a gaming machine.

XBox X would be just fine for me except 1) it won't play Star Citizen which would really like and 2) I do like the idea of being able to un-tether from the TV and play with the laptop screen when I want.

then I'd take a look at an SFF system, something like Digital Storm's Bolt

[Le Sulfur]

To be honest if you're looking in the 3500 dollar price range you could probably just get both, a $2500 pc that can handle all games for years, $500 for Xbox One X, and another $500 for whatever else you may want/need. You could even just throw the Xbox in the living room and stream it to your pc whenever you want to play Xbox games while you're in the office. You could even stream steam games from your pc to your macbook pro if you want to play pc games in the living room.

[jeffmeyer5295]

20 minutes ago, NoDoubt said:

Like I said, since I use my MacBook for work and personal stuff (photos, web, etc).... I'm looking to buy this purely a gaming machine.

XBox X would be just fine for me except 1) it won't play Star Citizen which would really like and 2) I do like the idea of being able to un-tether from the TV and play with the laptop screen when I want.

Just seems to me to be a natural next-step for the Apple TV and iPad products... owning the rights to all the Mario-type games would be perfect for their customer base.

I can say with very little doubt Nintendo wont be selling to anyone anytime soon. There aren't many companies that can afford them even if they wanted to. Nintendo is very very particular about the direction of their company as well so that wouldn't really work out being a child company.

And before you go saying that apple has all this crazy money(they do) remember Nintendo is worth around 30 billion dollars. And that is not considering how much they THINK they are worth.

[NoDoubt]

23 minutes ago, Le Sulfur said:

...You could even just throw the Xbox in the living room and stream it to your pc whenever you want to play Xbox games while you're in the office. You could even stream steam games from your pc to your macbook pro if you want to play pc games in the living room.

Nice, I didn't know that

[ivan134]

Build a PC and put it in your office. Buy a steam link so you can play your games in the living room if you want. There's no reason to buy an Xbox. All Xbox games from now on are coming to PC.

[Le Sulfur]

37 minutes ago, ivan134 said:

Build a PC and put it in your office. Buy a steam link so you can play your games in the living room if you want. There's no reason to buy an Xbox. All Xbox games from now on are coming to PC.

I may be wrong about this, but I believe only Play Anywhere titles will come to pc via the Xbox store on Windows 10, which right now is only 15 games, with 11 more announced(current list of games http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/xbox-play-anywhere). Many games that aren't xbox exclusive but are console exclusive still won't be available on pc (like Red Dead Redemption 2 and Kingdom Hearts 3)

[NoDoubt]

It really just seems to me that 99% of what I really need is just a new XBox... casual gaming to compliment my work MacBook Pro.

 

The only thing that leaves out is Star Citizen... which of course is PC only (and I understand why)... so to spec out a new $2k+ or $3k+ machine just to run that would be a big commitment just to use it for that one game. I think I will wait until next year when it finally comes out (hopefully)... and I'll see what new PC hardware/pricing is at that time. It does seem like the kind of game that you get hooked into for hundreds of hours easily.

[typographie]

19 hours ago, NoDoubt said:

For Microsoft. I'm surprised that they haven't done more to merge the XBox world with PC gaming. For example, why can't you just pop an XBox disk into a Windows 10 pc and play it with an XBox controller? I just feel like those should work together much better than they do. They would own the market of PC gamers if the Xbox was more of a seamless extension rather than a separate experience.

I think that, at least from Microsoft's perspective, this is what they are basically doing with the Play Anywhere program. No, it doesn't cover the use of Xbox discs, but I think they're trying to push away from physical media on all platforms anyway. On the PC, we're already so used to digital distribution that it's become quite uncommon for a new PC to even have an optical disc drive at all. Instead it's done via the Windows 10 Store, which has it's own issues, but on paper the system is in place.

 

For me, this decision would be very easy: the PC would allow me to play games how I want to, at the framerate and visuals of my choosing, and using the input device of my choosing. I don't know if it's necessary to buy a $3500 laptop, specifically, but in most scenarios I would personally take some sort of PC over an Xbox.

[captain cactus]

On 2017-6-19 at 10:40 PM, NoDoubt said:

For Microsoft. I'm surprised that they haven't done more to merge the XBox world with PC gaming. For example, why can't you just pop an XBox disk into a Windows 10 pc and play it with an XBox controller? I just feel like those should work together much better than they do. They would own the market of PC gamers if the Xbox was more of a seamless extension rather than a separate experience. 

Quite simple: optimising for one very specific platform is what makes these relatively low-end hardware machines run the games they run at right now, and these games don't have any settings menu to speak of whatsoever unlike their PC port counterparts. If Microsoft were to do this one could pop a game into a super low-powered office machine and it would run like crap, and Microsoft doesn't want the tech support calls from people like those who go "why cant dis pc run dis xbox game plz halp". 

[SteveGrabowski0]

On 6/19/2017 at 3:40 PM, NoDoubt said:

For Microsoft. I'm surprised that they haven't done more to merge the XBox world with PC gaming. For example, why can't you just pop an XBox disk into a Windows 10 pc and play it with an XBox controller? I just feel like those should work together much better than they do. They would own the market of PC gamers if the Xbox was more of a seamless extension rather than a separate experience.

Because they don't want you buying used games from Gamestop, eBay, Amazon, etc. It doesn't make them any money.