idea The Game Station for Everyone

[Darth Yoda]

I'm sure many of you here have considered what it would be like to have some sort of Xbox/PlayStation 2-in-1 console.

I'm also sure many of you are immediately thinking "got it already, emulators. Duh." 

 

Have you seen THIS? 

 

Well my proposition to you (and to LTT) is to make a better one. An Xbox/PlayStation/PC which can go online to its respective platforms, toggle between controllers and although while most prominently being a PC it must be able to access the consoles just by clicking an icon on the desktop or inserting a disk.

[SupaKomputa]

just dismantle xbox and playstation and put it in your pc case, whats the problem?

[Darth Yoda]

8 hours ago, SupaKomputa said:

just dismantle xbox and playstation and put it in your pc case, whats the problem?

Slow performance, space, memory sharing, accessibility, cooling, etc. 

It's not as simple as just putting in a few parts. 

The challenge is to make it a viable setup where you have lower latency, easy recording options, file storage, accessibility, not cramming your case, etc. 

 

Also you would likely need to shut down and reboot from the platform you want every time you wanted to switch by doing that. 

Maybe a program and software would be more beneficial than transferring all the hardware from console to PC. 

The challenge continues. 

[Spotty]

1 hour ago, Darth Yoda said:

Also you would likely need to shut down and reboot from the platform you want every time you wanted to switch by doing that. 

Maybe a program and software would be more beneficial than transferring all the hardware from console to PC. 

The challenge continues. 

Why would you need to reboot to switch between systems?

 

I believe @SupaKomputa was suggesting just use a large dual system enclosure (such as this) and physically placing the internals of the consoles inside of it. You could leave both systems running and have a 4 port KVM switch with HDMI & USB/3.5mm audio ports to toggle the monitor & speakers/headset to switch between whichever system you want to use.

 

Shouldn't be too hard to reroute the disk drives of the consoles to the 5.25" bays of the case enclosure. Re-wiring a new power switch to the front of the case should be fairly simple to do as well (even if you need to buy a new power toggle switch. If it was me I'd just use a 5.25" cover panel and cut out holes and attach two generic power switches for the Xbone and PS4). The controllers for both PS4 and XboxOne are wireless so you don't need to worry about anything for them.

 

Want to play Xbox? Switch the KVM to the Xbox, pick up the Xbox controller and start playing.

Want to play PS4? Switch the KVM to the PS4, pick up the PS4 controller and start playing.

 

If you wanted to use such a system to stream console gameplay to twitch, plug the monitor in to the capture card output and the capture card input then gets plugged in to the KVM ouput. Then plug both desktop GPU output and console outputs in to the KVM inputs. Then have a secondary monitor for monitoring twitch or whatever like you normally would when streaming gameplay on Twitch. Since your keyboard & mouse will still be plugged in directly to the PC you will still be able to type in chat and use your PC system as normal.

 

Though IMO this is all really unnecessary unless you're a pro twitch streamer who does console content. Even then there's not much practical use for it other than keeping everything in the one enclosure and maybe some tidier cable management to the display.

[Darth Yoda]

@Spotty, you bring up some good simple points and although you say it's relatively pointless I'll let you know why it isn't for someone like me.

I have an old original XB1 and have wanted to upgrade. I also try to stream a fair bit but I don't have a desktop so I'm limited in my content. Finally there are many people I've met online that only play PlayStation. 

 

It's no secret that PC is better than console. I'm not a PC gamer and can't stand the mouse and keyboard and although yes, it's fairly easy to set up a controller to a PC, I'd lose my XBLive progress.

So why not make a console with PC like capability? Well that would have too many limitations whereas turning a PC into super console would be very doable and could create an all-in-one studio for any "pro Twitch streamer" as you put it or anyone looking to create content without linking a console to an Elgato to a PC and doing unnecessary fiddling.