This isn't a console war, it's a console mercy killing....

[DinoRexMax]

Exclusive games are an essential justification for why you'd buy a game console. If it's the only place to play something, and you want to play it, you've only got one place to go.
As lame as Nintendo has been lately, they monopolized all their IPs. So if you buy a Switch 2 (don't buy a Switch 2) your getting exactly what you paid for (which is just DK, Mario Kart, and Metroid right now). What the fuck is there even on a PS5, or an Xbox whatever it is anymore?

I only bought a PS4 to get all my animu games (HnK:Lost Paradise, Godzilla VS, Gundam Breaker 3, SRW X & OG:MD) but refused to get a Xbox One because it only had 2 games I wanted (Rare Replay, half of which I already own, and KI 2011, which is thankfully on PC).

So, as of 2026/01/26, what is there to buy on a PS5 or Xbox Series that you can't buy anywhere else?

Avoid mods or homebrew, just boots on the ground stuff you can buy from a store. Besides, best consoles to jailbreak should be it's own thread.

Also, no PC Master Race shenanigans, or I'm raising the price of your ram chips again.

 

[NOTthatHARD]

Exclusive games are an essential justification for why you'd buy a game console. If it's the only place to play something, and you want to play it, you've only got one place to go.
As lame as Nintendo has been lately, they monopolized all their IPs. So if you buy a Switch 2 (don't buy a Switch 2) your getting exactly what you paid for (which is just DK, Mario Kart, and Metroid right now). What the fuck is there even on a PS5, or an Xbox whatever it is anymore?

I only bought a PS4 to get all my animu games (HnK:Lost Paradise, Godzilla VS, Gundam Breaker 3, SRW X & OG:MD) but refused to get a Xbox One because it only had 2 games I wanted (Rare Replay, half of which I already own, and KI 2011, which is thankfully on PC).

So, as of 2026/01/26, what is there to buy on a PS5 or Xbox Series that you can't buy anywhere else?

Avoid mods or homebrew, just boots on the ground stuff you can buy from a store. Besides, best consoles to jailbreak should be it's own thread.

Also, no PC Master Race shenanigans, or I'm raising the price of your ram chips again.

I agree with everything you said.

The future is looking grim for playstation and xbox.

 

[DinoRexMax]

I agree with everything you said.

The future is looking grim for playstation and xbox.

It's looking grim for the industry as a whole. I heard Gamestop claimed that the console wars were over sometime last year, and if that's the case, it's probably because everyone picked up their collective balls and headed home.

 

[bjork]

Some people are too married to those ecosystems and that's where their friends are, so that's what they buy. Not everyone is as plugged in as people who would frequent a gaming forum.

 

[Advil Lavs]

At this point, just buy a console (preferably easily moddable) and stay with it. It probably has enough old and new(er) games to satisfy you for a long time. And you're also not going to get anything different from another console

 

[Vexicrypt]

I'd say that buying a console is more about convenience and hardware nowdays. You get a much higher chance for the game running properly on a PS5 than on PC for example. Its also cheaper to buy a PS5 or Xbox (whatever the newer one is) because in PC world you'd only get a grathics card for that price, if you're lucky. There's gonna be people who will say "bro I can build a PC that will run every modern game on ultra for 100$", but they are either delusional or just americans who don't understand how bad hardware prices are outside of their country.

 

[BrawlMan]

I got a PS5 in 2023, because more Japanese/anime games were still coming out on either both system, and I knew games were being phased out on last gen consoles eventually. There were more than enough PS5 exclusives or games that I was interested in, so I felt it was time. I don't regret it, and the Series X and Microsoft can fuck off.

I don't do graphics heavy PC gaming. I prefer smaller and indie games on my laptop. Saves me a ton of space.

 

[Zerpina]

Yeah... there’s been nothing in the last two console generations I’ve wanted, and I’ve had to play. Hell, I didn’t even buy a PS4 until last year, and that was from a pawn shop. And that’s just to jailbreak it when the PS4 Vue, I think it’s called Mod, is fully ready to go, so I don’t have to drop 40+ bucks to buy a Blu-ray burner.

I honestly don’t care if they stop making PlayStation this or Xbox that or any other consoles. And Nintendo can go straight to hell. They haven’t done anything good since the Wii, and that’s hardly worth a mention. So nah, go ahead... line ‘em up, blindfold ‘em, Give'em a Smoke and ask them...

"What do you want on your tombstone?"

 

[BrawlMan]

And Nintendo can go straight to hell. They haven’t done anything good since the Wii, and that’s hardly worth a mention. So nah, go ahead... line ‘em up, blindfold ‘em, Give'em a Smoke and ask them...

I am not part of the Nintendo defense force, but I call bullshit. The Wii U was a total misfire, but Switch did great and sold many consoles for many reasons. I see no value in a Switch 2 right now, and I probably won't get one until at least 2 years+ down the line. Now my main problem with Nintendo is them never price dropping their first party games after the Wii U, because they claim it "devalues" their brand. That is total and pure bullshit. It's why I rarely get a 1st party game at full price, and either by them used, or trade in a different game I don't care about to cheapen the price. That said, Switch 2 is sell great. I have no need for the moment, mainly because most of the games on my Switch are not graphics heavy and wouldn't benefit much or don't need the performance upgrade. Most of the games on my Switch are 3rd party, and that's always been a pattern for me whenever I got a Nintendo console.

 

[Dyne]

Its definitely a baffling choice by Microsoft, and Sony.
I think theres no way Nintendo will follow suit.

It will be interesting to see if/when they totally reverse course after realizing nobody is buying their hardware

 

[Holic]

its crazy to think that on the 90's we had like dozens of companies on the console market, we had the standard of nintendo, sega and sony, but we also had 3DO, amiga, atari jaguar, neo geo even god forsaken fuckin apple with whatever the hell it was the pippin but its was there.
Today we have pc and two console companies, nintendo and sony, because lets be real here, microsoft is over.

 

[sysuah]

yeah what does Sony or Microsoft has anymore that couldn't be played or emulated on PC? aside from Sony and their list of franchises they left for dead and nonstop TLOU remastermake or whatever ubisoft movie game of the month they're sending to Druckmann to work on next, Microsoft has nothing and they left their golden child to dead

 

[petran79]

Even a 400usd pc can run games like Minecraft, Roblox, Overwatch etc

Premium gaming is dead

 

[Retro Doomer]

The last ''Modern'' console I ever got was the Ps4 never even bothered with the Ps5 so ya console gaming is as dead as me dating life

for me its been Retro and mostly Retro only at that point I am more interested in getting older games
and not in the modern slop that gets released nowadays far to often with some exceptions,
but even games that ain't sucking hard would barely run on my ancient Computer and they likely won't
run on my Ps4 either.

Besides its always a risk for my buying a Ps4 gamy physically as my Console tends to scratch newer discs for some fucked up reason RIP my Dragon Warrior game and I had to return on of my Christmas presents because of it Valkyria Chronicles Remastered to be precise what a damn shame.

I was hyped playing it but the darn game was barely running from the beginning...sigh
I want to get more Ps4 games but that is to risky for me now I rather Invest in ps3/Wii/360 games instead at the moment,yet first a Graphics card would be necessary as mine is outdated as fuck.

 

[Turbo Kid]

Because PC gaming is a fucking nightmare. That's why you buy a console. Consoles offer plug and play simplicity. On PC, there is always some sort of problem. Everything needs to be tweaked, settings need to be adjusted, you need to have the right software, the right updates, a powerful enough system, and even then things will always randomly go wrong forcing you to spend an hour google searching to try and fix it. Part of the problem is that Windows is a garbage, bloated operating system that is on its worst iteration ever with Windows 11, and Linux is so overly complicated that it's not worth the hassle to use.

Gaming on a PC ABSOLUTELY FUCKING BLOWS. Oh and let's not forget, PC GAMING HAS NO PHYSICAL MARKET.

PC ports generally suck too, like Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart which is plagued with nasty audio problems during intense fire fights on PC.

That's why consoles will never die because PC gaming sucks and it always HAS sucked. Frankly, even gaming on android devices like the Odin 3 or Ayn Thor is easier these days than gaming on PC devices like the ROG Ally X.

 

[Quiggling]

I'd say that buying a console is more about convenience and hardware nowdays. You get a much higher chance for the game running properly on a PS5 than on PC for example. Its also cheaper to buy a PS5 or Xbox (whatever the newer one is) because in PC world you'd only get a grathics card for that price, if you're lucky. There's gonna be people who will say "bro I can build a PC that will run every modern game on ultra for 100$", but they are either delusional or just americans who don't understand how bad hardware prices are outside of their country.

I've considered buying a PS5 for Fatal Frame 2 Remake because a few steam games of mine have randomly just stopped working properly over time. I do not buy many current mainstream games new, my last one was Silent Hill 2 Remake. So I just don't feel as confident buying that game on PC as I would have been last year when those games worked.

My PC basically plays PS5 games at a bit higher quality than an actual PS5 can, so it wouldn't be a super drastic shift for me. I do play games from the nineties and even eighties most of my gaming time, after all.

 

[BrawlMan]

People still definitely care about consoles because a lot of people started buying PS5s during Black Friday week. Not to forget, but many of the super casual people are buying these consoles because they either want the new GTA or Madden, and keep holding out hope for the former. I ain't paying for either game. Especially if GTA is going to be $100. No thank you.

PC gaming is even harder to get into now, due to the artificial inflation of parts, ram, and a lot of these tech companies going all in on the AI grift. They pretty much believe in magic and think it's gonna save them. With constantly believe they'll make all the money in the universe, and screw everyone at the bottom over.

 

[gastd]

It's regrettable how everything is going but perhaps it's also a new beginning for the console industry. I don't believe that it's all over now.

 

[Quiggling]

The last ''Modern'' console I ever got was the Ps4 never even bothered with the Ps5 so ya console gaming is as dead as me dating life

for me its been Retro and mostly Retro only at that point I am more interested in getting older games
and not in the modern slop that gets released nowadays far to often with some exceptions,
but even games that ain't sucking hard would barely run on my ancient Computer and they likely won't
run on my Ps4 either.

Besides its always a risk for my buying a Ps4 gamy physically as my Console tends to scratch newer discs for some fucked up reason RIP my Dragon Warrior game and I had to return on of my Christmas presents because of it Valkyria Chronicles Remastered to be precise what a damn shame.

I was hyped playing it but the darn game was barely running from the beginning...sigh
I want to get more Ps4 games but that is to risky for me now I rather Invest in ps3/Wii/360 games instead at the moment,yet first a Graphics card would be necessary as mine is outdated as fuck.

Might not be a bad idea to buy a PS5 one day even if it's software is lacking because it is fully BC with your physical PS4 collection. (and digital) Think of it as reinvesting in your ability to keep playing your PS4 games. (but with better performance) Also, try googling PS4 repair services! You pay the repair fee and shipping, some really good places out there that can make that baby hum like new.

 

[SliperyHippo]

It used to be that the reason you bought a console over a PC was because the price to performance was better. They sold them like printers because with sole control over their respective market places, they are able to make up the margin in the back end. In the age of "No More Exclusives" (which I'm all for actually, I think the games I love should be accessible to anyone) I can still see this business model working, in fact for the first few years following the launch of the Steam Deck it absolutely worked!

Spoiler

Although, Valve did recently stop selling their cheapest version of the steam deck, so we'll see if it has any long term staying power.

 

[Badseed Badseed]

Because PC gaming is a fucking nightmare. That's why you buy a console. Consoles offer plug and play simplicity. On PC, there is always some sort of problem. Everything needs to be tweaked, settings need to be adjusted, you need to have the right software, the right updates, a powerful enough system, and even then things will always randomly go wrong forcing you to spend an hour google searching to try and fix it. Part of the problem is that Windows is a garbage, bloated operating system that is on its worst iteration ever with Windows 11, and Linux is so overly complicated that it's not worth the hassle to use.

Gaming on a PC ABSOLUTELY FUCKING BLOWS. Oh and let's not forget, PC GAMING HAS NO PHYSICAL MARKET.

PC ports generally suck too, like Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart which is plagued with nasty audio problems during intense fire fights on PC.

That's why consoles will never die because PC gaming sucks and it always HAS sucked. Frankly, even gaming on android devices like the Odin 3 or Ayn Thor is easier these days than gaming on PC devices like the ROG Ally X.

Maybe buy a good computer kid.

yours doesn't count

Sure its a pain sometimes to get stuff running but nothing worthwhile is ever easy. The problem is not the PC, it's the companies releasing half finished bug ridden games both for the consoles and PCs. PCs are just better all around you can play great games, do your taxes and watch dirty movies (if you are into that kinda thing) while your Switch 2 is good as a doorstop (you can finally throw out your WiiU). Plus I can just emulate all the console games, UPSCALED no less.

 

[Sorion]

I'm a PC gamer, but sometimes I find desktop consoles kinda chill devices, you just turn them on, select your game and play, that's it, you don't have to worry about settings and configurations, or os instabilities, I like the customization that the PC platform offers but I see the appeal of a simpler device. I have a cousin who used to own the 1080 ti back when it was new, but a couple of months ago I went to his house and I was surprised to find a PS5 on his bedroom, he's got a family and a daughter now and for a busy life like that, having a console makes total sense to me.
But, at the same time, the lack of exclusive games is a real problem and I hope it gets solved someday, Exclusive games is what made some older generations really stand out in the past and without them, newer systems will just lose their appeal. Unless something big happens, I think the PS6 will sell much less than the PS5, and it's in part due to the lack of exclusive games.

 

[Graves Ruinwalker]

The new games they offered with those new Tech-bricks are just not appealing to me and became even extremly generic lately .

Do i have interest in souls-combat for 30th time ? No .

Do i wanna play RPGs with stories that take way too much longer than the gameplay i get from the whole playthrough? No .

Do i wanna play Open-worlds that have almost nothing of interest there except going from point A till point Z because the story said so ? No .

Do i always wanna play third-person shooters with RPG-mechanics that give me percentages instead of clear new abilities and cool passives ? No .

I want clear and focused gameplay that i can experiment with and use it , not getting mechanics when the story or level design says so .

I want adventures to explore and interact with the world and not quests that is limited and linear to its quest-design .

I want shooters that are in huge open places with bottlenecks , doors , secrets , traps and maybe shortcuts but not arena-battle after arena-battle with invisible walls or closed off paths that doesnt offer opportunities except in few arenas .

Only retrogames can provide what i want but not modern gaming anymore . Even indies make lately more the same mistakes which tripple AAA does .

 

[BrawlMan]

Everyone goes on about lack of exclusives, but it's really Microsoft that suffers from this. Sony had plenty of their own screw ups with all the live service bungus, but at least they're reversing those decisions. Even with all that, they still have plenty of exclusives up on offer and coming out this year.

• Lost Soul Aside (2025)
• Yotei (2025)
• Saros (2026)
• Phantom Blade 0 (2026)
• Intergalactic (TBA)
• Ballad of Antara (TBA)

Upcoming PS5 exclusives - release schedule for confirmed games

Here's what games are coming exclusively to your PS5 console in 2026 and beyond!

www.techradar.com

Nintendo has plenty of exclusives as always. The few they have right now won't take long to be many within this year.

Post automatically merged: Today at 3:41 PM

Even indies make lately more the same mistakes which tripple AAA does .

Depends on which ones you're talking about. Usually the ones that do make the exact same mistake(s) tend to be forgotten about or just fall into the crowd and blends into the background.

 

[PhaseJump]

PC is the only way I'm going forward and buying games. The consoles are all disappointments.