Microsoft (and Sony) have done a terrible job of understanding the console market.
They sell consoles so they can loss-leader you into making it up on licensed games.
You buy a console so you can get a canned consistent experience for less than a PC. In the past, it was also for bespoke hardware that could do something a random PC couldn’t easily and exclusive titles.
In 2026, these advantages are gone. Since Xbone/PS4, you’re just looking at a standard AMD desktop in a funny box. It comes in too many flavours with real performance differences. Only a few titles are still exclusive. You can spend $500 and still not have the Best Console Experience, so why not spend $700 for a PC?
Of course Xbox and PS are flailing in that market.
Nintendo hardware avoids those pitfalls. There’s no “Switch 2 Pro” scenario where some games are meaningfully jankier. The hardware is profitable, and it’s still comfortably less than a basic dGPU computer. So there’s still a niche for it below the full gaming PC buyer.
They’ve also been more willing to exploit “we control the hardware and software together” opportunities for only-here experiences. Since the Kinect died, has there been a major gameplay paradigm that required an Xbox or PS to deliver?
Nintendo could port games to the PC but they won’t exploit the detachable controllers or portable aspects of a Switch, so many of the ports would be lesser.
my nephews just built low-mid end gaming PCs and both their setups came up around $1500, no idea where you are getting this $700 figure for in 2025/26. Their low/mid CPU and GPU alone was well over $500.
That doesn’t sound low-mid to us, but maybe we’re Just Poor™. Our CPU was like $100 and our GPU was like $250, used (only used part in the whole build). All told, maybe $600? It’s not a very fancy computer. It’d certainly cost WAY more now though, with the explosion of prices.
Totally! Plays pretty much everything we throw at it, except for one not-really-optimized indie UE5 game that’s borderline (which is probably partially the game’s fault, they improved optimization quite a bit since launch and it runs significantly better now but still not stellar, 30fps at most, but it’s playable; everything else runs just fine, generally solidly 60+).
Microsoft (and Sony) have done a terrible job of understanding the console market.
They sell consoles so they can loss-leader you into making it up on licensed games.
You buy a console so you can get a canned consistent experience for less than a PC. In the past, it was also for bespoke hardware that could do something a random PC couldn’t easily and exclusive titles.
In 2026, these advantages are gone. Since Xbone/PS4, you’re just looking at a standard AMD desktop in a funny box. It comes in too many flavours with real performance differences. Only a few titles are still exclusive. You can spend $500 and still not have the Best Console Experience, so why not spend $700 for a PC?
Of course Xbox and PS are flailing in that market.
Nintendo hardware avoids those pitfalls. There’s no “Switch 2 Pro” scenario where some games are meaningfully jankier. The hardware is profitable, and it’s still comfortably less than a basic dGPU computer. So there’s still a niche for it below the full gaming PC buyer.
They’ve also been more willing to exploit “we control the hardware and software together” opportunities for only-here experiences. Since the Kinect died, has there been a major gameplay paradigm that required an Xbox or PS to deliver?
Nintendo could port games to the PC but they won’t exploit the detachable controllers or portable aspects of a Switch, so many of the ports would be lesser.
Not true look at that shitty pokemon game on switch one that ran like ass if you didn’t have the better switch. Pokemon Scarlet and violet.
my nephews just built low-mid end gaming PCs and both their setups came up around $1500, no idea where you are getting this $700 figure for in 2025/26. Their low/mid CPU and GPU alone was well over $500.
Their gpu is definitly not low end
PCPartPicker Part List
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That doesn’t sound low-mid to us, but maybe we’re Just Poor™. Our CPU was like $100 and our GPU was like $250, used (only used part in the whole build). All told, maybe $600? It’s not a very fancy computer. It’d certainly cost WAY more now though, with the explosion of prices.
– Frost
So your saying that not low even though guy bought it this year. And admit yours was purchased before the price on RAM and storage jumped.
Oh yeah, I missed the whole ‘bought this year’ bit and forgot to account for the price hikes. Might be comparable to our build then. Whoof.
– Frost
Can your PC game?
Totally! Plays pretty much everything we throw at it, except for one not-really-optimized indie UE5 game that’s borderline (which is probably partially the game’s fault, they improved optimization quite a bit since launch and it runs significantly better now but still not stellar, 30fps at most, but it’s playable; everything else runs just fine, generally solidly 60+).
– Frost
Definitely. It’ll run Stardew Valley and Rollercoaster Tycoon! I bet it’s even powerful enough to run Doom!
(Why is it that I spent way more than them on a gaming laptop in 2022 and I still mostly just play Stardew Valley?)
The trademarked poor are wealthy compared to just the regular poor. /s