I've noticed something of late. There's sort of a movement of the PC platform suddenly trying to appeal to the console markets, all starting a couple years ago. At the forefront is of course, Valve and Steam, with Steam consoles on the horizon, a controller supposedly capable of playing any and all games no matter their setup, and the streamlining of that platform in general. But the question's been in my head, is this really worth it? Can PC be on that same level of convenience and accessibility of a console?
My thought is no, it can't. Not without changing what PC games are.
For one, PC games have problems that you may or may not even be able to work through. I can count way too many times I've had a game just stop working after not having played it for months, or a game not working when I buy it. Just refusing to run, or there being a major problem. The issue is that the solution to that problem could be simple, or way more work than it should take. I'm used to it now, but sometimes I've gotta spend hours searching through forums, trying things out, possibly breaking things further, just to get a game working again. That's not an experience that I think someone used to consoles is going to like. With consoles, when your game you've got two things you can try: clean the disc or cartridge, or if you're playing on a modern system, see if there's a patch. The number of solutions you could have with PC games is near infinite.
My second problem is that the current "console experience" on PC is Steam's Big Picture Mode. Now I actually do like Big Picture in concept, but it's been out for two years, and problems I had with it in beta are still prevalent. It's just not fun to use. It's unstable as hell, I've counted way too many just plain random crashes for it to be viable under normal circumstances, and it's just slow. The web browser in particular I'm plain afraid to use, because the number of times I've tried looking up a cheat or a walkthrough and the entire thing just crash on me is one too many. I assume these are issues that'll be fixed for Steam Machines, but it's not really spelling a fun experience.
Steam's done a fair job attempting to fix or simplify hurdles PC games have had in the last decade or so, like modding. I love Steam Workshop in both idea and execution, even if I personally don't use it too often. Simplifying the modding process I think is going to be a BIG draw with this console-like movement. But then there's the fact that mods can get more complicated than they need to be too, like fixing issues, and all that.
There's just too many problems that are intrinsic of the platform for it to be viable as an accessible experience on par with consoles in the near future. I'd like to see someone else besides Steam try to tackle these issues because at the moment it's just one company on a pipe-dream and no one else is stepping up to it. Maybe they think it's futile, or maybe tech's not here yet. But I can't see these prospects coming true any time soon.
