- Free Online Gaming
- Cheaper New Games
- Deep Discounts
- More Free Games
- F2P Games
- Exclusives
- Early Access
- Back Catalogue
- Mods
- You’re in Control
For the hardware that’s on offer, a game console provides unbeatable value. Performance-wise, the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X are roughly comparable to an AMD Ryzen 7 3700X and a NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 Super. That’s an 8-core/16-thread, Zen 2-powered CPU and a powerful, raytracing-capable GPU – not to mention a super-fast SSD, a Blu-Ray player, and a bundled-in controller too.
As of now, there’s no way you could build or buy an equivalent-spec PC for anywhere near the same price as one of these consoles. That’s because mass-produced consoles have economies of scales on their side and, toward the start of a console generation, they’re often sold at a loss. We aren’t going to argue that a console hardware is more expensive than PC gaming hardware, although you can get thrifty with second-hand hardware.
While the console hardware itself might be a good value, it’s designed to suck you into the console manufacturer’s closed ecosystem of paid online and expensive games. Which, in the long run, might work out more costly than a gaming PC. There’s a higher outlay for a gaming PC, but everything else is cheaper or even free, with loads more quality-of-life features to boot. Here’s why you should buy a gaming PC.
1. Free Online
On PC, you won’t have to pay a monthly fee for online multi-player.
Image by: PlayStation
To play paid games online on current-gen consoles, you must pay for PlayStation Plus, Xbox Live Gold (included as part of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate), or Nintendo Switch online. That’s an extra monthly fee just to queue up with your mates in multi-player games, a fee which doesn’t exist on PC. A modern console generation lasts at least five years – the PlayStation 5 released seven years after the PlayStation 4. If you keep an active subscription throughout the whole generation, this fee adds up, especially if you’ve got all three of the major consoles. Although you’re paying more upfront, the free online of a gaming PC can help take the sting out of the price tag.
2. Cheaper New Games
Same game, different price.
Image by: Steam/PlayStation.
Even before taking Steam’s famous sales into the equation, the games themselves are also cheaper on a gaming PC versus a console. As an example, let’s look at the release of Ghostwhire: Tokyo earlier this year. On Steam – the PC gamer’s storefront of choice – it was up for pre-order at £49.99. Whereas over on the PlayStation Store, for the exact same game they were asking for £59.99. Notably, Ghostwire: Tokyo is a third-party published game. PlayStation’s own first-party games, like Gran Turismo 7, was released at an eye-watering £69.99. And that was for the standard, no-DLC version. If you’re a die-hard gamer that’s got to play all the newest games as soon as they’re released, you’ll save a decent amount of money buying them on PC instead.
3. Deep Discounts
Steam Simfest sale.
Image by: Steam.
You can save even more on games as sales occur frequently on PC gaming stores. Steam holds sales practically all year round. Whether it’s sales for specific gaming events, like the Remote Play Together sale or Next Fest sale, or their legendary summer and winter sales.
Even when there’s no sale on, there’s always mid-week and weekend special offers too. On a gaming PC, you’re never too far away from another big sale. So far, we’ve mentioned Steam a lot, but a gaming PC is an open ecosystem. Unlike a locked-down console, you’re not forced to go though the platform holder’s store.
Steam is one option of many, there’s also Xbox Game Pass, GOG, Epic Games Store, and more, each vying for your patronage with better and better special offers. Authorised third-party key resellers are another option too.
For instance, GreenManGaming had Steam codes for the Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection at a launch price of £40.49, 10% cheaper than Steam’s £44.99. Or, you could grab a HumbleBundle to get hundreds of pounds worth of games for cheap while also supporting charity. PC gaming hardware might be expensive, but the software can be a whole lot cheaper.
4. Free Games
Get a free game every week on the Epic Games Store.
Image by: Epic Games Store
Games are often given away for completely free too, no strings attached. Since around mid-2019, Epic Games Store has given away a free game (if not more) every single week. These aren’t limited to a trial period, nor do they require a paid subscription to claim and play (looking at you, PlayStation Plus). Rather, they’re permanently added to your account and can be played whenever.
We’re not talking about bargain-bin games either, massive games like Grand Theft Auto 5, Civilization 6, and Star Wars Battlefront 2 have been up for grabs over on Epic Games Store. And, again, that’s only one storefront. Claim Epic Games Store’s free game each week, try out Steam’s free weekend games, and more. You can easily play some fantastic games in PC without spending even a penny. PC gaming has a strong reputation for being expensive, but in many ways it’s cheaper than a console.
5. F2P Games
Dota 2, a F2P MOBA exclusive to PC.
Image by: Valve.
Ignoring the deals, discounts, and giveaways, there’s a considerably larger market for free-to-play games on PCs. There are first-person shooters like Counter Strike: Global Offensive and Valorant, MOBAs like DOTA 2 and League of Legends, and much more – all free-to-play and exclusive to PC. As they’re designed to reach as broad of an audience as possible, a top-spec gaming PC isn’t needed to run these F2P games. They’ll run on pretty much anything, even older, low-end laptops. So, don’t be put off by the idea that you need a flashy, expensive gaming PC to be a PC gamer. For more info, check out our blog Can you game on integrated graphics.
6. Exclusives
Consoles are known for their exclusive games. For PlayStation 4 it was Bloodborne, Halo 3 for Xbox 360, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild for Nintendo Switch, and so on. You could argue these “system-seller” games are that main reason you’d pick a console up in the first place. However, that’s not to say PC doesn’t have exclusives of its own.
There are entire game genres that might as well be exclusive to PC. Real-time strategy games that demand high actions-per-minute and macro-heavy MMOs are the go-to examples. Sure, you might get some RTS games on consoles, but nowhere near as many on PC. These genres thrive on PC with a keyboard and mouse set-up and conversely struggle on console with their simpler control schemes. You won’t find Starcraft or Total War: Warhammer 3 on a console, for instance.
Some genres, like first-person shooters, play leagues better on a gaming PC with uncapped frame rates and more precise control. It’s why PC is the premier gaming platform for esports and livestreaming.
7. Early Access
Steam Early Access Games
Image by: Steam
If you want to play the latest up-and-coming games, a gaming PC is where you’ll find them first. To release on a console, games must pass strict compliance procedures to ensure they don’t crack a console’s closed ecosystem wide open. As a result, it’s harder to releases games and push updates out on a console.
Whereas on a PC, you might have an Intel CPU and a NVIDIA GPU in a custom-built PC that’s running a Windows operating system and Steam. No one entity dictates how games are released on PC. As such, it’s easier to self-publish your own games on PC, even ones in a work-in-progress state. This has given rise to indies and the early-access release model. They might not be the most polished experience, but there are thousands of experimental, in-developments games on PC that simply wouldn’t fly on a console. One of these games might become the next big thing.
Minecraft is a landmark example. It was available on PC as alpha and beta versions long before is came to console. Look at all the emergent genres that blew up over the last console generation. Survival games and battle-royale games are now the industry’s biggest genres, and they found their footing on PC. In fact, you can trace Fortnite’s lineage back to a user-made mod for Arma 2, a mil-sim exclusive to PC.
8. Back Catalogue
GOG repackages old games to run on modern PCs.
Image by: GOG.
Gaming PCs receive a lot of attention for running the latest AAA releases at maxed-out graphics and ludicrously-fast frame rates. That’s all well and good, but gaming PCs are just as great for replaying classic games or experiencing them for the very first time.
A console tends to be backwards compatible by one console generation natively. For instance, a PlayStation 5 can run PlayStation 4 games right from the console’s disk drive, but that’s it. If you want to replay your library of PS1, PS2, and PS3 games, you’ll have to keep your old consoled hooked up. Or, as is the case on PlayStation 5, these classic games are run under emulation and sold back to you on the PlayStation store.
On a PC, however, the concept of a generation doesn’t really exist. After all, it’s not like there’s a ‘PC 2’. Instead, PCs are constantly evolving over time with new hardware, software, and technologies. This means that the big-box copy of a game you bought back in the 90’s should run on your brand-new gaming PC, at a higher resolution and refresh rate too. It may require a bit to tinkering to get it up-and-running on a modern operating system and to bypass old DRM, but there are some fantastic resources like the PC Gaming Wiki to help guide you through the process.
Out of any gaming platform, PC easily has the most diverse and expansive catalogue of games. One moment you could be queueing up with your mates in Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0, then organising a nostalgia-fuelled Age of Empires 2 LAN party the next.
9. Mods
It was only inevitable.
Image by: Tree Sentinel Thomas Mod by skynoon0 at Nexus Mods.
It’s practically a PC game’s rite of passage to have Thomas the Tank Engine modded into it. Elden Ring receive this very treatment mere days after its release. But mods aren’t limited to wacky model swaps for viral internet videos. There are community-made patches that address more bugs than the game’s developer ever could.
For instance, the Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines Unofficial Patch continues to be updated till this day, fixing bugs, adding quality-of-life features, and restoring cut content to an 18-year-old game! Want to make your next playthrough of Fallout: New Vegas a bit more interesting? There are mods to expand the survival mechanics, overhaul the GUI, and more. And let’s not forget that Counter Strike and DOTA, some of the biggest PC games, started out as mods. Visual enhancement mods are the most popular, effectively letting you make your own remastered version of a game. Browse YouTube for “Minecraft shaders” and you’ll see how transformative mods can be to even a blocky, pixelated game.
10. You’re In Control
As demonstrated so far, you’re in complete control over your gaming experience on a gaming PC. Requiring hardly any setup or maintenance, consoles make for great plug-and-play devices, but they can often feel too restrictive. Whereas a gaming PC can be tinkered and tweaked with to your heart’s content, letting you create the ultimate gaming set-up.
You don’t even have to use a mouse and keyboard. Nothing’s stopping you from hooking a gaming PC up to a 4K TV, kicking back on the sofa, and playing with a controller. It’s a perfectly viable option. A gaming PC accepts a wide range of input devices, from a controller to a racing wheel and pedals, flight stick, eye tracker, and more. This freedom of choice extends to your display.
You’re not limited to a standard 16:9 aspect ratio and whatever resolution a console outputs to. On a gaming PC, you’ve always got the option to run a multi-monitor set-up or an ultrawide display.
Plus, a gaming PC can be used for far more than gaming: speed up hardware-accelerated programs, university coursework, livestreaming, video editing, developing your own games, the list goes on. Gaming PCs are just super-fast PCs, after all. You get to choose your rig’s hardware, the software you run, where games are bought from, what settings you play at, and so much more.
Gaming PCs at Ebuyer
Looking to get into PC gaming and build your own rig? Check out our Top 10 Tips for Building a PC, and buy all the hardware you need over at Ebuyer. If you’re not up for doing it yourself, Ebuyer has a wide range of pre-built gaming PCs, shipped right to your door with finance offers available too.
