Xbox Games

[The Minsky Moment]

There are no console exclusive games in the XBox ecosystem anymore: Halo, Forza, Gears, etc. - all are available on PC and through the steam store. So the line between console and PC is being intentionally blurred already. MSFT seems to be relaxed about the sales performance of Xbox.  It's positioned as a reasonably priced platform for playing Gamepass and MSFT publisher owned games but MSFT is fine if people want to play those games on other hardware platforms. Project out those trends and pretty quickly you get to an open PC-based box, with or without the Xbox branding.

[Jacob]

Yeah you all make good points...

What does a reasonable PC for living gaming - as an alternative to an Xbox - look like do you reckon?

... and are there ways to set it up such that a reasonably tech savvy five year old can play games on it without either a) blowing it up or b) somehow ending up following Elon Musk on Twitter (or otherwise get pulled down weird internet black holes)?

[The Minsky Moment]

Steam has been rolling out family sharing and I believe allows you to curate the games your kids can access. But that doesn't solve the problem of a young kid accessing a PC.

[Tamas]

Steam has been rolling out family sharing and I believe allows you to curate the games your kids can access. But that doesn't solve the problem of a young kid accessing a PC.

I mean, it's not the easiest option but a non-admin account without a web browser installed should sort most things out shouldn't it?

[Grey Fox]

Yeah you all make good points...

What does a reasonable PC for living gaming - as an alternative to an Xbox - look like do you reckon?

... and are there ways to set it up such that a reasonably tech savvy five year old can play games on it without either a) blowing it up or b) somehow ending up following Elon Musk on Twitter (or otherwise get pulled down weird internet black holes)?

Nothing in the range of the 380$+tax that is the Series S.

[Oexmelin]

Yes, I've switched to console gaming, mostly because I can't be arsed to upgrade my computer for gaming and monitor how requirements evolve.

[Jacob]

I foolishly let my boy know my plans, so I have a daily battle of "is today the day when we're getting the family gaming  set-up"    ... I only have myself to blame 

It was triggered by his little sister using his iPad and playing Roblox on his account. She went into his favourite game and spent about two months worth of currency he'd been grinding (aiming to buy a flying car) - and of course she bought trash (including a Cybertruck ). I looked at buying in-game currency to replace it and it would be like $500 or something stupid like that.

So I decided that we need to get away from free-to-play games for the kids, but in a way that doesn't seem punitive... shiny console (or Steam) games with the family seems like a winning strategy.

Right now I think getting steam deck and using it as a stationary console is the leading option...

[Jacob]

Yes, I've switched to console gaming, mostly because I can't be arsed to upgrade my computer for gaming and monitor how requirements evolve.

Yeah that's where I'm at. I like PC gaming, but not the PC spec race.

[Josquius]

Yes, I've switched to console gaming, mostly because I can't be arsed to upgrade my computer for gaming and monitor how requirements evolve.

To be fair I've not updated my pc in like 8 years other than adding extra ram and storage.
It still runs most things I want to play fine.
Doubt it could do skylines 2 when that eventually gets good. the time I should be updating is in the past. But then I'm basically just out of sync with console generations. My ps4+ level pc was built when the ps4 was already some years old.

The steam deck is the main thing made me hold off on updating. And kids meaning I don't have time for games.