Are the "PC Master Race" days over?

[nuckles87]

I'd say it was never really here, and was just PC gamers being cocky fanboys. Really, it was no differet from a PlayStation, Xbox, or Nintendo gamer's feeling of superiority. The only huge difference between PC gamers and console gamers is the cost involved.

I built a top of the line, GTX 980 Ti powered computer late last year, and I've been unimpressed with it. The games don't really look that much nicer, the genuine exclusives haven't blown me away anymore than the exclusives of the other consoles (and far less than the spectacular stuff Nintendo's been pumping out on Wii U). I can run Shadow of Mordor at 120 fps: who cares? Had I bought it on PS4 or Xbox One the experience would have been more than fine. And on top of that, because I bought the game close to launch I felt jipped, because the game went on sale just a few months later.

The best thing about PC is the cost of the games. The aforementioned Steam sales are great when I'm patient or simply ignore a big game for two months so I can get it on sale. I can sometimes buy Indie games for cheaper than they typically are on console, and the library is MASSIVE and goes back decades. It's especially nice that a lot of the PC games I've wanted to play are finally being made compatible with modern PCs. But here's the kicker: to play the vast majority of the PC's best exclusives, you don't need a high end PC. But if you want to play marginally better looking ports of console games, you need to spend enough money to buy this entire generation of game consoles, AND you have to build it yourself and accept the risks involved in that (not a big deal for an experienced PC builder, but for someone who's new to it? Mistakes always happen, and they'll probably happen the first few times without loads of help).

Really, I think the PC is best as a secondary platform, like Wii U, rather than the end all, be all gaming platform. Buying something midgrade for the PC exclusives, buy everything else on console. These days, the consoles are even catching up when it comes to game sales and indie games.

So I'd say, it's not really that the PC gaming master race thing is fading. They're just being reminded that they are as mortal and vulnerable as anyone else. :P