I have been in this fight since I was six years old. I watched Sega do what Nintendon't, and then I watched Sega fall so far that it never rose again.
I graduated from two dimensions into three, 8 bits to 64, switched from cartridges to discs and ascended from analog to the digital age.
I watched the Big Three war on each other, and witnessed their declaration of war against us. I watched the biggest game stores get hollowed out while they bought used games for pennies on the dollar. I watched the industry eat itself and somehow grow fat.
I balked at the first microtransactions, and now macrotransactions are normalized. I weathered the GPU shortage, and now it is the AIpocalypse and RAMageddon.
There was a golden age, when corporate competition birthed franchises every month and drove prices down. Games were released in finished states. But now...remasters dominate conversation. Seemingly every game is broken at launch and millions keep pre-ordering despite prices going up.
Consoles are now increasing in price in a single generation, as are games, and controllers. Console gaming is no longer a fight that I can continue.
I now turn to the PC. I could raise the black flag, but I'll switch those sails for Steam. Perhaps this old console warrior can became a sailor, free from the limitations of console.