I don’t think there is really much fiddling these days. It’s probably about as much as setting up a console.

If you build your own, then sure that’s more work. But people can buy prebuilt, laptops, or handhelds.

Once you set up a console it’s pretty much hassle free after that, compared to a PC which needs variable amounts of fiddling per game.

On console you simply buy the game, download it and then play. If you must know how it runs you can find that on youtube/forums/reviews etc easily for the vast majority of games.

On PC unless you have the top line specs you need to research how the game will run for your specific hardware. There may not be any public details depending on how common your specific hardware is, how recent the game is, etc. Then you need to understand the spec list, which implies you know about CPU/GPU/RAM/SSD concepts & the hardware generations to know a rough estimate of performance comparing your PC to the spec list (if the developers bothered to put a note with the expected performance of the minimum & recommended tiers, which not many do.)

Let’s say you don’t give a shit about all of the above. You go ahead and just buy and download it. It may come with a stupid launcher that you hate. Especially if it automatically sets itself to run on the startup and/or needs you to have an account. Then you need to also fiddle with the launcher to make it work as you want.

Once you finally start the game you’ll have to tune the settings if you want more FPS, or the game looks bad. There you gotta know about resolutions, vsync, models, shadows, render distance, postprocessing, etc. You may not know what these do since it varies per game and its engine, so it’ll be a bunch of trial and error.

Finally you also need to deal with tweaking the mouse and keybinds (unless you buy separately a console controller).

I don’t think there is really much fiddling these days. It’s probably about as much as setting up a console.

If you build your own, then sure that’s more work. But people can buy prebuilt, laptops, or handhelds.

Once you set up a console it’s pretty much hassle free after that, compared to a PC which needs variable amounts of fiddling per game.

On console you simply buy the game, download it and then play. If you must know how it runs you can find that on youtube/forums/reviews etc easily for the vast majority of games.

On PC unless you have the top line specs you need to research how the game will run for your specific hardware. There may not be any public details depending on how common your specific hardware is, how recent the game is, etc. Then you need to understand the spec list, which implies you know about CPU/GPU/RAM/SSD concepts & the hardware generations to know a rough estimate of performance comparing your PC to the spec list (if the developers bothered to put a note with the expected performance of the minimum & recommended tiers, which not many do.)

Let’s say you don’t give a shit about all of the above. You go ahead and just buy and download it. It may come with a stupid launcher that you hate. Especially if it automatically sets itself to run on the startup and/or needs you to have an account. Then you need to also fiddle with the launcher to make it work as you want.

Once you finally start the game you’ll have to tune the settings if you want more FPS, or the game looks bad. There you gotta know about resolutions, vsync, models, shadows, render distance, postprocessing, etc. You may not know what these do since it varies per game and its engine, so it’ll be a bunch of trial and error.

Finally you also need to deal with tweaking the mouse and keybinds (unless you buy separately a console controller).

Console gaming is so anti-consumer. Who would prefer to use a console if they are even the slightest bit savvy with a computer?

This next Steam console will be interesting. With all the success they’ve had from the Steam Deck it might stand a chance this time around.

Once you set up a console it’s pretty much hassle free after that, compared to a PC which needs variable amounts of fiddling per game.

On console you simply buy the game, download it and then play. If you must know how it runs you can find that on youtube/forums/reviews etc easily for the vast majority of games.

On PC unless you have the top line specs you need to research how the game will run for your specific hardware. There may not be any public details depending on how common your specific hardware is, how recent the game is, etc. Then you need to understand the spec list, which implies you know about CPU/GPU/RAM/SSD concepts & the hardware generations to know a rough estimate of performance comparing your PC to the spec list (if the developers bothered to put a note with the expected performance of the minimum & recommended tiers, which not many do.)

Let’s say you don’t give a shit about all of the above. You go ahead and just buy and download it. It may come with a stupid launcher that you hate. Especially if it automatically sets itself to run on the startup and/or needs you to have an account. Then you need to also fiddle with the launcher to make it work as you want.

Once you finally start the game you’ll have to tune the settings if you want more FPS, or the game looks bad. There you gotta know about resolutions, vsync, models, shadows, render distance, postprocessing, etc. You may not know what these do since it varies per game and its engine, so it’ll be a bunch of trial and error.

Finally you also need to deal with tweaking the mouse and keybinds (unless you buy separately a console controller).

You can sell it or give it to your kids?

None of those are things people have to deal with except in very rare circumstances. All the driers are basically handled by windows update or are already in the kernel.

You do not need to do anything with antivirus these days.

Windows 11 makes you sign into an account, so do the consoles.

Pairing a Bluetooth controller technically is something you need to do, but let’s be honest. Is it really challenging?

All the driers are basically handled by windows update or are already in the kernel.

Eh… There was an issue a while back with Nvidia drivers causing all sort of issues and requiring a rollback. While it’s not something you would have to deal with often, from the perspective of the technically inept, that one tine they may have to do this would ruin their day and also whoever they’re calling for support.

The average person is far less competent with technology than you may think.

Console gaming is so anti-consumer. Who would prefer to use a console if they are even the slightest bit savvy with a computer?

It’s just going to be 1080p and slightly bigger screen.

That would be the successor to Steam Deck, there’s rumors that Valve is working on a standalone console.

Same with a PC lol. Hell, it probably would be more useful overall.

Can’t give them your steam account.

This is still a stretch. Don’t consoles also have issues like this? What about the red ring Xbox 360s? Didn’t ps3 have issues with Skyrim saves becoming corrupt?

You literally can? You can add any amounts of games to a family share and even play LAN with them