Cross platform games - Deciding which platform to buy a game for

[Harrison]

If you own multiple platforms do you sometimes have a dilemma over which platform to buy a game for when it's released cross platform on all of them?

And do you think it's better that each platform has exclusive titles, or that all games should be released on every platform?

[Harrison]

Ever since gaming began one of the big marketing ploys has been games that are exclusive to a platform and only available if you own that system. It worked because if you wanted to play a Mario or Sonic game you had to buy their systems. And until recently this was still quite common, with Xbox having franchise like Halo and Forza and Playstation franchise like Spiderman and GT7. But in looking to maximise return on investment as games become more expensive to make and require far more time to develop. Sony releasing Playstation exclusive titles on PC for example after they have been out for some time and already made most of the money they will on Playstation. Or due to declining sales of Xbox Microsoft starting to port their exclusive games to Playstation. Who would have thought we would see the day Halo was remade and released on PS5? Or the game they tried to make an epic Xbox exclusive, Starfield, released on PS5 too.

Personally I've always thought it was great that platforms have their exclusive titles. First party titles generally extract more from the hardware and utilise the controllers more, Nintendo have always been great at delivering amazing first party games that showcase the console and control perfectly. This does often however mean third party developers never managed to achieve anything as good on the same platform.

But it's also great when most third party titles are released cross platform on as many platforms as possible so everyone has the opportunity to play them. But this leads to a dilemma if you own multiple platforms. You want to play a game but which do you buy it for? I keep having this issue lately with a lot of games released on both PC and PS5. This is made worse by also owning a Steam Deck, and this would be true for anyone with a handheld PC. I like the ease and convenience of having games on the PS5 so I can just sit on the sofa and chill out playing on the big TV. But if I buy the game on PC I can play it both on PC and handheld on the SD.

This is worse for certain genres, such as adventure, rpg and strategy games. Take Final Fantasy Tactics. The remake was released on both PC and PS5 and the retro graphics and control setup lend itself well to a handheld, but equally are great on a larger screen. And I've always liked playing RPGs and strategy games on the Playstation.

This decision is sometimes taken away because I also get Xbox Gamepass Ultimate for free with my Fibre broadband, so if a game is included in Gamepass then I will just play it on PC and Steamdeck as it doesn't cost me anything. Otherwise I do tend to lean towards the PS5.

What makes you decide which platform to buy a game for?

I am also guilty of owning the same game on multiple platforms. Final Fantasy and Tombraider games expecially. Oh and older adventures like Broken Sword.

[Kin Hell]

All platforms for me....

Problem is, coders writing sh!t specifically for Kons0le Twernts & then bastard-ising it for PC Gamers....

[Harrison]

That's more that fact a console is fixed hardware so they can optimise a lot. PCs are so modular you can't optimise specifically at the hardware level, so you are left at the mercy of Windblows and this party drivers.

But you won't need to worry about console ports because Sony have stopped all future ports of their games to PC because of Microsoft moving Xbox to Windows 11. They dunt want games released for the PC to be instantly payable on the next Xbox because they won't be able to control how well it will run on that fixed hardware.