PC gaming beat consoles a long time ago, so now consoles are becoming more like gaming PCs

New Xbox and PlayStation hardware takes an iterative approach, playing the same games but built for different budgets and needs, like what PC gamers have had for decades

The long battle between gaming PCs and game consoles is over, and the PCs won.

At least they won the philosophical battle with giants Sony and Microsoft console adoption of the main ideas of PC games on the console model previously untreatable. With the new slim PS4 and next PS4 Pro and the Xbox One S and the Draft Xbox next year scorpion, console makers suddenly looking very much like they are playing catchup with features and ideas PC gamers they have enjoyed for years.

Why this change of attitude? The long-standing tradition of the console was previously built around hardware platforms completely static living well past their best, usually five to seven years or more. That is an idea that dates all the way back to the days of the original consoles 1970s, as far back as the Atari 2600 date.

At that time, and until the beginning of the 21st century, which could possibly get away with putting a sealed box on a shelf in a store and essentially sell the same package again and again for years (with a handful of time to exercise-blue -moon experimental add-ons, such as the Sega CD or HD-DVD drive Xbox 360). But today, in the world of electronics out of the market for game consoles, each CPU manufacturers (brain hardware) to the GPU (graphics processors paramount) to Apple and Samsung it is on a treadmill incremental advances, producing a new hardware and support for new features at a rapid pace.

The new PS4 Pro adds 4K and HDR support for games and video.

I have previously referred to this as the trap annual update cycle. And while it has its own set of problems (see the minimal differences between the last three iPhone models as an example), it is much more preferable to issue a couple of generations of game consoles had done. hardware of the new game console already felt dated compared to PCs midlevel games on Day 1, and then felt even more painfully obsolete as the years passed. It got to the point a couple of years ago in an entry level PC gaming $ 500 as the Alienware Alpha, with a current GPU Nvidia inside, it could play new games at higher resolutions with more detail than the then-new Xbox One and PlayStation 4 consoles.

Scale it up, scale it down

PC gamers have always been able to expand their games and budgets game easily. An older computer can still play new games, and a new team can play up to a decade old or more easily, and through slightly patched versions of Gog.com and others, for a value of old PC games access decades. If you have a graphics card is old or processor, resolution and detail settings is scaled down. If you had a newer hardware, the games could ramp up to 4K resolution, or insane levels of detail - and nobody thought it was unique enough for a special conference press it.

The Alienware Alpha costs a little more than a console, but can upgrade its CPU, RAM and hard drive, and add external graphics.

What we have now, with the new models of Xbox and PlayStation, is a blurring of the lines between the glacial pace of the evolution of console hardware and redemption of any-new-part-in-anytime model computers for table games. (Gaming laptops also blocked heavily on your hardware, but the newer laptops have a desktop level graphics VR-lists, plus there's a promising new generation of external graphics add-on hardware that makes some upgradeable laptops more than ever play.)

No more disposable collections games

The genius of this new model of the console is that the base platform remains the same. Before the trade from an Xbox 360 to Xbox One literally it means throwing your entire collection of games, and even drivers. (Microsoft, to his credit, later began adding Xbox One compatibility for some, but not all, Xbox 360 games via free software patches.)

Now, for example, the same game disc or download can be run on an "old" PlayStation 4, a new PS4 Slim and a new PS4 Pro. Sony says all PS4 models will get support HDR mode " Super contrast "4K TVs available in many more recent (although, as usual, only with the support of content). But those same owners 4K TV can get a better resolution supported PS4 games since the new PS4 Pro, too. In other words, games and climb your hardware budget, as they have done for PC gamers for decades.

Gaming PCs can cost less than $600 or more than $6,000, but still run the same games.

Sony and Microsoft have finally realized that the "throw everything every five years" model will not work for longer, especially when people want to maintain a sense of continuity of the platform. No matter that makes my PC game and internal components, if I updated 10 times, or if you initially spent $ 600 or $ 6000 in it, I can still download the same game code from Steam or other online store and play essentially the same game on the common platform of Windows. Sony and Microsoft promise at least part of the same interoperability from now on, with the two games that require manufacturers to make their new games work across all current and coming soon-consoles.

console gamers who can now choose from a thin PS4 $ 299 or Xbox One S, a more powerful engine Pro $ 399 PS4 and next year Scorpion Project, now have more options than ever. It is still nowhere near the variety, flexibility and interoperability we have seen every day in the test lab CNET PC, but is a good first taste, and I suspect fans of the console they find that want even more