After 40+ years, am no longer a console gamer

You might be wondering why an article about console gaming starts with a picture of Clippy. This was one of the most despised helpers of all time in personal computing. Sometimes companies think we need “help” when all we really want to be is left alone.

Yesterday on the (NO) Blue Monday stream I came to a sad realization after six months not playing one of the two PS5s I own:

I’m no longer a console gamer.

Luckily for the second PS5, our oldest grandson is getting good play mileage out of that, but mine had to have dust blown out of it. I’m not writing this with glee, but with disappointment. Am not saying the PS5 is a bad console system, quite the opposite, there are some good games I’ve played not nearly enough on there.

Over the years, really since the NES and Turbografix-16 and Sega Master System, then Genesis, our family have been buying the new consoles and a lot of the portable game systems. Way too many to list, but often times we bought them on the day they were made for sale. Wasn’t able to do that with the PS5 because scalpers bought up all the available systems then tried to bleed away a profit. I didn’t bite, so it took something like a year for me to casually be able to buy a PS5 at retail. Could have gotten one sooner, but wasn’t going to play the “does Wal-Mart or Amazon or Target have them in stock?” This scalping has become toxic to FOMO with new console game purchases.

Nintendo Switch 2? I have like 0.0000001% FOMO for that. It’s the first new console from Nintendo maybe, well, ever I haven’t wanted to buy at/near launch. We have 4 Nintendo Switch first gens and there just doesn’t seem to be anything Nintendo creative and/or new with the Switch 2. It just seems like more of the same, upgraded yes, oh, and the games now cost nearly $100 each? Come on.

I think the biggest disconnect for me is the saturation more than anything. Can’t play pinball on location and at home plus play PC games a bunch, both on multiple different PCs and on the Steam Deck, and still have much of any time left over for console gaming. I’ve just run out of time in the gaming schedule to make console gaming a regular part of my world at the present time.

In the future I could become a console gamer again. It really would be as simple as a console exclusive that pulled me back in. It’s been awhile since last playing one of those.

Once a year, hopefully, I’ll be back for the Xbox and the Game Pass Ultimate, to see what’s new for a couple months. Then I’ll move on. And, well, yeah, maybe the PS5 will put out an exclusive I have to play and like Arnold the Terminator, “I’ll be back.”

Now, the PS5 and what I don’t like? Everything about the push to buy more games is all over the current PlayStation menu. It’s constant push, push, push to buy the PS+ subscription or upgrade what you have, it’s not focusing enough on what you already own. Maybe the screen can be modified through the settings to hide all the buy this, buy that stuff that the PlayStation Store offers, but it’s just way too much, Sony. Sorry.

I’m not saying the Xbox is any better, btw. Or the Switch.

There’s just too much emphasis on buying games vs. playing the ones you’ve already bought. I don’t remember any of this with the older game systems. We didn’t have this nonsense with the original Playstation, at least that I remember. I don’t remember the Nintendo Wii menu screaming “buy, buy, buy!” at every turn. This is something that seems to have flooded more modern console game systems.

One could argue that Steam isn’t much better and yet it is. I can go to my library tab and, you know, see and learn about what’s new with the games I already own. It’s not pushing me to buy or download a bunch of games I don’t own or could own.

The Playstation menu needs something like this. Even if they rip off the design, it’s much more helpful and interesting than the current menu which mixes games you own with games you could download and pay if you have a PS+ subscription. Yes, you can hide these games you could play if you subscribe, but that’s a nuisance. Is there an easier setting to just eliminate all these games from the User Interface? Let me know in the comments, I didn’t dig too deeply to find it, admittedly.

At the end of the day, these console game UI perform like Clippy once was. Perhaps meant to be helpful, but actually irritating in some cases and way too store-centric. We don’t want to spend more $$$ buying more games all the time. We want to play the games we already have, maybe learn something about the games that are new. Sure, have a store tab, like Playstation already does, and we’ll go there when we’re shopping.

What’s your story with console gaming right here and now? I realize it can change tomorrow. So can mine. Doesn’t change that I’m a bit sad to no longer look as forward to console gaming. As mentioned earlier, a great game on a console could draw me back. The Force is strong in that regard. You?