PC Gaming Has to Solve This Before Overtaking Home Consoles

For a lot of reasons, I find myself wondering what the future of console gaming looks like. I think in 2026, it’s fair to say the mainstream gaming audience is becoming increasingly comfortable with PC gaming. Thanks to things like the Steam Deck or ROG Ally, handheld gaming has been a great way to introduce players to the PC space while still giving them a familiar peripheral. Of course, from sales numbers of the Switch 2 and PS5, and I guess Xbox Series X|S, to be kind and include them, we know that consoles are certainly far from obsolete. Heck, even Steam is set to launch a home console.

The fact is, the tinkering really seems to be something most folks aren’t interested in. Consoles have helped players become aware that different settings can yield different results in their gaming experience. A Performance Mode, offered alongside a Quality Mode, is commonplace in many AAA titles on consoles. Beyond that, though, are we at a point where many folks want to be tinkering with specs to play the next mainline Gears of War game? Probably not. So, where can PC gaming help pull those console-minded gamers away from the couch and into an ergonomic chair at a desk and monitor?

It makes sense that the first move was to lay claim to the handheld space. With the success of the Nintendo Switch, it was clear that the portability factor weighed heavily in favor of many players wanting to buy their indies for the Switch rather than PC, so they could bring them on trips or commutes. That little detail opens up a wider potential for PC gaming, however, in the way we view convenience and feasibility in gaming. With things like the Steam Deck, we know portability and PC gaming can work. But the hurdle continues to be spec-optimizing and, in some cases, literally troubleshooting whether you can even play a game.

With things like Play Anywhere from Xbox and the various Steam Deck scores for whether or not a game works or not, clear lines of what can be played on a PC and what can’t make sense for a handheld peripheral. The Steam Machine is going to be our first real test for whether this can work for a home console, too. Sure, it’s still a PC, but it’s presented in a way that makes console gamers feel safe as they dive into this new terrain. So, with the console and PC worlds blending, what makes PC gaming unique? Really, it comes down to the traditional sense of a PC being used for more than just games, and the user experience (UE).

If gaming PCs are going to work to become more dedicated machines that are focused less on being suped up for games, but still a regular PC at the end of the day, that’s going to be the ticket to converting console gamers. Steam knows this, and the Steam Deck and Steam Machine are presented as gaming hardware. You can use your Steam Deck as a PC for non-gaming functions, also, but that’s not the focus in marketing or user experience. The more console gamers feel they’re using a specific peripheral for a specific function, the less overwhelmed they’ll feel.

That gets back to the big hurdle of games not always working on the device you literally purchased to do just that. Microsoft has an advantage here, as it’s already letting players who own a game for Xbox play it on PC if it’s on a curated list of titles available for the Play Anywhere feature. Should the next Xbox actually be a gaming PC disguised as an Xbox UE and not force players to tinker to get games to work, I think the age of Microsoft as a punchline may be over. Sony has its exclusives, yes. But the future lies in a broader gaming landscape, and Microsoft lives in that PC world. Put an Xbox coat of paint on a gaming PC, keep it under $900, and you might see a new leader in the industry.