PC gaming has long been pitted against console gaming, with proponents of both sides insisting that their choice is better than the opposite. In truth, it's all personal preference, but there are a number of ways that console gaming is actually helping PC gaming, making it better for everyone.

4 Consoles are making game development easier for PC

Because of architectural similarities, developing for consoles makes ports easier

Long gone are the days of consoles using weird architectures. Modern-day consoles are x86-based machines, and modern Xbox consoles have a lot of similarities to Windows under the hood. Because of that, games that are developed for consoles are typically easier to port to PC, which has already been demonstrated thanks to the Insomniac Games leak.

In that leak, developers were able to access a build of Wolverine currently being made for the PlayStation 5. Even still, that build was modified within a couple of days and was able to run on PC. Not very well, mind you, but well enough that it shows just how similar consoles are to PCs these days. Because consoles are improving rapidly and becoming closer aligned with PCs in terms of hardware, developers can have an easier time porting those games to PC in the future.

This also means that games that do get ported are easier to optimize, as the architecture is very similar. Unlike games that may have been built for consoles like the PlayStation 3, which are still notoriously difficult to emulate thanks to that console's architecture, games built for newer consoles will typically be much easier to port.

3 Shared game libraries

Game streaming services can give you access to games on your PC and your console

With both Xbox Game Pass and PlayStation Plus Premium, you can actually enjoy many of those games on your PC, too. There's Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass, but Xbox Game Pass Ultimate combines the two, giving you a subscription of countless games on both devices.

The same goes for PlayStation Plus Premium, where your subscription can be used on both your PlayStation and your PC. To use it on PC you need to download the PlayStation app, but you can then stream games from Sony and play them on your PC as if it were a console. It's not a particularly fleshed out service in that regard and you can't play PlayStation 5 games on your PC, but it's still something that you can benefit from thanks to cross-development.

2 Hardware innovation in consoles

Gamers are getting used to faster loading times and more

Because of the improvements in consoles, such as the advent of DLSS, SSD storage, and more, gamers are getting used to higher-quality games that make use of newer hardware. A great example of this can be seen in Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, where the developers made use of DirectStorage in order to improve loading times. DirectStorage loads files directly from your storage to your GPU, rather than needing to go through the CPU first.

These technology innovations that take off on console in turn then improve things for those games that are built for consoles, and means that PC gamers benefit as a result. Sure, PC brought them first, but consoles arguably brought the necessity to use them.

1 Controller improvements

A lot of games are better with a controller

As an FPS enthusiast that primarily plays Counter-Strike 2 and Valorant, I can happily admit that a controller, for gaming, is better in a lot of instances. While a lot of esports titles are better with a mouse and keyboard, the vast majority of PC gaming benefits from a controller. As controllers improve on consoles, games tend to support them, meaning that PC gamers get a better experience even when they use a console controller with their PC.

There are countless games that benefit from a controller on PC, from the likes of Ratchet & Clank to Spider-Man to a whole host of driving games, those controller improvements are important to many PC gamers out there. As well, a controller is simply one of the best peripherals you can get for your PC, so if you don't already have one it's certainly worth picking up.