The same thing all consoles did. Exclusive games that just worked. No troubleshooting, no settings tweaking, no "will this work on this version of Windows/Direct X/ etc.?" Every game for that console worked on that console.
Its values was simplicity and exclusive games. Unfortunately they made their games more and more troublesome to get running (by trying to make every console a multipurpose family center) while PC made theirs more seamless, and then the exclusives got fewer.
Predictable. That's not a selling point, I'm sorry.
games that just worked
That one I'll give you, but that was every console. However: Final Fantasy XI. Anyone who has ever had to set up a Play Online account knows exactly what I'm alluding to.
Why, because its the truth? If you wanted to play X game you needed Y console. That was the basic formula. You asked what they did that PC didn't, and that was "played Mario." That doesn't mean they were worth it, that was just the deal.
Its literally by definition a selling point, because its what sold the consoles in the first place.
but that was every console.
And nearly every console had that functionality. You picked your flavor from the exclusives category, and boom it was there.
Play Online account
One of the downfalls of consoles as a dominant force was them aping PC, leaving them as just worse PCs. "Online gaming" was one of the first forays into this, and its what opened the door for "will finish later with patches" taking away that "it just worked" functionality, as well as the much slower and overall less capable system because it was constantly running an online OS in the background instead of entirely focusing on the game.
You can believe that's a good thing. I won't argue with you on it, but consoles trying to become PCs is why they died/are dying. Because the PC will always do it better. And they forgot the things they did well in the process. From "installing" games for hours after you got home to trying to be an "all purpose machine."
That's a different question from consoles turning into shitty PCs.
At the time it had better default controllers for the games. More hardware and better performance for less cost than a similar PC.
The PS3 had a better balance with it's online features compared to the xbox360 or later consoles.
Sony was half decent until the PS4.
What did Sony offer that a PC didn't?
The same thing all consoles did. Exclusive games that just worked. No troubleshooting, no settings tweaking, no "will this work on this version of Windows/Direct X/ etc.?" Every game for that console worked on that console.
Its values was simplicity and exclusive games. Unfortunately they made their games more and more troublesome to get running (by trying to make every console a multipurpose family center) while PC made theirs more seamless, and then the exclusives got fewer.
Predictable. That's not a selling point, I'm sorry.
That one I'll give you, but that was every console. However: Final Fantasy XI. Anyone who has ever had to set up a Play Online account knows exactly what I'm alluding to.
Why, because its the truth? If you wanted to play X game you needed Y console. That was the basic formula. You asked what they did that PC didn't, and that was "played Mario." That doesn't mean they were worth it, that was just the deal.
Its literally by definition a selling point, because its what sold the consoles in the first place.
And nearly every console had that functionality. You picked your flavor from the exclusives category, and boom it was there.
One of the downfalls of consoles as a dominant force was them aping PC, leaving them as just worse PCs. "Online gaming" was one of the first forays into this, and its what opened the door for "will finish later with patches" taking away that "it just worked" functionality, as well as the much slower and overall less capable system because it was constantly running an online OS in the background instead of entirely focusing on the game.
You can believe that's a good thing. I won't argue with you on it, but consoles trying to become PCs is why they died/are dying. Because the PC will always do it better. And they forgot the things they did well in the process. From "installing" games for hours after you got home to trying to be an "all purpose machine."
That's a different question from consoles turning into shitty PCs. At the time it had better default controllers for the games. More hardware and better performance for less cost than a similar PC. The PS3 had a better balance with it's online features compared to the xbox360 or later consoles.