I don't know if this fits this sub, or if what I'll be discussing common knowledge, but these are just some thoughts I discussed with some friends yesterday that I wanted to bring up to see more opinions on the matter.
In my opinion, Console Wars only exist because when you're a kid/teen you rely solely on your parents/allowance money to buy stuff you like. That's why growing up most of us got stuck with a single console per generation (at most). I lost a lot of time in my teens hating on Xbox, their games and their userbase, simply because they had a different console and played different games than the ones I played growing up.
Only when I became independent and started making my own money, that I was able to see how stupid I was and how many great games I missed. That's when I stopped seeing xbox games or nintendo games as simply 'games'.
If there are a bunch of games that interest me, I now have the means to purchase a console (or build a gaming pc). I went through my PS4 backlog (my only console then) pretty quickly at the beginning of the pandemic last year. Then I heard about gamepass and built a gaming PC to play microsoft exclusives. Then my eyes were open. The backlog that I now had was HUUUUGE, but it was (and it's been) extremely worth it. I now own a PS4, a gaming pc, a Switch and a 3DS.
With this in mind, I saw a bunch of grown ass 'playstation' and 'xbox' focused Youtubers that basically post videos shitting on the other companies' consoles and exclusives. Most of them with millions of views and full of circlejerk comments about xbox's 3RL and the 2011's PSN hacking fiasco (in videos from 2021). Most recently, some videos talk about the newly released RE7 and its ports to the PS5 and the xbox series x, comparing loading times and visual fidelity. The sony youtuber made a video talking about how fast the loading is and how the graphics are better than the xbox port, while the xbox guy did the same thing. It's just stupid. This promotes alienation and do nothing but put players againtst eachother in online forums. I feel sad to see people actively limiting themselves and closing doors to incredible experiences simply because a console is made by MS, Sony or Nintendo.
To summarize: if you love videogames and have some change to spare, do yourself a favor and invest in multiple platforms. The gaming industry along with gaming news outlets tend to present things in either/or format, leading us to believe there is a 'right choice' hidden somewhere and after you make the decision, you can proceed ignoring the other ones.
What are your thoughts on the console wars?