There's been a lot of things to take in after the past month of console (specifically Xbox one) news. We had Microsoft telling us all sorts of things that we want for the next gen, without really listening to what we wanted, then doing a complete 180 and saying that in-fact we were right all along, but that it was going to take its ball (new features) and go home.
Then you had Sony being sarcastic and poking fun at Microsoft, whilst somewhat concealing the fact that publishers could implement their own draconian DRM on the PS4 if they wanted.
So where do we stand now?
It's good news the Xbox One is now going to allow used games and loaning like it did before, and though it's a shame some of the fancy features like family game sharing and gaming without a disc are gone – Couldn't Microsoft have figured a way around that? Like letting you play without the disc if you're online? - this is obviously the environment people want. Unfortunately for Microsoft this makes it more like an expensive PS4 with a bundled camera, than a unique, future proofed console.
On the other end, you have the PS4 introducing an online fee, which is understandable, but a shame because the lack of one was one of the big selling points of the PS3. That said, the PS4 is looking to be cheaper and like the latter years of this generation, chances are the big titles will all be cross platform anyway, so it's the smarter choice at the moment for console gamers, Xbox turn around or not.
But ultimately? The PC is the real winner here.
You have disc based games if you want them, digital downloads if you want them with very little in the way of restrictions, the biggest indi market in years – giving you direct access to the creators if you want to make sure the money all goes to them – and all the big games that consoles have never been able to get a look in on: giant MMOs and MOBAS being the most noticeable.
We really haven't had it this good in a long time. The PC can do almost everything they can on consoles and much more with almost none of the restrictions.
The thing is though, we haven't just suddenly been given all these features over night. Services like GoG and Steam and Humble Bundle aren't some new thing that's being forced down our throat. We've had time to adjust to these features and gradually got used to them as part of our gaming lives.
Microsoft attempted to bring about a lot of the PC's innovation from the past half decade and get console gamers to accept all of it in one key note speech, that was never going to happen. Instead it should have offered a premium account that had these features or simply made them all opt-in to allow those that want to use them to do so.
Ultimately the people that did the best out of the whole Xbox One debacle was us, the PC gamers. PlayStation fan boys may feel like they won out, but we still don't know the extent that publisher controlled DRM will be used on it and Microsoft has had to scale back its advancements, once again leaving the PC miles ahead of the competition.
Combine all this with the fact that PC hardware is more affordable than ever, where you can get a pretty good gaming system for far less than $1,000 and it's a great time to be a PC gamer.