Hey there. You must be new around here, and maybe a bit confused. “I never bought a gaming PC,” you say. Do not worry, I will explain everything.

Welcome, Dirty Console Peasant, to PC Gaming. Chances are you are reading this on a PC, which means you own one, which means you have already got your feet wet in PC waters. Good, you will need the help.

You are probably lost and confused right now. Fear not, I understand. For years now, headlines have been toting “the end of the PC era!” It seems as though every week there is something new to kill us off.

Mobile architectures, netbooks, tablets, smartphones, consoles. Really, we have stopped caring. Every single one is “fated” to destroy us, and not a single one does. But now, those who subscribe to this “PC death” mentality probably suffered a major blow a few weeks back after Sony’s PlayStation 4 was announced.

PlayStation 3 was a nuisance for game developers in that it was using a proprietary “cell” processor instead of native PC architecture, making development difficult and introducing quite a few challenges for even the most experienced programmers. Now though, PS4 has been announced as having a “Supercharged PC Architecture.” Whoa.

“What happened?!” you may ask.  “All this time I’ve been told PC was dying, and now our hero of the fight on the gaming side has switched to the other team?!”

Yup. Welcome to The Glorious PC Gaming Master Race.

Everywhere you go in the gaming world, the PC vs. Console debate is rampant. YouTube comment sections, gaming forums, even your local game retailor all are potential places for a fight to break out. But now, with this new console generation over the horizon, we can finally end this debate, because they are both PC’s.

Now, we have yet to hear anything about the next-generation Xbox, but the PC hardware on the 360 works pretty well and is unlikely to change, and Microsoft’s roots lie in PC, not mobile, and so a transition doesn’t make sense. Also considering the Software Development Kit did not mention any hardware changes, it is a safe bet that the next-gen Xbox will use PC architecture.

The PS4 already confirmed use of PC hardware, even to the point that Epic Games Vice President Mark Rein equated it to “a really perfect gaming PC.”

So if both console generations are PC’s, and PC’s are PC’s, then really the debate comes to down to just operating system, as that seems to be all the console architecture really is.

It’s too early to begin to have that debate, so I will save that for another OpEd, but let us just wrap this up by saying that the console vs. PC debate is over.

PC architecture has been chosen as supreme by both Sony and Microsoft it seems, and given the relative failures that were the 3DS and PlayStation Vita, it is unlikely that will change any time soon.

And so again, let me welcome you all to PC Gaming. It is a fun ride, and you will sure come to love it. Just remember, never ask about Half Life 3, or else Gaben will delay it for another six years.