As someone who has both i would go series X. The gamepass makes it amazing to play and I love halo! But for you the PS5 is the obvious choice seeming you want to play so many playstation games. Plus you can get gamepass on pc or the Xbox you have now. Also i highly recomend god of war and horizon zero dawn. There just phenomenal!

Not sure about which console plays cd's. Dvd, bluray and games they both do though. I technically only use Spotify now for my music.

Ps5:

More exclusives which are really really good and it takes forever for them to port to pc

Xbox: exclusives come to pc instantly

Ps5: controller feels next gen, great controller. battery life sucks though

Xbox series: controller is great and has a great battery life. But does nothing refreshing. Still a solid controller.

Ps5 subscription (ps+) not as strong as Xbox subscription

Xbox Game Pass: amazing for a decent price per month.

In the end theyre both good. But my pc can do whatever a series x could do and more. And im not into gamepass.

Gamepass gives me choice paralysis, so its not for me.

Its all up to you, theyre both great. But i already got a great pc at work.

Digital cause I don't give a shit ig

I think the Xbox Series X can play music CDs and the PS5 cannot, is this mistaken?

What is the advantage of PS5 relative to Xbox?

Xbox series make no sense. Pc does exactly the same. Better buy a ps5 then in my honest opinion.

Yes get the series x, switch is particular for the single select games, series x is a daily machine. I have the series x, series s, switch and steam deck. Honestly could sell the steam deck and switch all the same.

I have both and now that PS5 supports VRR and 1440p I would suggest going with a PS5. The adaptive triggers on the controller is dope if you care about it and PlayStation has better exclusives imo.

Xbox is backwards compatible, but if the only reason you don't want a switch is the controller just get a pro controller... The switch is amazing, and if you're a Nintendo person this is the move, don't sleep on the switch it's an absolutely amazing console & it's portable!

Series X. The load times and quick resume is insane, and you'll have your old games. You'll also be able to play redfall and starfield which look really nice, and also you can emulate on the series X. Also most games will have X/S upgrades and 4K 60FPS.

I own the series X and highly recommend

True, these are good points, although there's also limited real estate in the living room, so if 1 device can serve multiple roles that's a win. But I definitely appreciate your perspective, that's what I came here for!

I guess one thing I'm wondering about is if you think I'll find the kind of lighthearted games I enjoy on Xbox? Like, clearly, specific Nintendo titles won't be available (at least not without an emulator), but are there simple/quick/family-style games available for the Xbox? Or is that really a market that Nintendo has cornered and I shouldn't look at other consoles?

Well, PS5 usually will be your best bet. I say give both a solid week of usage and see which one you really like. Otherwise, keep the PlayStation

Digital for convenience and speed. My internet is fairly fast so by the time I’ve gone to the shops to get the physical edition, my digital download would be well finished.

PS5 seems like the obvious choice for you, plus, if you get a gaming PC, you can play all the Xbox exclusives on it

No worries, I’ll have a nosey 👍🏻

I'd recommend looking up some YouTube videos on it. Modern Vintage Gamer has a couple of good tutorials.

How?

You could still get a Switch just buy a Nintendo Pro controller / blatant copy of an Xbox one

And Series S

Ok so apparently PS5 doesn't play CDs. Didn't know that.

Again though for the price of a Series X you'd get a Switch, a pro controller, a BluRay player and a CD player.

My point isn't that you shouldn't buy a Series X it's just that I wouldn't really see the non gaming features as being much of a selling point since you can get devices to do those tasks for a lot cheaper.

I'd pick a console you want for the gaming features it offers. It's the part you're paying the most for.

True, PS5 plays blurays but my understanding is it doesn't play music CDs. Is that right?

So, my understanding is that Switch won't play bluray or music cd; PS5 will play bluray but not music cd; Xbox will play both.(?)

Awesome, thanks for the advice & glad it's working well for you. Any other suggestions of simple, fun games that you can play with friends or family? I remember back in the day, we used to have a blast racing in Mario Kart (sorry to keep harping on this one; I'm a dinosaur and it was a big part of my youth), taking turns, etc. Doesn't have to be racing games, but have you found similarly lighthearted, fun games for Xbox (I see your Elden Ring suggestion ... any other recs?)?

Yeah, I'm definitely not getting a PC for gaming. Want something for the family room, not too expensive ($500 for Xbox is a lot more affordable than double that or more for a gaming PC), and I'm just looking to play games like Mario Kart, Sonic the Hedgehog, Madden football, NBA 2k, etc. Simple games that you can play in 10 minutes to an hour. I'd be happy to try out Xbox exclusives if there are any along these lines. The kinds of games I've tended to see advertised lately look like they have incredible graphics but might be more involved than I have bandwidth for at the moment (I dunno, things like Call of Duty, Final Fantasy, God of War, etc.). I haven't actually played these, so I could be mistaken, but they look like a steep learning curve.

The last console I owned was an N64 :-) though I've played on friends' devices over the years since then.

Is it possible to play Mario Kart on Xbox Series X? I saw some links online that suggest it's possible with an emulator, but not clear to me how straightforward it is to set up...

You can get emulators on the series X ?!?!?!

Oh, I never saw the Switch Pro controller. I guess my friend only had joycons; I found those tough to use.