I’m thinking about moving from my Xbox Series X to gaming on a PC, aiming for something mid-range around £400-£500. With recent price hikes on consoles and some doubts about the future of console gaming, I want to know what challenges I might face. Will I be able to play the same games I have now and keep my save progress? What about playing with friends, especially if some games don’t support crossplay? Also, is it worth trading in my Series X to put money towards a PC, or should I hold on to it? I don’t really know how all this works, so any advice or insights would be awesome!
4 Answers
I’d say hold onto your Xbox for now. Building or buying a decent gaming PC under £500 is tough and can lead to frustration. PC gaming is super rewarding but requires more hands-on time figuring things out, like driver updates and game settings, which is very different from the plug-and-play Xbox experience. Plus, some games you own on Xbox might not even be available on PC without buying again, and crossplay isn’t universal. If you plan to invest more later, PC is great, but for now, your Series X will probably offer a smoother ride.
I recently did a similar switch. I sold my Series X (got around £300 trade-in value) and bought a pre-built PC for roughly £615. Specs were decent: Ryzen 7 5800X, 32GB RAM, a 3070 Ti GPU, and more. Be prepared to spend time tweaking settings and cleaning up the hardware if you buy used. Cross-save is really hit or miss depending on the game, so some progress might not transfer. Also, keep in mind that once you’re in the PC world, it’s an upgrade cycle—you’ll want to update components over time. Overall, I’m really enjoying PC gaming again, and felt I got good value for my trade-in.
Honestly, if your budget is just £400-£500, your Series X is still probably going to outperform anything you can get for that price in a PC, especially when it comes to graphics performance. GPUs alone often cost as much or more than that. Also, unless your games are Play Anywhere, you’ll have to repurchase many titles on PC, which adds up. If you want smooth cross-save and multiplayer with friends, sticking to Xbox for now might be simpler. But if you’re up for learning and tinkering, PC can offer loads of flexibility down the line.
If your games are Xbox Play Anywhere titles, you can play them on PC and often keep your saves thanks to cloud syncing. But not all games support this, so it’s worth checking each game you care about. Also, a heads up: That Xbox app on PC can be pretty glitchy, so many people prefer using Steam for PC gaming instead. With your budget, you might not get great performance on some newer games—they can run poorly unless you lower settings. Make sure to check out PC gaming forums for build advice to get the most bang for your buck.
