BBC article "PC rules supreme in games world"

This article leaves me rather confused. Just in case links don't work in first posts ( http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7960498.stm), here is the first paragraph of the BBC article with the name in the title:

**The personal computer is king in the world of games, according to a new report by the PC Gaming Alliance.

On the opening day of the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, the Alliance said the industry made about $11 billion world wide last year.

PCGA president Randy Stude said these figures underline the PC as the "Number 1 platform for gaming world wide".

"Despite Xbox LIVE and PlayStation, the online platform that remains the most accessible and robust is the PC.**

After hearing so many proclamations that PC gaming is dying, particularly because of piracy, this article seems to turn that on its head. Am I looking at it too simplistically?

 

MMO's create the majority of the money... sad really, they're terrible games

 

I think this is a rather simple issue and people just make it a lot more difficult than it needs to be. PC gamers aren't going away. The consoles do a good job of bringing in new recruits to the pc gaming world.

I don't think anyone I know who liked pc games before this has quit playing pc games. Seems to be the trend to me.

Laptops are also consolidating this since now you can go play with your friends anywhere without so much hauling of equipment.

 

Thanks Tinderbox

The closing bracket was on the inside of the URL. Edited.

 

PC is not the only one with piracy problem. im guessing it will only get worse for consoles.

 

PC's are the most flexible as you can play on a desk, hooked up to your HDTV and on a laptop as well. I love all the mods that are created to greatly expand the lifespan of a game. I like the satisfaction of being able to upgrade and tweak the hardware of your PC unlike a console, but at times we also like the simplicity offered by a console where many times you just pop in the disc and play.

Call me crazy, but I would like to have more console games be ported to the PC to take advantage of mod support, higher resolutions, graphical settings, etc in addition to PC-only games. I hope games like Gears of War 2and Fable 2 will come to PC. You can hook up PCs to HDTVs and play with console controllers and fully have a console experience, best of both worlds. I like to have an all-in-one solution rather than purchase a PC and console.

I am glad to hear that many current arcade systems for instance are simply using PC components like a Core 2 Duo processor and so these games would be easy to port to PC or emulating them would be easy. It would be nice for future consoles to also use PC parts as well.

 

because of wow i guess?
anyway, i too, believe that PC gaming is staying for sure. I don't really mind the developers to port game to PC as long as it's ported properly unlike GTA4 or stuff like that. And i believe the upcoming of Onlive will really boost PC gaming, that is, if they succeed.

 

I think the article is not confusing at all. Like it is mentioned there the boom comes after the retail, which means not exactly that more games are purchased, but rather they are drawing more money on subscriptions and so.

 

Well, the Xbox 360 is the closest in that regard. Anyways this console generation is a good experiment in the sense that the consoles now are rather an hybrid between pc and console. I think the next generation of 'consoles' will be more like pc's than today.

 

Indeed. Many PS3 games require mandatory installs and some have optional installs to the hard drive and with the newest Xbox 360 NXE update, you can optionally install your games to its hard drive.

The PS3's hard drive can easily be upgraded to just about any 2.5" hard drive like a PC.

PS3 and Xbox 360 games are now getting patches for games and system updates to the OS just like PC's have for years.

With the Sega Saturn, it had a slot where you could insert an optional memory module to expand the amount of ram and thus increase performance in games and some games did require that module. This is why games like X-Men vs Street Fighter were superior on the Saturn vs Playstation.

 

off topic:why because you play FPS that are "oh so original" and skilled... Suddenly i pay much less attention to what u say without that old avatar

On topic:I agree pc gaming is here to stay there are so many things you just can't do with only a controler and as stated above consoles are become more and more like PC

 

Well I will continue to use a computer/laptop until there is a game console that allows me to play with keyboard and mouse. I find the console controllers to be so stupid with their mini stick things to move around with. The truth is if the average FPS player on PC went up against the average PS3/XBOX360 FPS player the PC player would completely and utterly dominate. Also being an RTS fan I would pretty much be unable to plays RTS (yes i tried halo wars and that but the controls are just stupid).

I also hate how console FPS are so dumbed down, Halo 3 is so hugely over rated, its actually a really game and then the developers decide to come along and dumb down the PC version of games while they are at it.

Piracy is a problem for consoles as well, ever had a friend come back from Asia with 20 pirated games? Also consoles will start to get hit harder by the second hand market already. Retailers in New Zealand likes EB games are finding it near impossible to sell games that are over 6 months old because they are so much cheaper second hand (they deal in second hand games too). The second hand PC game market is slowly becoming strangled by the likes of steam and other forms of DRM which make them that much harder, if not impossible, to sell.

I hate how class mates of mine from school claimed that console games don't have as many bugs as the PC games. It is absolutely wrong, and at least now console games know that when said patch comes through. It is just like how Apple users say OSX is more secure, when unless I am mistaken they have had just as many if not more security patches in the last 12 months as Vista.

 

PCs are still needed to develop the console games. So yes, unless that changes PC gaming will always be around.

And as long as PC games are being sold for approx. $10 less than it's console counterpart then that's the platform I usually opt for despite owning a Wii and a 360.

 

keyboard and mouse > controller

i have a 360 that i have used a total of under 20 times since ive had it (i had it since the DAY it was released)

I have much more fun and prefer playing on my PC, than i have ever had playing any game on nintendo, genesis, n64, ps2, xbox and xbox360 (all the systems i have owned)

i play TF2/CSS/Q3 daily on my PC. for about 10 years

 

It might be getting a lot of cash, but I think it's losing originality and complexity, going the way of console games.

Rainbow Six is a good example. Play Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield on PC, and then play Rainbow Six Vegas on the PC. You'll find the latter a poorly ported shootemup. You'll find the first an intricate, rewarding, unique tactical FPS. Heck, the amount of care put into it is clear: the first, a PC game designed from the ground up, supports widescreen resolutions. Despite Vegas being released later, no widescreen support is to be seen, aside from user made mods. The developer's apathy for PC is increasing as the times go on.

PC games are continually becoming console ports. Many of the games available for PC are also now on the console, such as Far Cry 2 and BioShock.

 

lol that doesn't make any sense. just because PC is required to make console a game doesn't mean that it *has* to be used to make PC game as well.. anyways PC gaming wont die simply because it's too big of a market to ignore.

 

Hey, when you've played one of them for 2 years, you've played them all. Never again...

 

I've a wii emulator for pc...

 

Considering PC's are in pretty much every household in North America and Europe, I'd say there's good reason to believe PC games aren't going away. Problem is that in order to get smaller and lighter, system performance is going backwards. But that may not be a bad thing either. It will force optimization.

Bottom line is that if it's electronic and has even rudimentary controls, there will be games.... read up on how pong came to be!

 

the ps3 is the only games platform that doesn't have piracy

 

Indeed, games of old had in many cases much better gameplay and lasted much longer than their modern day counterparts as the developers seem to concentrate alot on the graphics. Eventually they will become content with the graphics and return to gameplay as graphics can only improve to certain extent..here's hoping that the case anyway. Fear 2 is quite a good example of this recently where they simply optimised the older engine as it already looked quite pretty.

 

That's only because they use Blu-Ray, and nobody really cares to be downloading 25-50GB. Once BR becomes standard since it won the HD war, and as bandwidth goes up, BR will be pirated no problem. Of course Sony paid dearly up front for the BR technology in every console.

But this brings up an interesting point. If you compare sales of PS3's to X360's and respective sales of games, then if piracy was really an issue, then you'd see a significant % reduction in game sales on the X360 over the PS3. But you don't...

 

Fear 2 is just the original engine optimized? I find that hard to believe.

 

Considering that you need a big rig to supply the most of the newest hardware, PCs will always be the best gaming rigs. Unless they make consoles more like computers size, so you can keep upgrading or w/e.

You know what I mean? Im saying that the newest hardware, like gpus and what not are getting bigger all the time. And consoles are always getting smaller. So consoles are just a way to play the newest games for a year or 2 and then you have to upgrade to the newest console...etc etc etc

 

Not exactly. Does the PS2 (old version, not the new one) and the XBOX are bigger than the PS3 or XBOX360? The PS3 I believe is even bigger than the old PS2. Not sure about the 360.

 

yeah, I suppose I was referring to the wii, crap haha I guess they arent getting smaller. I havent played consoles much after I sold my 360 bc it was a piece of crap. The wii was the only console I was thinking of...for some reason I dont know..

But then now that brings another point. They have to make their consoles bigger to hold the largest amount of hardware out at that time, so it can withstand a few years of new technology?

 

^^ Post. LOL!

Anyways, PC Gaming has always been the best experiance, the best graphics .etc

Consoles are nice for chilling, but the serious PC gaming is were its at. Also think about this, those hard core PC enthusiasts that want the top 3DMark Vantage score who say.

"FFS! ITS 4 POINTS TOO LOW! Thats it, Im Tri-SLI'ing the Highest end GPU!"

Think how much console users they replace. They spend as much on their PC rig in a half a year that a console gamer would spend in multiple years.

Also, PC's have more attitute, the way they load. The noises they make. Its like a living creature. You pet it, you clean it, you upgrade it. It fails POST and then says *BEEP! lol. Filthy mouth!.

^ That shows you how really PC people are. Mentally insane.

PC: Grgrggrrrrr.

*Aww PC want some food. Here
*Jams a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in the cd drive. And slowly forcefully closes it.

- Btw, Mac's are a bunch of clones, they all look the same, and run the same, "where the hell are my pc quirks!" they have no attitude.

And who the hell names their product after a fruit!.

 

^ you just sounded like a typical console gamer LOL

 

Ive been PC since Windows 3.1, I love PC and I will never leave it.

Above I was just acting funny. And a typical console gamer would be more like:

"PC IS DUMB, YEA IM GONNA SPEND $7,000 TO PLAY CRYSIS".

"Consoles have the best GPU, its running at 1080p! Computer screens cant even go 52". They just are small, like 50p"

^^ Those are the type of things that come out of typical console gamers mouths.

 

yeah it's pretty ridiculous what they say/assume. it's best to just ignore altogether lol.

 

Of course, console gamers are mere peasants whereas PC gamers are the elite master race living in grand castles.

Sure, a console is much easier to maintain than a PC, no need for upgrading parts to play the latest games, many games are simply pop-in and play whereas with many PC games, a bit of tweaking is required to run the game well in the game settings, OS settings, GPU settings, etc.

BUT, like the peasants they are, they live in puny little huts that need little maintenance and care and are stuck at limited framerates and resolution and of course we live in grand castles that tower above these console huts but some sacrifice is required in maintaining them.

 

Technically every engine is just optimized. They build on top. But anyways, F.E.A.R is using the old engine all they did is up the lighting.etc and then make better shaders. Now days all those post pro effects make anything look good. Good Ol' Shaders.

 

Blue-Ray in my opinion is a mess. CD Format sucks, they needa move on. USB is the way to go. Lets see CD Read Speed 280Mbps sound about right.

Max of 400Mbps, poor, USB 2.0 is 480Mbps. USB 3.0 (Comming Soon) is up to 5gb.

Btw, PS4 was said to have no more CD format.

 

The problem is that when Blu-Ray drives get faster, the Playstation 3 will still be stuck with its 2x speed drive, just as the current Playstation 2 models are still stuck with 4x DVD drives from 2000 which are relics compared to today's DVD drives.

If the drive was upgraded in future Playstation 3 models, those owners would benefit but with future games, those with the older models and slower drives would be left out in the cold.

The slow 2x speed of the Blu-Ray drive in the PS3 is why I am guessing many games need mandatory installs on the PS3's hard drive, especially many multiplatform games. For instance Grand Theft Auto 4 and Fallout 3 run straight from the disc on the Xbox 360 but need roughly a 4gb install on the Playstation 3.

 

I would argue it is the other way around; it is the PC that is limited by console development. It is too often the case that PC gamers get a gutless port of a console game instead of an actual PC game. Take GTA IV, CoD 4, etc - they are essentially console games played with mice/keyboards. PC gamers deserve more than mere ports. We don't want a console experience, that's why we game on PC. PC gaming should be a higher-level and far more sophisticated gaming experience but it increasingly isn't due to console development. I haven't seen a true PC game - one that actually takes advantage of what a PC is - in years.

Think about what could be done with PC if as much time was put into the optimization of them as console games. Crysis came to PC in 2007 - it was very hard to run because it was poorly optimized - and now over two years later we have the "great" CryEngine 3, a supposedly new engine but the new name really disguises a stripped-down and more optimized version of the original CryEngine 2 that powered Crysis but for the console crowd. The result? A console game that looks almost as good as Crysis. I personally find this insulting - why couldn't we PC gamers get something that optimized? It's just like DOOM 3 on the original Xbox - it's insulting to see what we could have had. Crysis never materialized into the catalyst it could have been, that is, one that would drive graphics forward. To date we haven't seen a better-looking game. Fallout 3, FEAR 2, etc - graphical realism hasn't moved forward in a long time. There's hasn't been a jump like DirectX 8 -> DirectX 9 in years. We've been on DirectX 9 for how long now? Graphics in games that came out for the Xbox 360 when it was first released still look great because we haven't seen much better, even on PC. And the reason why is because consoles aren't capable of anything much better. If you need any more proof that consoles are holding back PCs, look no further.

Now, I understand that there is a very small percentage of PC gamers that have ultra-powerful systems. However as Valve has shown, you don't need a super powerful computer if the software is optimized enough - take the Source engine. Any game based on it runs well on even lower-end PCs; Half-Life 2 runs on integrated graphics. A lack of development is killing PC gaming as we know it - or rather, the game developers increasing console development and tucking PC gaming under it.

The sad reality of all this is that I don't see PC and console remaining separate experiences for long, at least as far as some genres are concerned (namely first-person shooters). Real-time stragegy (RTS) is one genre that will always be one of PC's general exclusives, but other than that, if it can be done on the dummy consoles, then . . . well, I think the future of the theoretically superior PC gaming experience there is in jeopardy. PC gaming is more than just playing games with a mouse and keyboard versus a controller, but it certainly isn't being treated that way.

 

All the great games are not getting remade Bring back Homeworld and Dungeon Keeper..PLEASE !!

 

......I know a bunch of guys play COD WAW, COD4 MW @ counsel then I tell them to play on PC . Then they stuck with it because of the natural keyboard-mouse controll is way ezer ( well in my life that is ) . I have been a counsel gamer as long as I have been a PC gamer . They both are great , but I rather the PCs because of it's mutiplayer and vast task you can do with it. I mean just look at the 1st 8bit counsel till now all of them are trying to copy what a PC can do (music, video , internet, message)

PS: as the post above ..bring back homeworld ...yup ~~ I miss that game. I would like MS bring back Freelancer , that was a great game....

 

homeworld and freelancer were both great games. freespace 2 wasn't bad either. i love relic as much as blizzard but wish they would quit making warhammer games.

 

hehe I like Warhammer 40k (just like the cartoonish way of playing it ) but yeah I guess relic was stuck onto this recession. lol

 

Well said!

I hope CD format goes away. I know it's cheap, but it's getting very antiquated. Solid state is the way to go in the near future. Fewer moving parts, the cheaper and more reliable it is (eventually).

If the next gen consoles stick with CD, we're doomed to be with that format in general for another ten years. Only a huge company with a huge selling console like Sony Playstation can make that happen. Of course then Sony would be obsoleting their own BR technology. But if they can convince the world they need this NEW technology then it's just more money for them.

 

One game I want to see is Warhammer 40K OL ....expecte date 2012...it just release some new nice pictures ...so

 

I think that physical discs will not go away anytime soon. While USB drives and other media have their benefits over optical discs, optical discs will probably stay due to their low cost of manufacturing. Look at back when the Playstation and Nintendo 64 were around. New Playstation games typically cost $50 whereas new Nintendo 64 games typically cost $60. The cartridges used in the N64 were much more expensive to make than the CDs used by the Playstation. I believe that DVDs and Blu-Rays are cheaper to produce than USB flash drives and SD cards, are they? I believe games distributed on flash drives and cards would cost more than if on DVDs and Blu-Rays and most customers won't take kindly to that.

 

Sony executives said they would be awfully surprised if PS4 had a CD Format, they said they are almost 100% sure PS4 will NOT have a CD format.

USB may not be whats coming right away, but unfortunately, we will probably see next gen consoles mainly being downloadable content. I don't think we are that far away from USB though. The product costs aren't that much more than a CD. Just look at how cheap hard drives have gotten and how cheap USBs have gotten over time.

Sony 1 Pack BluRay 50GB 2X BD-R = $20.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817172040

Kingston 32GB Flash Drive = $59.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820134848

BluRay: 50GB/20.99 = Aprox $0.41/GB.
USB: 32GB/59.99 = Aprox $1.87/GB.

&

DVD: 8.5GB/$1.69 = Aprox $0.19/GB.


Now I've seen flash drives nearly a $1.00/GB on sale, but right now its still a bit pricey. But look,

Brand new PS3 game is about $59.99. Assuming the retailers get the recordable media 50% what we pay, which is far more than they actually get it for. It would mean out of $59.99, aprox $10.5 is spent on the CD. So the game is $49.50 without the recordable media, now if we replace it with the USB (50% our price). It would cost $96.25.

$49.5 vs $96.25 Big difference nearly double. Too much, however, in 2004 a 1GB Flash Drive was Aprox $25, thats being conservative. Now days, a 16GB Flash drive runs a similar price.

So lets say 4 years gone by, 16/4 = 4. 4x Increase of original value / year.

So if you look at 32GB for $59.99, in only 2 years, 32x4+32x4 = 256GB will be $59.99, making it $0.23/GB. Affordable. However that logic can be somewhat flawed. But if you just even look at portable hard drives, my 1TB backup ran me $148. Thats $0.14/GB. USB is a reality not far away. It won't take long. Just look how fast and cheap MP3 players have gotten.

And unless if consoles want to stick to CDs and have to start installing every game, well then they better move to usb or DLC within the next 1-2 generations. Games love to stream info as you play now days, and 280Mb/s is not fast enough. 480Mb/s is more sufficient, and 5GB/s would be great.

So I see Downloadable content being the next thing, then USB and DLC.