PC Gaming is Dying - Please tell Steam

Every few months on this, and other forums, we hear the usual claim "PC Gaming is Dying". This claim is then followed by the "supporting"comment, "Best Buy has 6 aisles of Xbox games and only half of a bottom shelf for PC games".

Here's your answer: Steam Passes 30 Million

 

In other news, Gabe Newell dies, and everyone loses their Steam accounts...

 

So in other other news, we need to somehow make Gabe Newell immortal.

 

AHA! Gabe Newell is the man behind the crysis nanosuit.

 

A HA! I knew he had something to do with Starcraft 2.

Gabe Newell Photo below....

 

Gabe Newell

 

Nah... i think i found him... Gabe Newell

 

retail PC gaming is dying. I do love digital though!

 

From personal experience with my DVD movie collection, as well as my CD music collection, I would say my chances 1000 times greater. Of the 200 CD's and 200 DVD's I have purchased in the past 20 years, I now can account for about 12 of them. Congrats to you without wives and children who have a higher retension rate.

 

I hear ya. Except most of my old games have been tucked away out of little hands' reach. Kids DVD's get destroyed quite regularly, and usually before I can rip them for safe keeping. I guess I better just keep all my old stuff under lock and key or try to copy it before using it.

 

Gabe Newell doesn't have a CTRL button on his keyboard... because Gabe Newell is ALWAYS in Control...

 

best quote i heard in years

 

truely clutch quote

 

PC gaming isn't dying; it's some people's faith in PC gaming that's dying.

 

Yeah, same. Btw, I see you got rid of m11x. Same here.

 

Sums it up quite nicely......

 

For older gamers, traditionally how they played and expectations for PC Gaming I see is dying. Game sales doesn't necessarily argue otherwise. Especially if majority of the games are straight console ports, that would support the former. Anyways, that's how I see it.

 

Anybody else find it funny how as soon as someone makes a valid claim as to why Steam is crap, everybody else blindly denies it?

 

Will you be getting an r3 revision?

Gaming has definitely seen better days. Just yesterday I went to see how one of my beloved mmo's was doing, All Points Bulletin only to find out the company that owned it went completely under and a few months later APB on sept 21, 2010, shut down there servers. Also the new FFXIV has been rated the worst mmo of all time on Gamespot which I totally didn't expect. Honestly, what the hell are all the beta testers doing when they test the game for months on end and post on forums nothing about how terrible the game is. Doesn't make sence, but such is life. The final straw was when minonova got shut down, what the hell was that all about.

I think alot of time there isn't even enough software (games etc...) to support the hardware being released.

 

I'm getting this feeling as well. However, I don't know if it's just nostalgia that disallows me to deem any modern games great, or if they really just aren't on par with the classics. For some reason, it always seems as if the memories I have of past games greatly surpass my experiences with games today.

 

Mininova? Isn't that a pirate site?
And you're wondering why PC Gaming's dying?

 

the majority of beta testers, including myself when i sign up for beta's, only just want to play the game. that is the reason why many PC games which are trying to be innovative and new fail at it because the community they choose for beta testing just plays the game and provides limited feedback, and the developers usually never force or try hard enough to touch base with each beta tester.

and PC gaming is not dying at all. companies are trying to make every game multi-platform to bring forth more money. porting and translating a game isn't as difficult as initially writing it since all they know exactly what they want out of the game and what everything is intended to do.

also, most PC gaming companies refuse to push hardware to the limits because they would lose many customers due to not having the minimum required hardware. if they designed games for a single hardware solution, they might as well be designing a game for a console.

 

Its not easy to pc game is the problem, you have to work at it to be a pc gamer, I finally got my damn dualshock 3 connected and it took soo much messing around to do it, more then an average gamer wants to go through to play there game. I think once we can get more into digital download age we can see maybe a rise in pc gaming.

I also believe laptop is the key to revival, my gamer laptop is a godsend, just the fact that i can unplug and bring to a buddies is nice, its the multi use of the laptop thats the bigger draw for me anyways.

I beliave 3 steps are really needed to get pc gaming back to the main stream.

1. Steam - This is more than perfect service, better then psn and Better then XBL. This is what will bring all gamers under one banner, this is pc gaming needs to be the idea behind steam. One "platform" to get all your games, one online account thats used for all games, in game chat, in game text, web browser, leader boards, trophies, so on and so on.

2. Digital retail stores - Alot of people will disagree but I think this is a pillar in the succes of digital downloads. Almost everyone I know has a portable harddrive, USB3 is out but USB2 is plenty quick aswell. Places like Gamestop and Bestbuy and Futureshop need to be outfitted with computer terminals or something. Then what you do is go in , pay for a CD key or something, you purchase give them the portable hardrive then they put the game registered with the key on your hd, go home transfer it to your pc and your gaming.

I say this because not everyone has a mastercard, or likes shopping online. This would allow those people to still go to a store and buy something, maybe even demo it before hand in store. Would take less time then downloading off the net for most people, 5 min drive to store lets say then 5 min download 5 min home, 5 min transfer(probably less) and your gaming. Alot better then a 3 hour download for most.

3. More Standardized hardware - Microsoft has been going from directx to directx before anyone can adopt and really fully utilize it. Great game to compare this is Crysis even, old yes but proves my point. Even now barely anyone has utilized DX10. Also I know some people LOVE buying a new card every year, thinking OMG 10% PERFORMANCE INCREASE!!!! But the bulk of us hate it. Consoles are easy they never change no need for a new GPU, Now I, like the next guy love a new video card every once in a while, and no one is holding me down to buy the new one, but if you dont, your magically outdated even if games now dont look any better then games 3 years ago( this obviously is debatable, there are a few exceptions) and lets face it, better graphics is the reason you bought a new GPU in the first place. Hardware needs to be more unified, supported longer. The 5000 amd line and the 400 Nv line should last 3 years without new hardware being released or renamed. Sure hardware revisions, less power/performance changes, but same hardware.

These are just my views please argue them .

 

FAIL!

First issue right there. PC is keyboard / mouse. Try hooking a keyboard / mouse to your PS3 to game and see how long it takes you. Plus if you're going to use a gamepad, get the Microsoft Xbox Gamepad. Microsft Gamepad, Microsoft Windows... see the connection?

DirectX 9 has been around since 2002, 9c since 2004. DirectX 10 was a total fail and irrelevant. DirectX 11 was only just introduced with Windows 7 and will really be the next big DirectX API, but pretty much every game out there since DirectX 9 was released is DirectX 9 compatible.

I do like the idea of digital distribution in stores. That would be awesome. IIRC, there was a store that had an initiative to do that, wish I could find the article. It would actually burn the DVD right there instead of putting it on a hard drive. But that would be another option.

 

2 seconds actually, ps3 support usb keyboard and mouse..... I dont know were you were going with this anyways, Im a controller gamer, I like K/M but I enjoy a controller aswell, theres nothing wrong with this. Im also a bigger fan of sonys pad, I like the layout better, this is my opinion and hense why I didnt just buy an xbox controller.

I simply used this as an example of how difficult it may be to set up something on windows. Its not always plug and play. You can't strictly look at this from a hardcore point of view, the bulk of gamers are casual, and consoles cater to that fact. Thats why pc gaming will stay niche until they can draw that crowd in.

So DX9 is still used, why buy a new video card if a 3 year old card can run dx9 with out chocking up. Hopefully DX11 sticks around, but what about DX3d?? is that just an add on to DX11 are a brand new seperate platform. What about if nextyear AMD finally puts out their CPU/GPU? Would that require a brand new platform to code for?

 

totally agree,,, but really steam is crap.. i just hate it. And i agree that PC gaming is dieing because of ppl's loss of faith in it..

 

steam is not crap.... the only thing you need is a internet connection to download the game the first time then that is it....you can go into offline mode and play whatever.....

 

Must...resist...awesome...SALES...

That doesn't negate the fact that Steam has a huge amount of shortfalls and other issues. The client interface is just stupid, buggy, and slow. And the fact that I have to log in to a server and run another unnecessary background process is just ridiculous. When I buy a game, I want it to be mine. I don't want to be paying for and playing a game that somebody else owns, and they're just lending it to me.

 

I haven't seen anybody mentioning the biggest PiTA about PC gaming, though some of the points made have bounced off of it - PC games rarely "just work". If your console game doesn't "just work", there's something wrong with your disc or your console. If your PC game doesn't "just work", there are a million and one possible reasons: drivers for a dozen devices, 50 different in-game settings, an entry in a config file, poor optimization for driver/device X, etc. PC games can run better, look prettier, offer better content, offer an equal or better control scheme, etc., but the average game player lacks the patience to troubleshoot.

Another big downside is the lack of splitscreen PC gaming - remember playing Mario Kart/Goldeneye/Halo in your college dorm? The LAN party concept is PC gaming's equivalent, but the core difference was this: whereas the guys playing Halo had girlfriends, the guys at the CS 1.6 LAN party had hard drives full of pornography. That's of course a tongue-in-cheek representation of the situation, but multiplayer PC gaming is viewed a nerd's pastime, while splitscreen console gaming is much more socially acceptable. To put it another way, you play WoW in your basement, but you play Halo Reach in your living room - while PC gaming has become much more social (one measure of its acceptability among the broader society) in the past several years, it's still not an immediate or directly social experience like console gaming.

I think stating the same thing four different ways will suffice for now. Hopefully, the increasing availability of gaming-capable laptops will make the concept of the LAN party more socially acceptable, and on the other side, perhaps the increasing presence of big-screen HDMI-capable TV's will create a market for increased splitscreen/single-system PC gaming to challenge consoles in the living-room gaming market.

 

I thought computer is only for internet and email

 

ehhh, gaming with friends on the same screen is greatly losing its popularity fast due to high speed internet. there is no point in doing so anymore since you can sit in your own comfy chair and step back from playing a game and can take a break from your friends.

but i'm not sure how PC gaming has a nerdy stigma, though, going to LAN parties with consoles does not... rarely if there is a console around are me and my friends playing it. it just gets boring after a while since most games only support 4 players, so other people either have to sit and watch, or occupy themselves doing something else. i don't think it would be fun to drag multiple TV's to one room and get a few xboxs cooking up a room to be able to LAN some games. if I was much younger, yes, but the younger generation can't afford big screen TV's, and people hate gathering around that 17-20 inch screen when it's split 4 ways.

PC gaming is about freedom - that's one reason why pc gamers are so opposed to play console games. i feel consoles have their place, but certain games are just better on PC. the modding community adds excellent playability to many PC games. however "nerdy" anyone thinks it is, gaming is gaming - in the end you can't really justify some games being cool and something not because you're still sitting on a couch playing video games via a computer.

and in general, the majority of any of the games i have ever bought for PC have never had any issues with them. whether it be loading, crashing, etc. my games would crash due to me playing in windowed mode and multitasking while gaming, so sometimes i would goof up and do something that takes all of my system's resources, but that is my fault. console games usually run very low quality settings so the hardware can constantly render at 30 fps. i don't have that problem with PC games - if i want better framerates, i can change the settings myself. again, it's about freedom.

gaming on a console is like racing a go-kart. gaming on a PC is like racing a car. it just depends on what amount of money and how you want to spend it to have some entertainment.

 

I have had prety much ALL games on my PC "just work" for the last ten plus years. It was an issue with Win 9x platform, but more or less since XP it hasn't been much of an issue. There's no justification to say they " rarely just work". A lot of times when stuff doesn't work, people have so much crap on their PC it causes issues.

PC gaming isn't viewed as a nerd's pasttime at least from people I know, it's pretty standard and accepted. Even if it is who cares. I do have a console for the rare occasion that I have a multiplayer couch experience, but it's not something I want to do all the time.

Split screen isn't so great IMHO. Greatly reduced viewable area really sucks, not to mention smaller objects. It's ok for sports games where you see the action on the same screen at the same time, otherwise split screen is good in a pinch. I remember playing Halo 1 on XBOX split screen, it was darn near impossible to play because of the limited viewing area.

Anyhow, my two cents.

 

The PC is the only platform that is truly multi

We have access to PC games, rubbish console ports and an entire world of emulation. PC gaming will never die and even games like Saints Row 2 that had so many problems have been improved so much by the modding community that people have made purchases and reinstalled again.

Modding, total conversions, ports, emulation, total freedom and power are the only way to go.

 

Even if it's convenient playing on your own screen I loved it for the social aspect. I still remember bringing my mouse to my friends computer with "big" 15" screen (it was considered big back then) hooking it up to COM2 and then rolled Settlers II in split screen.

Same as the oldies like Mortal Kombat 2 smashing the crap of his keyboard doing fatalities.

 

Couldn't agree with you any more +1