Why all the talk of PC gaming dying?

With the new releases coming out and recent prices of graphics and computer hardware, I think that PC gaming is going to be stronger than ever.

I remember when I used to have to pay $300 for a top of the line GPU to max games out only 2 years ago along with higher priced flash memory and CPU prices, it was pretty expensive. Now, $140 will get you maxed out with almost every game (8800GT, 3850, 3870 or for $50 more 4850) in the GPU dept with $30 getting you another gig of ram.

I'm a recently converted console to PC gamer and I've just had 2 builds for people at work who have also recently switched. Combined with the upcoming releases, fallout 3, farcry 2, Crysis Warhead, C&C Red Alert, Stalker Clear Sky.... the titles just continue, I think PC gaming is going to be stronger than ever.

Sure, the whole piracy thing could be an issue, but with everything eles going for it, I can't see it in decline anytime soon

 

Your the only one talking about it....

 

Agreed. PC games aren't dying. They never were dying. It was just some console fanboy with his panties all in a knot making false claims when he found out PC owners could get their Oblivion expansions for free.

You can move along now.

 

Mmph. There is, in point of fact, a sizeable camp which claims the death of PC gaming is nigh. Higher development costs, on account of the need to develop for a multiple-configuration platform as opposed to the single iteration of hardware found on consoles, coupled with lower price and easy piracy.

 

Funny you should bring that up....I must be one of the few people that believe video games are meant just for consoles. I know what you're all thinking, but maybe I'm old school. I also never have any issues with any laptop I've ever owned, no matter who made it. I belive whole heartedly that games and OS don't like each other, they put to much stress on a laptop causing the heat everyone talks about.....
I use a laptop for lots of things but not "games"....it's not a bad thing, I'm not trashing the idea, but it looks like 80% of the people on this site have laptop trouble that is related to gaming, not because powerpoint caused their gpu to melt.
Anyway, playing devils advocate, you mentioned the idea of pc gaming dying, I don't know how it could even be considered.
Again, I'm not starting trouble, play what you like, I play consoles if I want to play a game....maybe it's because I've played consoles since "79"

 

I started gaming on a PC way back in '92 as Links Golf got my addiction started and Flight Simulator 4 and then Doom followed by Falcon 3.0 and my life has never been the same.

PC gaming is not dying and will never die. It's just not the primary platform of choice for developers these days. It's ridiculous when you come to think of it. A PS3 or Xbox 360 game can cost on average 5 millions dollars and up. Metal Gear Solid 4 reportedly cost something like $40 million. PC games are nowhere near that but developers want the bigger piece of the pie with consoles.

The piracy excuse is rubbish. Visit any torrent site and console games are being snagged as much as PC games if not more. IMO developers use the piracy excuse because they are lazy. EA Sports is a great example. While they were beefing up their console lineup the last 4 years their PC games were under developed to the point that they basically looked the same minus a roster update. Tiger Woods 08 (PC) looked graphically worse than TW 07 and had features removed.

I ask you, who in their right mind would pay $40 for a game that looks and plays 5 years in the past? Surely not me.

 

$140 will max out settngs in a game, but not necessarily at playable resolutions. Even the most expensive gpus in sli can't max out certain games (crysis). However, most console games get every bit of performance out of their hardware. Computer gaming isn't gear or dying, but it's lagging behind consoles.

 

whoa rod dude, looks like i pressed the wrong buttons there! didnt meant to rile you up. I just like the ease of consoles. it's a dedicated machine. game goes in, system on. that's all. i dont even play a ps3 or 360. I played a wii once and thought it was the neatest thing. it was so different i couldnt play another system and feel good playing it.
graphics mean nothing if the game isnt good. no biggie....
and last but not least, coleco vision rocked.

not to mention, a game in a console work well together, it seems like theirs compatability issues galore on a pc.

 

Without PCs there console games could not be made. Ergo, PC games could never die.

 

Compatibility issues are part of the game, right?

 

While it is conceivable that piracy and higher costs would cause a slump in the PC gaming market, the fact is some games can't be made for console. For instance, I have yet to see an attempt at making an RTS game for console that didn't completely suck.

In the area of FPS, mouse + keyboard is still a superior (more intuitive and easy to use) interface than a PS3 or XBOX360 controller. While some gamers like the additional challenge of the controller and get very good at it, keyboard+mouse lets new gamers be immediately functional as opposed to spending 10s of hours learning to aim quickly enough.

 

I don´t see any compatability issues with any game i have played on PC and I have played PC for many many years and I have had no problems whatsoever. If you mean performance, well then yes of course PC´s evolve while consoles stand still. They release a new console and that hardware stands still for 4-5 years. In that time PC´s has evovled tremendously performance wise.

This PC is dying is all crap talk. I have heard this for so many years it is just hilarious when a fanboy shouts it out just because he can´t afford a PC gaming rig.

 

So long as the PC remains a platform for work, games will continue to be developed for it. End of story.

 

I've never heard of it "dying" until I saw the post...
it's too bad that pc hardware evolves every 3 days though...I'd be pissed if I "had to have the best" pc, it would be the best for 5 minutes. I like how if a console does well, it hangs around for 5yrs or more so you can enjoy it without having to spend over a grand for a new system, then start all over.
But even if I'm not arguing here, which i'm not, it will be taken that way because I am on a PC web site, not a gaming console web site, and I dont have "pc envy", where I wish, cant wait for, or will mow 30 lawns to get the latest hp, toshiba, acer or gateway, then to be let down because there's issues with it..while playing crysis 13....or whatever.
I just found the post interesting that's all.
I know that almost all people here spend lots of cash to play games, just enjoy yourself.....

 

i got a 360 just so i can keep up with modern games.. but iam prety pumped about starcraft 2.. i hope my laptop can handle it.

 

PC gaming will not die because of the amount of money you can make from mediocre games, especially in the MMORPG Genre. You normally do not pay a monthly fee to play games online on the PS3 or the XBOX360. Heck, I play MLB 08 The Show and GTAIV every day online and the only money they have made off of me is the $49.99 or $59.99 up front fee to purchase the game. A game like Lord of the Rings Online which is considered to have average success with 250,000 subscribers paying $10.00 a month means they bring in $2,500,000 a month before having to pay employees and server upkeep. These types of games sell for $49.00 at launch just like a console game but then you pay a monthly fee to continue playing these.

Final Fantasy XI launched in November of 2002 and after their last official numbers are sitting around 500,000 subscribers over five years later. At $12.99 a month it means they are still making $6,495,000 a month off of the same game they made over five years ago before expenses.

On a console IP the only way to make money off of that IP is to make a brand new game and add in completely new areas, in most cases getting rid of the old ones. You have to add in new features to a new game, and most times getting rid of older ones. And if you are lucky, on a console they can give you two games on one console before the new console comes out. At this point you have to pay your $399.99 for a new console and $59.99 for the new game.

How many times can you beat a console RPG? Most of them only give you 2-4 alternate endings to keep you playing. After this you need to find a new console game and for a hardcore gamer who completes games fast this means you could be blowing around $120 every month on new console games. At the same time for an MMORPG lover like me I can pay just 15 dollars a month and not get better bang for my buck when it comes to entertainment.

I am not even counting other PC Game Genres into the mix but if according to the MMOGChart http://www.mmogchart.com/Chart4.html 16 million people are playing mmos monthly and the chart continues to rise, I highly doubt PC gaming is dying.

 

Um...I'm pretty sure games cause heat because they actually use the hardware in the PC, not because your OS gets angry. "Hot-tempered" is just an expression. CS:S doesn't make your computer run any hotter than rendering with 3dsMax or encoding a 1080p movie. If all you use your computer for is Word, then obviously it's not going to run hot - you're not pushing your CPU past 5% usage, and your GPU is just sitting idle!

 

From "The Onion" movie, its a skit about computer technology evolving too quickly.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KaMfFL-Rc4I

 

Laptop to melt? Wow, I guess my 15+ years of laptops I must be lucky. As I have played games on all my laptops and not a single GPU has fried or overheated.

 

This is old news. I think the reality now is: "all the talk of the PC gaming dying" is dying.

 

I don't think PC gaming is dying but its getting less popular. To get a good PC gaming computer you have to spend close to $1000 or more. Gaming systems cost from 250-500. Sure graphics in the PC look a lot better but you have to have top of the line hardware which again its costly. With PC games as well you have to worry about "Will the game run right?" "Can I play it on max" . Sure PC games are cheaper to! But with gaming systems like xbox 360, Wii, and the PS3 you don't have to worry about how games will run and you never have to upgrade. PC gaming online for most games is free and xbox live you have to pay. I have to say since PC gaming can be very complex and other gaming systems can be very simple. A good thing about PC though is if it breaks you can fix it your self. Overall I can see why PC gaming is becoming less popular myself likes the xbox 360 much better but PC gaming is a lot of fun to.

 

We just don't care because we're too busy playing our PS3s.

 

Just my $.02...

There was a HUGE divergence in the late 80's, and the rift became wider in the mid 90's:

If you wanted to play a saturday-morning-cartoon-animation game, you played a console (Super Ninendo, etc..) if you wanted anything NEAR realism, or good video effects, you played on the PC.

We had things like F19, Gunship, Mechwarrior 2 series, Quake 1 and 2, Doom 1-2... Then you start factoring in when 3Dfx came out with the VooDoo 1 in I think 1994-1995, then VooDoo2, it was a no-brainer: you played on the PC.

it took the console world a LONG time to even get to the VooDoo2-level of graphics ability.

Move to another level, still mid-90's, when Mechwarrior2 and Quake 1/2 got network gameplay, ala Kali.net, heat.net, gamespy,etc.. and it was a super-no-brainer. I blew many a weekend in Mechwarrior 2 clan matches in the mid-to-late 90's in online gameplay on Kali (Thanks, Jay!)

I've had consoles and PC's most of my life (and I started with an Atari 2600 way back when), and pretty much until the PS2 came out, it really wasn;t even close, and there was still a HUGE gap in gameplay.

Just my $.02 - and I consider myself old-school.
Still have my VooDoo 1 cards, my (2) 12Mb Monster 3D 2's and the SLI cable (the original SLI, boys and girls) and somewhere I have my old Obsidian X24 board (dual VooDoo2 12Mb chipsets on one HUUUUUGE PCi card) as well as multitudes of gaming tools, like my SpaceORB 360 (great for Quake), Gravis Phoenix for Mechwarrior2+, etc..

T

 

I don't see how people can compare a console like the ps3 to a pc and say pc gaming is dying. That console alone cost sony billions to make and to sell at the price its been at.....go dig around in your couch and see if you can find any change, if you do congratulations you just made more money than sony's gaming devision. Companies don't exactly make a habit of selling products for less than than it takes to build them. Consoles are going to continue to be more and more like pc's, so if you look at it that way console gaming is the one thats dying not pc's.

 

Unless console starts using mouse and keyboard. PC will be staying for a long long long time... Some games are just not meant to be played on the gamepad, unless they start throwing motion sensing controllers in or they invented some super duper huge touch screen tv for the consoles...

 

i think as long as people continue to use PC's then we'll have PC games

 

pc gaming is dieing! There are less games coming to the pc because they can simply earn more with games for consoles! Only games like WoW,BTF2,COD4 etc that need a original cd key to play online sell good all the other games get cracked and downloaded by millions of people. You can keep denieng it or stop downloading.....

 

I play UT3 online with my PS3/Keyboard/Mouse. I hope it's a trend that continues.

 

Why do you think people DL games? its Be Cause they dont want to buy a freakin game that they arent sure if the required Configuration to play it on max settings is a Nuclear reactor, Seroisly, dont you think there is piracy on the console side? there is, but why it isnt as mucha s the PC? because every console game runs great (there are exceptions) , in that case, they buy the game with trust that it will 100% run wonderful, while PC gaming is becoming like lottery, run or dont run. (except some good engines out there that scales well on all systems, IE: COD4 which still runs on my dad's x3100)

 

ever hear of demo version?

 

They don't play nice with bandwidth caps.

 

not all people have 1k mbit connections to DL 1gb Demos. even though, Demos arent optimized, and only 1/5 of the games have demos. and 2/5 of those demos are for some crappy kid games.

 

People will download more and more games for the consoles too. Console games are way too overpriced and considering it is only a fraction of them that is actually good. Most console games are pure junk you can´t deny that.

Games have never been meant to be played on Console only. It was PC´s and Amigas, Atari ST, Commodore 64 and so on that started it all up. There is on the PC´s that the next gen games always evolves, look at Crysis graphics levels for instance.

Besides games like GTA4 has huge framerate problems no one can deny that. I played Bad Company yesterday and lo and behold there is actual artifacting in the game, yes flashing polygons and other strange issues. Maybe they are starting to push the consoles too hard. Problem with heat, well ever heard of the 360 that has huge heat problems RROD comes to mind?

 

i heard of X360s actually bricking, and yes, GTa4 is running 30FPS or so when the street is empty or looking to the sea.

 

Actually I was a little worried when I saw artifacts in Bad Company. I own a 360 and actually thought soon it will brick. Since artifacting usually has with heat to do

 

My roommates xbox 360 ate a disk once (scratched it into oblivion). It crashes after a few hours, any yes GTA IV has framerate problems.

 

ive noticed that too in GTA4, bad framerates on the ps3 i tried it on.....i need 60 frames to play a game, which is why i went to the PC for gaming, crysis on the other hand at 30fps feels smooth though, only exception

 

yeah. wierdly, if you kept an average of 30FPS in Crysis in all situations, then its like heaven.

 

PC gaming is not going to die. As a matter of fact I plan on building my first real PC gaming system soon.

I'm talking Quad-Core, 4gigs RAM, ATI 4850.

 

smart choice

 

The PC has Barbie Horse Adventures...

 

PC had DAVE back in old days... did Consoles? NOPE! PC had doom.. did consoles have it? NOPE!! its settled then

 

The discussion should really have ended here.


PC Gaming will continue to evolve as technology advances and consoles find their place in the grand scheme of the Home Entertainment System. But games will continue to bleed into ever electronic platform, creating more titles overall for more systems. It wont be going down ANYWHERE.

 

I dont think PC gaming is dying, but I do think it is losing ground to console gaming.

One of the biggest problems with PC gaming is that consoles are now offering more and more features that used to be unique to the PC. For example, playing with a mouse and keyboard is no longer PC exclusive. Also, online gaming has really taken of on consoles. There used to be a time where online games were really only played on PC. That time is gone. Now, people into online gaming have an alternative.

Another problem I see is that the number of PC exclusives is diminishing. A lot of the games we see on PC nowadays are also released on consoles. Even games in genres that we always considered "PC-genres" are now seeing a console version (like RTS games). Again, people are now offered an alternative while only a few years ago they had to turn to PC. For whatever reason, PC game developers are pulling out of the PC market. Piracy is said to be one of the causes of this. Crytek is probably the best known example rightnow. They argue that profitability for developing games for the PC is less than developing for consoles. That creates a problem, because profit opportunity, whether you like it or not, drives developers to make those big budget titles we love.

The last problem that comes to mind is affordability. I know that PC gaming doesnt have to be more expensive then console gaming. However, "hardcore" gamers wanting to play the latest and greatest and only being content with 40+ FPS etc. will spend a lot more when gaming on PC then gaming on their console. In the country in which I live (Holland) A new gpu like the 8800 GTX/GTS is actually more expensive then a xbox360.

Despite all these things, there will always be an audience for PC gaming. The first thing you think about when I say this are the techies, but actually, I think the most people who play PC games are those casually playing "the sims 2" or secondlife(not really a game I know) or all those other non-hardcore titles that we know our relatives and non-gamer friends play. They dont buy hardware for their games, but buy games that will run on their not-so-cutting-edge hardware. Then there will always be the faithfully hardcore PC gamers. There are plenty of these. Fact is, PC gaming has advantages over console gaming. All types of things like modding games. Building your own features, having your own servers, etc etc. the list goes on. But these are typically features only the truly hardcore care about. I would expect this though: You have to be increasingly hardcore to keep playing PC games, or you have to be casual. Everything in the middle is tempted to go console.

I think we will continue to see games that do not require dedicated gaming hardware, but will play on average PCs, selling the most units. World of warcraft and the sims are a good example. PC games sold account to only 14% of total game sales in 2007. The only game in the top 10 for PC 2007 with high system requirements (relatively high, though it scales well) is COD4 (source: NPD group. But NOT taking into account downloads which would change these findings). That seems to say a lot.

Sorry that the great wall of text critted you for over 9000

 

Well I am hardcore and I need real HD resolutions. To me consoles games do look bad, bad antialiasing, really bad AF. Just played Bad Company, I have never seen such a grainy looking game. If it were on PC that grainess wouldn´t be there due to more controls of the graphical options. With a console you just can´t do that, there is no graphical options to control. PC people and we who grew up with PC at least me needs best graphics out there. Sadly my little Xbox 360 can´t deliever that experience and yes with a measly 720p resolution non existant AA is clearly visible on a 42" HD.

GTA4 same here non existant AA and at such low resolution as 1280x720 those jaggies are horrible to look at. GTA 4 is out of the question to add any AA to in the first place, the game barely runs at 30 fps even when standing still and not at all in car chases or lots of cars and peopel around. Nope GTAIV I will buy again when it hits PC. Console graphics is outdated today. Even if there is multiplats the multiplats always looks better on PC due to higher resolutions, AA and AF and high resolution textures. There is some no brainers like NHL and NBA which looks worse on the PC due to EA lazy ass not introducing the same graphical engine as the console versions. But that is the only exception.

Surely PC gaming is of course more expensive. Though I think more and more people just becomes plain lazy, humans are a very lazy species in the first place, we want it comfortable we just want to turn on the power button without having to "hassle" with drivers etc etc. Though experienced PC gamers doesn´t have to hassle at all with any game. I haven´t had any game that hasn´t started up right away, unless you have done something wrong.

To me the whole console generation is just plain lazy people, mostly younger people who thinks their console is superior to PC´s and when they get confronted with facts they just make something else up to think their console, though they know it is far behind high end PC´s in terms of graphics and performance, they still need to think their 360 or PS3 is so fast.

You know the Cell CPU that was going to praise the world, though have it? No consolites just swallow Sony´s hype every single time. They hype every console they have put out. Ever heard this statement from Sony´s Executive? "The PS2 is a supercomputer" back when it were about to be released

 

what PC devs need to do is to pull a SOLID pc Game (Revised Crysis that runs decently on mid-high end systems) then you'll watch console players going outside and buying PCs

 

I thought Bad Company looked really really good on my TV...

 

People like shooters on consoles because they don't have to learn how to control things. There's always some inherent limitations on aiming, and they all have some form of auto-aim to compensate, so people can much more easily jump in. In general, I've seen people who don't game have a far easier time acclimating to Halo than, say, Counterstrike. The only people who find console aiming incredibly different are those who are already very used to KB+M.

I'm not saying controllers are superior for FPSes (they are not), but it's incorrect to say that KB+M is easier to get used to. It's the better tool, but it's also harder to get good with.

In any case, the real issue is that consoles and PCs don't really have a great deal of crossover in genres. If I want to play a good fighting game (Virtua Fighter 5, let's say), I'm going to have to get it on a console. If I want Ninja Gaiden II? Console. Mario Kart Wii? Console.

And that last example also brings something else up... people talk about how PCs are more powerful than consoles, and that's true, but the reality is that most people don't really care about power. Top 10 charts generally aren't dominated by the prettiest games. PC devs seem to be realizing this as well, with a greater push for mid-range playability and good art design within that range. WoW and The Sims are both fantastic examples of games that weren't even pushing the envelope when they came out, but still manage to sell insane amounts today. Spore is looking like it's going to follow the same path, and hell, even Crysis: Warhead is focusing more on optimization than updated effects.

Most people who play games don't want to have to work to get their games up and running, they don't want to mess with settings or screw around with drivers or anything like that. They just want to pop the disc in, install, and play. They might not even care if the game is gorgeous or not... in fact, they most likely don't.

There's a lot of talk about "stupid console gamers" but I think sometimes PC gamers confuse "complicated" with "smarter." Having tons of keyboard commands for relatively simple things, a UI that looks like Excel and a labyrinthine setup process (assuming drivers, antiviruses, firewalls, disc emulators and the like all don't want to play along) doesn't always make a game more intelligent or deeper... sometimes they're just dumb design issues that developers don't bother to fix or streamline because they know PC gamers are willing to put up with it anyway.

Trackmania is a fantastic example of a PC game that, in my view, gets it all right. The graphics are both gorgeous and hugely (and easily) scalable, setup is a cinch, controls are simple without ever being limiting, the thing is optimized to hell and back, the interface is just this side of perfect, and it also offers the kind of community and customization that consoles can't (though they're certainly trying harder than ever).

I know it sounds like I have something against PC gaming but I don't. I wouldn't have gotten a gaming laptop if I didn't love PC gaming. But sometimes it seems like PC gamers have such animosity for console gaming that they don't see the good things it offers, or the lessons PC developers could take from it. PC gaming isn't dying, but sometimes it seems so damn defiant to change that it can feel like a dog chasing its tail.

"Lazy"? Perhaps. But why not? Games are supposed to be entertainment. People are willing to put up with driver nonsense and incompatibility BS with things like office software because it serves some sort of greater good for them, but why go through that with Crysis? At the end of the day it may be prettier but that doesn't guarantee that it's any more fun (honestly I'd rather play Super Smash Bros Brawl than Crysis, and that thing's ugly as all hell from a technical standpoint).

You're missing the point. They don't care what's more powerful. Gaming isn't some ridiculous phallus-waving contest for most people, it's an entertaining way to pass the time. I don't care if your computer can beat up my computer, or your console is better than my console, I just want to play videogames and enjoy myself. And in the end of the day, the ""superior" machine is whatever provides me with the most entertainment. If I feel like playing a 4X title then the PC will be superior that day because god knows a console has never gotten one worth a damn, but if I feel like having some friends over and making asses of ourselves then my 360 will win that day, since I've got Rock Band for it and all the processing power in the world won't make a PC more entertaining than drunkenly singing Margaritaville with my buddies.

Clearly you've never played a new MMO or tried to deal with a particularly bad set of drivers from nVidia or ATI (especially ATI, though I fully admit I'm an nVidia whore all the way thanks to some bad experiences with a Radeon 9700).

Though I absolutely agree with the premise of this argument, you couldn't have picked a worse game to use as an example. Final Fantasy XI is available on the PC, PS2 and Xbox 360. All versions can use keyboards and mice, and all play on the same servers.

 

about the Crysis part. the more it looks good, the better the gameplay even though that the storyline is crap. People would Enjoy playing on high or very high better than medium. Games these days arent about gameplay, but about eyecandy. and we can see that lets say in the upcoming Far cry 2, did you watch the tech demos? everything is overdone.. you can shot a leaf and make it spin 1k times in the air can you? this is taxing the PCs just to make this nonsence happen. instead of focusing on the shadows and essential visuals.

 

Not really true, though. Pretty much the entire MMO genre outside of Age of Conan is pretty humble looking, but they rely on art design to make up the difference. Most strategy games aren't exactly system taxing either. Racing games tend to scale pretty well aside from a few titles from Codemasters. Puzzle games go without saying (and also sell bucketloads). Adventure games stopped being about pushing the envelope sometime around Riven.

And when it comes to consoles, just witness the success of the Wii and DS. Hell, even GTA has always been pretty damn ugly despite selling obscene amounts. Concepts and gameplay are moving those units.

Really, the FPS genre is the only one that's been consistent about putting eyecandy first (at least in PR). Which is unusual to me, given that it's the genre that benefits most from smooth framerates and high resolutions, and can arguably be the most hindered by post-processing effects and other such visual extravagance.

It can seem like PC gaming has become all about graphics, though, since FPS seem to be the only games in the format that get any sort of real press anymore, outside of the occasional MMO buzz that dies down the second the game actually comes out and doesn't do as well as WoW (seriously, I've never seen a genre's public mindshare so completely dominated by a single game). Other genres, while alive and well, don't really seem to get much attention outside of their own niches.