Who killed PC gaming ?

[Deyvy]

I kinda disagree. Consoles never stay the same. Like the PS1 / PS2 and PS3 - if you bought them all on release you would have spent around £800ish.

Then you look at the games. I'd love to play the latest MGS and Final Fantasy but I'd also love to play the latest Halo, Mario, Zelda, etc. so you then get into the area where you need to buy more than one machine.

Most houses have a PC of some form just for browsing so I'd say that a decent PC is comparable to the cost of keeping up to date with the consoles.



M.

Yeah but that PC is a one off £800, where as buying the PS1,2 & 3, that £800 would've meant up to date console gaming since (accoridng to Wiki) 1994 until now and the next few years at least.

There's no way a £800 pc can have that kind of longevity.

Lots of good points raised in here, so i wont repeat them.

I think PC gaming is going towards MMO games and or very involving single player games with depth consoles cant match. Seems only way PC game companies can make money are by subscriptions. Steam seem to have the right idea in the way forward for game distribution.

You dont seem to get any hackers/cheaters in console games either..

 

[Ice Rich]

What do you mean by dead? I can't ever see the day when PC games are no longer being played.

If you mean PC games are dying in terms of no (or few) exceptionally good games being made today then I agree with you.
The blame has to be with the game producers. To the person who said "why on earth would a company want to spend $20M+ to develop a PC game and recoup a fraction of the cost as piracy" - it does not take loads of money to make a good game. I think the problem occurred when visuals took priority over game-play.

 

[Streeteh]

What do you mean by dead? I can't ever see the day when PC games are no longer being played.

The blame has to be with the game producers. To the person who said "why on earth would a company want to spend $20M+ to develop a PC game and recoup a fraction of the cost as piracy" - it does not take loads of money to make a good game. I think the problem occurred when visuals took priority over game-play.

The article means, 'who killed pc gaming as we know it', as you say it is no longer what it used to be. It's still very much alive, it's just nothing like it was, say, 5 years ago.

You're right, some of the best games are simple but well executed, castle crashers is my new awesome 'indie' game, it's all 2-d cartoons (very well drawn, but 2-d none the less) but plays brilliantly, all for less than a tenner. But then, many PC gamers here cite graphics as the big advantage PC games have over consoles so i guess those people are the ones that have put the priority on graphics.

 

[Btone]

game company's as bare some responsibly for the state of the pc gaming market, how often did they they think the could release substandard games costing £30-£40 before people turned to other means to try them before buying, now we got drm, take anno 1404, i bought it, iam love playing it dam fine game, BUT there a 3 install limit on it and from what ive read a uninstall doesn't give you one of your install back. now in the near future i will be moving to windows 7, so there 2 installs gone, if i have a hd crash or i deside to move it off my fast primary disk to my slower secondary disk ill have used up all my installs, what going to happen then,
a) spend hours on the phone running up a hugh phone bill just to play i game a bought (not rented)
b) spen 10 mins on google finding a hack to let me play the game i bought

 

[Final8y]

The article means, 'who killed pc gaming as we know it', as you say it is no longer what it used to be. It's still very much alive, it's just nothing like it was, say, 5 years ago.

You're right, some of the best games are simple but well executed, castle crashers is my new awesome 'indie' game, it's all 2-d cartoons (very well drawn, but 2-d none the less) but plays brilliantly, all for less than a tenner. But then, many PC gamers here cite graphics as the big advantage PC games have over consoles so i guess those people are the ones that have put the priority on graphics.

I think the problem is that people point out the better gfx on the PC, that does not mean that they think gfx are more important than game play, its just that if that game was made for the PC it could have better gfx.

Personally i want both & your more likely to get that on a PC as it has the power to deliver both more than what a console has.

When a game is available for both platforms i always buy the PC version no matter what type of game it is because i get the game & the potential for better gfx.
SFIV, DMC4, Lost planet-Colonies, GRID, GOW, Mass-effect COD4 & many more all look better on the PC with better frame rates & the game-play has not been degraded on the PC versions because the gfx are better than the console versions.

Most of my gaming buddies used to not know any better as they have done little PC gaming on very old PCs & mostly used consoles & go on about how good the gfx are on a particular game on the consoles until i ether show them the same game on my PC or when i build them an upto date PC which in turn changed there views completely with there buddies going around to see & the jaws start to drop.

 

[Margaret]

There's a lot of PC gamers...but most of them stick with a few games and rarely play others.

 

[Final8y]

There's a lot of PC gamers...but most of them stick with a few games and rarely play others.

I have more games on the PC than the games i have on PS2,PS3,Xbox,Xbox360,PSP combined which only adds upto 1/4 of what i have on the PC.

PC gamers are more fussy about what they buy in general & you just have to look at some of the complaints about some games on the PC that are traditionally console.

 

[DanTheMan]

For me it's most definitely about price. I spent £500 on my 360, a 24" 1080p monitor, a half decent surround sound system and an extra wireless controller, all that will last me at the very least 3 years.

If I was to buy myself a pc that would last 3 years, I'd be looking at £500 at the very least just for the tower, realistically I'd be looking at double that for everything. Even then, I probably would've upgrade something within that 3 year period.

As someone said before, diminishing returns means that I wasn't prepared to fork out double the money for pretty much the same enjoyment. I have my laptop to browse the internet and any other needs.

 

[Final8y]

For me it's most definitely about price. I spent £500 on my 360, a 24" 1080p monitor, a half decent surround sound system and an extra wireless controller, all that will last me at the very least 3 years.

If I was to buy myself a pc that would last 3 years, I'd be looking at £500 at the very least just for the tower, realistically I'd be looking at double that for everything. Even then, I probably would've upgrade something within that 3 year period.

As someone said before, diminishing returns means that I wasn't prepared to fork out double the money for pretty much the same enjoyment. I have my laptop to browse the internet and any other needs.

I know people who built a PC for £300 more than 2 years ago & walks all over the today's consoles with just £75 on a gfx card.
The second hand PC market can be a wonderful place.

 

[Pigeon_Killer]

No point having a PC Games forum any more if PC gaming is dead

 

[spudbynight]

Well...yes...of course they would do .

I was talking about sales of PC Games being higher than any console

 

[QlimaxUK]

page 5/8 (pc diagram)

what are 2 and 10 meant to be bad drawings there

 

[moomoomoo]

I dont think pc gaming is dead at all. Console games have very little replay value or depth granted i dont know what the online communitys are like on consoles but i imagen you get a lot of screaming kids who think they are pro. When a good pc game comes along it stays around for a long time people still play 10 year old + games on the pc.

People buy less games on pc because most pc owners have a huge collecion of games most of which people still play or havnt even got around to playing. Plus when you think about it there are some pc gamers that only buy certain types of games, whever it be, sim type games, rts, fps, rpgs.

Wow prooves there are plenty of pc gamers out there. The championship manager/ football manager series is another good example of a company making money based on pc game sales alone.

Piracy is a problem on all consoles. I know some one whos got their xbox 360 modded so he can copy games to his hard drive, he rents them copys them takes them back.

As for price as others have said the second hand pc market is very good you get get top spec gear for very good prices, since there are always people selling parts because they want the latest hardware. When ever a new console comes along it makes it very hard to sell your current console and makes them worthless.

At the end of the day pc gamers are older and wiser then your average console owner and dont part with there money as easy for ****ty games. But as i said before games like wow and the football manager games shows there is a big market there.

 

[Streeteh]

I dont think pc gaming is dead at all.

Read the article in the op, it isn't about PC gaming being completely dead, it's about why PC gaming 'as we knew it' is dead. It is no longer the mainstream gaming medium as it used to be.

Console games have very little replay value or depth granted i dont know what the online communitys are like on consoles but i image you get a lot of screaming kids. When a good pc game comes along it stays around for a long time people still play 10 year old + games on the pc.

This comment just reeks of a lack of knowledge of the subject matter. Console games have just as much replay value as many PC games. Also you 'imagine' you get a lot of screaming kids? I suggest you actually attempt to play online on a console before you make such a sweeping comment, it's just the same as PC gaming, you get some idiots and you get some legends. You deal with the annoyances and embrace the greats.

Wow prooves there are plenty of pc gamers out there. Look at valve and how well steam is doing. Si and valve have also done well making all of their games for pc.

True, but if figures are anything to go by they are in the minority, producing games for consoles is just a more lucrative business venture these days. Multiplatforms are the best way forward but the PC release seems to yield the smallest returns.

Piracy is a problem on all consoles. I know some one whos got their xbox 360 modded so he can copy games to his hard drive, he rents them copys them takes them back.

Again, you clearly know little of the subject matter. It is not possible to copy to and play games from the harddrive on the 360, it IS possible to copy games to a disk but then there's a chance if he poorly clones them he will get his console banned from xbox live and be forced to buy a new unit. Also i think you'll find piracy is impossible on the PS3 so piracy isn't a problem on all consoles at all.

At the end of the day pc gamers are older and wiser then your average console owner and dont part with there money as easy.

I'm not even going to justify this frankly blinkered comment with a reply.

 

[orderoftheflame]

I dont think pc gaming is dead at all. Console games have very little replay value or depth granted i dont know what the online communitys are like on consoles but i imagen you get a lot of screaming kids who think they are pro. When a good pc game comes along it stays around for a long time people still play 10 year old + games on the pc.

People buy less games on pc because most pc owners have a huge collecion of games most of which people still play or havnt even got around to playing. Plus when you think about it there are some pc gamers that only buy certain types of games, whever it be, sim type games, rts, fps, rpgs.

Wow prooves there are plenty of pc gamers out there. The championship manager/ football manager series is another good example of a company making money based on pc game sales alone.

Piracy is a problem on all consoles. I know some one whos got their xbox 360 modded so he can copy games to his hard drive, he rents them copys them takes them back.

As for price as others have said the second hand pc market is very good you get get top spec gear for very good prices, since there are always people selling parts because they want the latest hardware. When ever a new console comes along it makes it very hard to sell your current console and makes them worthless.

At the end of the day pc gamers are older and wiser then your average console owner and dont part with there money as easy for ****ty games. But as i said before games like wow and the football manager games shows there is a big market there.

I was going to write about how completely wrong you are, but Streeteh did a pretty good job.

You can have a lol and a rolleyes from me instead.

lol

 

[GizmoTheMogwai]

I spend most of my time worrying about my framerate and how well my computer is running to actually enjoy any of my games :/

 

[snowdog]

Well the reasons I haven't turned to consoles yet is all these:


1: Controls, I have a ps2 imitation pad for pc, but I simply suck with it, even in games like Grid and SF IV I play FAR better on a keyboard than with the pad, I'm simply too used to a mouse & keyboard combo. Though I do enjoy using a pad for games like Tomb Raider, Devil may cry, Sega Rally Revo or Geometry wars. FPS games there's no question about it, I detest using an analog for the camera & aiming.
2: Game genres, strategy is, and will always be, my favorite genre, consoles lack great strategy games, they have cut down versions of games ( like civ revolution compared to civ4) and also kind of reason 1, having no mouse for any strategy game like supreme commander or C&C is simply a bit rubbish... I also love sim games like OpenTTD, Railroad Tycoon, Sim City 4, etc...
3: Mods and plugins. Games like SA (SA:MP and MTA:SA Race, or for SP replace all the cars with nicer ones), Sim city 4 ( NAM mod, lots of custom BAT's and LOT's, in fact I have 2gb of plugins for sc4), star trek games ( mainly ST:BC), etc aren't the same without mods

In a lesser extent:
4: Graphics, you can get better ones on pc usually. And they keep progressing, while consoles are usually stuck with the same for years.
5: Not having to use cd's/dvd's at all. except on install with retail games. I hate optical media.
6: Having everything I want ( 2000+ GB of games, music, series, films, apps, etc) in 1 place a few clicks away.
7: All games from the past decades available thanks to emulators, while a ps3 only goes back to ps1, I can play any pre PSX game, PS2 game ( well ok about 75% of em), N64 game, DOS game, etcetc on my pc.



Though the obvious disadvantages of pc's are:

The amount of new (''gamers'') games coming out ( less then on consoles). PC lacks many adventure games, fighting games, hack and slash games, some racing games, some shooters ( even though imo gampad for them fails, you can't ignore stuff like killzone 2)
DRM.
The costs ( not an issue for me personally, dad sells pc bits so I can always nick reasonably new hardware from him).
The popularity, some of my mates are primarily console players...
The shoddy coded ports sometimes.
Ease of use ( while I personally consider using cd's & dvd a hassle, most people find find stuff on pc with hardware, configs, settings, cracks, or other things far more of a hassle than simply changing a dvd or cd and play like on the consoles). Consoles are more sit on the couch and play. Pc's, while they can be configured exactly the same and play on your 50'' hdtv with a 360 controller, still require more setting up than a console to do it. Consoles are simply more plug and play.


While consoles may now be far more popular to the general public, I doubt pc gaming will ever die... There's simply too many people playing older games online a lot still. And there are too many small games or open source projects or mods going on.

 

[Final8y]

snowdog!

Some good points made.

 

[Simi]

I found the medal of honour warchest at a carboot sale last week and in a rush of nostalgia I splashed out the asking price of £2, installed it and found a match going on online lol I couldn't believe it.

I wonder if, when a console game is as old as mohaa (7 years old) it will have games going on online?

 

[Streeteh]

I found the medal of honour warchest at a carboot sale last week and in a rush of nostalgia I splashed out the asking price of £2, installed it and found a match going on online lol I couldn't believe it.

I wonder if, when a console game is as old as mohaa it will have games going on online?

Halo 2 came out at around the same time and last time i checked (about 6 months ago) there were still some people playing it online.

[EDIT] Got my dates mixed up with Halo 1, Halo 2 is still old as hell though (2004, MOH:AA was 2002 iirc)