Epic say 'The Money's On Console'

[TriedandTested]

Simple fact is that PCs and PC games don't offer anywhere near enough over the console market to justify the significantly higher price tag.

The only advantage they have is the resolution that games can run at. That's it...and 'that' is not enough.

And it has all been compounded by the huge increase in piracy, and the fact that the majority of other gamers don't give a damn about it happening. You even see it right here on these forums: game screenshots being posted well before the game is out and all that seems to drag out of other posters are smilies and 'lols' about where they also got it from.

You make your bed...

 

[Antar Bolaeisk]

Simple fact is that PCs and PC games don't offer anywhere near enough over the console market to justify the significantly higher price tag.

The only advantage they have is the resolution that games can run at. That's it...and 'that' is not enough.

The cost difference isn't as much as it's made out to be.

Sure for a high end rig you're going to be paying a lot but in reality it's not necessary. As has already been mentioned a relatively cheap 5770 can put a console to shame and the majority of people will have a computer to which this simple upgrade can be made.

 

[Aedus]

Epic say 'The Money's On Console'

Tell that to World of Warcraft.

 

[ruffneck]

I used to get everything for my pc, as soon as I got that first voodoo 2 card I was hooked. Now I have a PS3.

Its just easier, on a nice HD tv I think it looks and plays fine, and more to the point most of my friends have one.

 

[TriedandTested]

The cost difference isn't as much as it's made out to be.

Sure for a high end rig you're going to be paying a lot but in reality it's not necessary. As has already been mentioned a relatively cheap 5770 can put a console to shame and the majority of people will have a computer to which this simple upgrade can be made.

No, the price isn't massively different now but the difference is big ENOUGH to make people think twice and often opting for the cheaper, yet still more than capable, console.

Also, I would hazard a guess that a lot (majority) of people have run in to the same problems we take for granted and can easily resolve (hardware compatibility, driver issues, error, CTDs, performance of games etc etc - it's a long and off putting list to most, and doubt they want to shell out more for the 'privilege' )

 

[Evilsod]

-snip-

Regardless of your opinions on piracy, Activision did everything they could to encourage it. Don't try and point fingers at that, thats the sort of bull**** the devs do because they can't face upto the fact they made a crap game. MW2 was a complete rehash of MW because they knew exactly how to get the profit for the minimum effort, these map packs do nothing but backup that claim. All they did was ride teh hype of the old 1, up the advertising budget and reap the rewards.

When you **** off half your pc playerbase by eliminating the very thing that the pc is built on, i fail to see how it is then to be expected that they wouldn't just pirate it for the singleplayer and to hell with it. If, like devs, you're making the idiotic assumption that a pirated game = a lost sale then you've already lost this before it began, because that is NEVER the case.

 

[Grey M@a]

I used to get everything for my pc, as soon as I got that first voodoo 2 card I was hooked. Now I have a PS3.

Its just easier, on a nice HD tv I think it looks and plays fine, and more to the point most of my friends have one.

Same for me, big PC gamer for the last 12 years or so but with all my friends now dumping gaming rigs and going to the consoles. Recently with my 8800GTS dying and struggling to find an upgrade to replace it to fit in the shuttle SX38P2 pro the 360 has become my gaming platform as of late.

For years I held off getting a console again but with everyone I know dumping their gaming rigs for the console, if I want to get decent games in then I tend to end up on the 360.

 

[drowsyn]

PC gaming right now is in a vicious cycle. 90% of today's PC games are terrible console ports, and that leads to people rather playing on the consoles. That on the other hand, leads to developers/publishers giving the PC versions even less time, or just not releasing one at all. If you look at games that were built for the PC first, those are still selling extremely well. Maybe Epic should try not shoving ****ty ports like Gears of War down our throats if they want to make some money. It also wouldn't hurt to not have played the game a year earlier on the 360.

As for the "this and this are why consoles are superior"... It's funny how people seem to be stuck in 1999. The "constant driver problems" and "incredibly high price tags" are barely a part of PC gaming nowadays. The problem is that people nowadays are getting so simple, that putting any effort into putting together a good computer is just too much. I'm telling you, Wall-E had it right. A few hundred years from now, people won't even walk on their own because it's too much of a hassle. I'd be surprised if I've spent more than a couple of hours tuning my computer in the last year, and I update my drivers whenever new versions come out. It literally takes a minute once a month to update graphics drivers. Is that seriously too much? There's also the "but my games won't run on the PC" argument, which is actually fairly valid, but again that's only really the case with those bad console ports I mentioned. GTA IV looks like a game that should have come out in 2004, but still barely runs on many computers purely because it's so badly ported. On the other hand, more or less everything that was developed with the PC in mind, runs just fine on even an average machine without there being much of a need to minimize graphic settings.

But I'm sure the PC will be fine, at least as long as consoles are pad-operated and run the majority of their games at 30fps. Competetive gaming (shooters and RTS's in particular) will always be more attractive on the PC since the mouse/keyboard setup with games running at 100+fps is just so much better for that. The proper resolution helps too.

 

[TriedandTested]

When you **** off half your pc playerbase by eliminating the very thing that the pc is built on, i fail to see how it is then to be expected that they wouldn't just pirate it for the singleplayer and to hell with it. If, like devs, you're making the idiotic assumption that a pirated game = a lost sale then you've already lost this before it began, because that is NEVER the case.

Wow. Great justification for killing off your own games market. Always looking for someone/something to blame. It's this level of simple-mindedness that has been the bane of PC gaming for the last x number of years. Bravo.

Imagine a world where no PC games were pirated/stolen - imagine how strong PC gaming would be right now with all the massive benefits of dedi-servers, higher res graphics, (in some cases) better control systems. Imagine what it could have been by this stage...and now compare it to what it is.

 

[arc@css]

I bought a 360 the other week because I was fed up of missing out on certain titles, specifically Gears of War 2 and the Halo games. Has it been worth it so far? Yes - but the nasty jaggy graphics, annoying whiny kids on voice chat, and the fact that MS want you to pay for just about everything vexes me as a long time PC gamer familiar with an open platform.

It's a great console, no doubt. But its shortcomings frustrate me. However, they also have the effect of pigeonholing the Xbox into a certain area. It can't replace my PC, but it does fill a niche.

Yeah, I keep thinking about getting a console. The PS3 exclusives...I wanna play Uncharted!



I remember John Carmack saying the days of the PC coming back to dominate the consoles are over, and to be totally honest I can't see it any other way either.

 

[reflux]

Imagine a world where no PC games were pirated/stolen - imagine how strong PC gaming would be right now with all the massive benefits of dedi-servers, higher res graphics, (in some cases) better control systems. Imagine what it could have been by this stage...and now compare it to what it is.

I really do find this whole argument very tiring. People constantly banging the drum about PC piracy, yet totally ignoring the rampant piracy that occurs on consoles. Yes, PC piracy is a problem, but the main reason why developers are leaving the PC is because there is much more money to be made on the consoles. This is patently, totally obvious. It is a bigger market that is far easier to promote and support.

 

[TriedandTested]

As for the "this and this are why consoles are superior"... It's funny how people seem to be stuck in 1999. The "constant driver problems" and "incredibly high price tags" are barely a part of PC gaming nowadays. The problem is that people nowadays are getting so simple, that putting any effort into putting together a good computer is just too much. I'm telling you, Wall-E had it right. A few hundred years from now, people won't even walk on their own because it's too much of a hassle. I'd be surprise if I've spent more than a couple of hours tuning my computer in the last year, and I update my drivers whenever new versions come out. It literally takes a minute once a month to update graphics drivers. Is that seriously too much?.

Wrong. People aren't lazy/simple - they just simply don't have the time or the interest in resolving what are (still!) very real issues with PC gaming. Just look at the majority of threads about games on here - always people having one problem or another, or something not happening as it should. Not everyone enjoys, or has an interest in, PCs like people on these sorts of forums. In fact, the majority don't. Gaming for them is a small part of their lives and when they are faced with often difficult errors/issues to sort out they lose interest..quickly.

 

[craig3000]

I don't agree. Firstly you'll need **** off superb broadband EVERYWHERE. Maybe, in 10 years time, in the richer parts of the world.

But in addition the hundreds of millions of console gamers aren't going to suddenly buy PCs to access cloud hosted games, they'll buy the latest sony 'console' to do so. The fact that it will be a dumb terminal that will stream everything from the cloud won't matter a jot to them.

This is the point a lot of people aren't getting - most console owners aren't computer literate. This is why they've bought consoles. They want to game, and PCs are complicated and expensive, and buying PC games is a minefield.

Gaming might well move onto the could, doesn't mean it'll move to PCs.

I'd say in 10 years cloud gaming would be very widespread, **** off superb broadbrand would be a fairly common place by then and accessable to the majority. In 10 years the technology behind it would also have moved on massively, better streaming techniques etc.

As for the 2nd point you've completely misunderstood what I've said, I'm not saying ex console gamers would buy a PC to play in the cloud. I'm saying they would simply switch to their PC's to connect to such a service, as it would be the cheapest option, I mean if you have a console then surely you have a PC to do other things, work, internet, email, social, school etc.

And my point isn't when gaming comes to the cloud it will move onto PC's, I'm just stating the fact that while people ramble on about the death of PC's that infact it is the console that will die out in the nearish future. Don't take it too seriously lol

 

[reflux]

Wrong. People aren't lazy/simple - they just simply don't have the time or the interest in resolving what are (still!) very real issues with PC gaming. Just look at the majority of threads about games on here - always people having one problem or another, or something not happening as it should. Not everyone enjoys, or has an interest in, PCs like people on these sorts of forums. In fact, the majority don't. Gaming for them is a small part of their lives and when they are faced with often difficult errors/issues to sort out they lose interest..quickly.

It's a PR issue more than anything else. There's nothing wrong with PC gaming these days and it has come a long way. But it doesn't have enough platform support behind it. Look at the Xbox - Microsoft's marketing department has actually managed to convince thousands of customers that a RROD - a complete hardware failure - is a normal and acceptable occurrence.

The PC doesn't have that. Muddled interfaces, software and hardware compatibilities produced by so many different manufacturers and a 'PC Gaming Alliance' which does nothing but line their pockets with money from console gamers (I'm looking at you, Epic and Microsoft).

PC gaming has a bad image - far too easy to tar with the piracy brush, far too easy to tar with the inaccessibility brush.

 

[arc@css]

More money, most def. Plus the fact that the console market is so accessible to people. You buy it, plug it and get in game. With PC's, although I and I expect quite a few of us enjoy and have an interest in looking at updates, patches and configurating things to make an improvement, however, there are still times when it is just nice to turn something and have more or less complete hassle free gaming. That's also where consoles shine.

 

[mame]

I like my PC and I like my PS3

I've slowed down on the PC upgrades recently as all I seem to do try to get console ports to run well. I'll probably end up upgrading the graphics card when I can buy a £120-£150 card that's about twice as powerful as the GTX260. that could be some time. If they bring out Half-Life 3 etc with insane textures etc I'd buy a graphics card tomorrow but I think those days have passed.

I was playing the Just Cause 2 demo the other day and, as you can imagine, it doesn't run the best on my GTX 260. It's playable but pretty choppy and it would bug me and if I bought the full game, I would end up playing the game for half an hour at at time, quitting and then reading graphics card reviews to see what I 'need'. I know I would. Out of interest I downloaded the PS3 demo and tbh it's arguable which runs/looks better overall due to the slowness of the PC demo on my system. Ofcourse all I need to do is spend £300 on a 5870 and all will be well. I know the PC version is higher resolution, higher textures etc but my PC is much more powerful than my PS3. Anyway, when I tried the PS3 demo, this is pretty much what I saw (not my video)

After trying the PS3 version, there is no way I could impress a console-only gamer buy showing them the PC demo on my PC as it is today. I just get the strong impression that these games are only made with consoles in mind. They obviously spend a lot of time optimising them for the hardware. I just don't think the PC version gets that attention and I'm left to subsidise this lack of optimisation by buying a £300+ 5870. Not today ta.

 

[reflux]

Let's not forget how close consoles are getting to PCs these days too. Both the 360 and the PS3 offer an 'install to hard disk' option - one that PC gamers have been 'enjoying' for years and years!

Problem is, the more they become like PCs, the more their shortcomings appear - locked down platforms with companies that want to monetize everything.

 

[TriedandTested]

I really do find this whole argument very tiring. People constantly banging the drum about PC piracy, yet totally ignoring the rampant piracy that occurs on consoles. Yes, PC piracy is a problem, but the main reason why developers are leaving the PC is because there is much more money to be made on the consoles. This is patently, totally obvious. It is a bigger market that is far easier to promote and support.

It's doubt it's anywhere near the numbers that pirate PC games.

And I'm 'banging the drum about PC piracy' because it's killing your platform, yet you are completely ignoring this fact. All you have to do is read what developers etc are doing to combat it or are moving to console only.

Everything about the PC games market is dwindling and yet all I see this side of the fence is people giving reasons to justify it happening. The developers don't say things or implement/try new security measures for fun.

You can also see it in the game release schedule for PC gaming this year - it's dire. Compare it to the PS3/360 release schedule and you may end up close to tears.

I don't favour either (console or PC), I'm not in to all 'that', but I only play games on my 360 (or the occasional PC game like HL2 or whatever) because I don't have the patience or interest in what is involved in gaming on PC.

 

[TriedandTested]

It's a PR issue more than anything else. There's nothing wrong with PC gaming these days and it has come a long way. But it doesn't have enough platform support behind it. Look at the Xbox - Microsoft's marketing department has actually managed to convince thousands of customers that a RROD - a complete hardware failure - is a normal and acceptable occurrence.

The PC doesn't have that. Muddled interfaces, software and hardware compatibilities produced by so many different manufacturers and a 'PC Gaming Alliance' which does nothing but line their pockets with money from console gamers (I'm looking at you, Epic and Microsoft).

PC gaming has a bad image - far too easy to tar with the piracy brush, far too easy to tar with the inaccessibility brush.

I totally agree.

 

[DampCat]

We need a Dead PC Gaming sticky, really. It can be full of serious discussion on thoughtful response, without the need for 4 threads a week.