PC Gaming Dead?

i think it is dieing,

walk into your local game or game station and see how many shelves are for pc gaming now, my local game has a small section and gamestation now have one shelf an thats it!!

PC gaming seemed to have reached its peak i would say in the late 90ies when we started seeing big developments in graphics cards and such. the 00's have been good to the pc, but '05 was pure tat, barring wow and a couple of other games

I really hope its just because they have taken over a lot of space for the psp and the xbox 360 launches and such. But i think pc gaming may be over the next 2 or so years going to change.

Cries into his keyboard. :(
 
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While there is money in the pockets of the PC gamers pockets there will be games developed. No matter the share of the market we as gamers have or don't have that certainly doesnt mean that we dont contribute a huge amount of profit to the companies pumping out our games.

Companies like Ati and Nvidia certainly aren't stupid enough to not do their market research before developing the next gen cards each time. If there is demand there will be supply, and it seems glaringly apparent to me that the demand is there.
 
Until people stop buying office and multimedia PCs in their droves (the number of people who flock a certain computer retailer these days is astounding to this older schooler), the games market will still exist... Whether it persists in its current guise is another question entirely.

Hopefully, the current slump in the PC games market will encourage software houses to produce EFFECIENT, original and beautiful games that utilise all our expensive hardware properly. But I doubt it.

I spent far too much money on my current system, and it hardly gets used at all (for gaming). The fact that I've had a graphics performance related problem for nearly a month now which I haven't been bothered to try and fix worries me slightly! I'd rather just play my £90 Nintendo DS. :o
 
It will never die....I remember reading an article years ago in a magazine saying the same thing....about the same time when games running in DOS were dying out and being run in Windows instead. PC's are for smart people who dont mind sacrificing some time to put up with bugs, patches and fixes for the more immersable style of gameplay which is ultimately more satisfying. imo
 
I think they problem with the pc market, that it really hasn’t grown in the last few years, so publishers haven’t been making more money just the same amount, so they have been trying different markets to try and make more money in the bank and don’t give a dam about the people who originally bought there products.
 
What item do I not have in my room? An HD television... What item can I not afford? An HD television... What item would make the the 360's graphics look brilliant? An HD televsiison...

I constantly hear people bitching about having to pay more than 4 pence for the most cutting edge graphics card. I never hear anyone complain about the massively priced TV that is needed to get the best out of the 360...
I'd rather have a pc that is pretty fast and can be tweaked to be faster, than have to pay the equivelant cash for an HD television, then add on the trouble of finding an xbox 360 AND THEN the bloody £50 charge for games near enough...

I bought GTA on PSP today and was disgusted at paying £37.99... For a reasonable PC game I'd usually only be looking at paying £25, sometimes less.
You can have your fancy TV and console if you want, I know I'd rather just have a reasonable system and the cash left over to afford games.
 
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Emlyn_Dewar said:
What item do I not have in my room? An HD television... What item can I not afford? An HD television... What item would make the the 360's graphics look brilliant? An HD televsiison...

I constantly hear people bitching about having to pay more than 4 pence for the most cutting edge graphics card. I never hear anyone complain about the massively priced TV that is needed to get the best out of the 306...
I'd rather have a pc that is pretty fast and can be tweaked to be faster, than have to pay the equivelant cash for an HD television, then add on the trouble of finding an xbox 360 AND THEN the bloody £50 charge for games near enough...

I bought GTA on PSP today and was disgusted at paying £37.99... For a reasonable PC game I'd usually only be looking at paying £25, sometimes less.
You can have your fancy TV and console if you want, I know I'd rather just have a reasonable system and the cash left over to afford games.
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you forgot about trying to find an HD cable for the TV as well
 
ste_bla said:
I find games a lot easier on the pc with the mouse + keyboard comb. I can never seem to get the same control on the PS2 with the annoying stick things
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I agree that some games are easier played on the keyboard but personally I find that my PS2 controller gives me the highest degree of control in racing games for example.
That could be because I was used to it having previously owned a PS2 before I migrated to the PC.
I have only just bought a PS2 to PC adapter and I am pleased with it as it actually works!
 
Until consoles add keyboard/mouse support the pc is at no risk. Why on earth microsoft did not make the 360 into a console/pc hybrid is beyond me. Once they intergrate a proper browser and multimedia player (that can play xvid etc) and let you play FPS's with key/mouse then the pc will be under threat.

And I think that would be no bad thing for gaming. For programmers to have a stable platofrm to write on would free up the time needed to make a game work for hundreds of hardware combinations, so that they can be free to be more inventive.

Problem is, this would kill hardware manufacturers and mean very little innovation in graphics cards and processors.
 
hood1971 said:
Until consoles add keyboard/mouse support the pc is at no risk. Why on earth microsoft did not make the 360 into a console/pc hybrid is beyond me. Once they intergrate a proper browser and multimedia player (that can play xvid etc) and let you play FPS's with key/mouse then the pc will be under threat.

And I think that would be no bad thing for gaming. For programmers to have a stable platofrm to write on would free up the time needed to make a game work for hundreds of hardware combinations, so that they can be free to be more inventive.

Problem is, this would kill hardware manufacturers and mean very little innovation in graphics cards and processors.
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At what point would a console become a PC??

Consoles are already using harddrives and can connect over a network/internet, if we add a keyboard and mouse it will become even more PC like.

Where is the line between the 2?

What we need is for better planning amongst console developers and OS developers that would allow software to easily be converted from one system to another.
 
DaveyD said:
Is there anywhere that says the actual numbers of games sold on each platform anywhere? Would be interested to see what kind of differences there actually are.
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I get a weekly Trade magazine from the games Industry Called MCV. All corporate and business stuff They did an articel last year on the very same topic of PC Gaming dying etc. Some very interesting statistics

* PC Games are selling at their highest level for a number of years
* More titles are sold on console format worldwide than PC
* By Platform (PC, PS2,X360 etc) the PC is 3rd behind Xbox & PS2 in terms of titles being released

When I am at home I will try and scan in the document or post that actual statistics. To me that would indicate that if anything the PC format is healthy and certainly not in terminal decline as the article would suggest.
 
Ask Blizzard if PC gaming is dieing, they can't deal with the demand. 5 million subcribers have handed over their pennys to buy the game then payed per month to play the game. Name any game that can match that cash flow in its first year?
 
I can see what you mean but I think it will be a while yet. People need computers for other things than games, everyone has one, even if it is 3 years old so while they probably can't play the newest games they will still buy games.

PC gaming has always been a niche. I think it is just that consoles are becoming so popular and "cool" compared to how they were pre Playstation in 1995. With companies spending huge amounts to be no1. You don't get this with PCs.

Once the Xbox2 and the PS3 are a couple of years old the PC will be way ahead in terms of graphics and yet it will be another 2 or 3 years before another new console gen comes out.

I like the idea that with a PC you have so many possibilities. Teamspeak, Forums, Xfire, Ventrillo, FRAPS, downloadable patches etc etc are all things that make PC gaming great. You don't get the community you can get with PC games, especially MMORPGs. But once a console can do this it might change slightly.

It is also a hobby, what would I do if I couldn't look at computer hardware, buying a console every 5 years would be boring.

Also there are 3 consoles. It is annoyig to buy all 3 to play all the games.


I am not a console hater either though, I bought the PS2, Xbox and GC and have a PSP. I only play on the PS2 and the PSP. These in total have cost more than my PC and I have played on them far less. You do not have to buy a £500 graphics card. You can build a PC that will run all games for about £600 if you wanted. You could also word process, browse the net and do an imaginable number of other things on it.
 
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Well I am old skool PC player. I am just too old to really get the hang of consoles. As several posters have highlighted, until consoles are hooked up to keybboards and mice I don't think there is any serious danger. Aside from FPS, there are also a whole range of games which simply don't appeal to the current console kiddies - strategy, simulators, etc...

However, I am getting seriously pi$$ed off with continuously trying to keep up witht he latest hardware coming out. One of the reasons the PC games market is rubbish lately is that developer don't have a stable paltform to develop to. Conversely, this is a console's forte, developers have got the time to design their games to make the most of the equipment. Us PC gamers are constantly having to trade off "well I know I could get CoD2 to look better on my PC than on the 360, but it would cost me £xxk". Then, come next September I will need to spend another couple of hundred to play CoD3 in its full glory.

I am veering towards a console. It won't be long till a keyboard/mouse will be available for consoles (PS2 already has them?), FPS will become controlable and other genres will become available and palyable on the consoles. A few peeps here have disparaged their console owning friends for not taking into account the cost of their HD TVs when talking about 360s, but they will probably go out oand get one themselves anyway. An HD TV isn't just for XMas (or consoles), it has a whole load of points that make it independantly desirable.

Yep, I'm going to wait and see if Rome Total War, or something like it comes out successfully on a console and then opt out of the PC hardware rat race.
 
Imagine if Valve were to bring out steam for the 360! and imagine they packaged half life 2 up with CSS, Keyboard and a mouse (or just made it compatible) and also allowed you to join PC servers. If that happened i reckon you could start writting your goodbye letters to PC gaming.

Imagine being able to play CSS and BF2 with a mouse and keyboard on a £280 console without ever worrying about finding the cash for upgrading!!!
 
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Exactly. I don't think there is any technical obstacle to it happening either.

The wife wants a HD flatscreen anyway, maybe I can get the sign off for the Xbox on the back of this!
 
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