PC Market Growing says EA

[Spektor]

He probably did, and disagrees with it, claiming games stores have less selection of PC games now more than ever, just because MMOs and The Sims are raking in the money does not reflect on the industry as a whole. Thats like saying the Dreamcast was a booming sucess because Shen Mu, Soul Calibur etc were so popular.
EA sees the profitable aspects of markets and exploits, so expect to see more Sims and more MMO.

I don't know where to start with this. First of all lets just get this out the way, PC game sales are doing better now than they ever done, its has grown pretty consistantly over the last couple of decades rather than declined. Right from there, saying: "the particular game store(s) I have been to don't have as big of a PC section as they used to", you're looking at the wrong battle, as all that is showing is highstreet retailers vs online retailers/content delivery services, not PC games vs everything.

So because WoW is doing amazingly well and single handedly decimates any of the consoles games, it shouldn't actually be counted towards a reflection of how well the PC is doing? Awesomesauce. Then you're strange statement about the Dreamcast... which was actually very successful, Sega already had pretty bad debts coming from the Saturn era, which was a flop - they were financially forced into abandoning the support of the Dreamcast and any hopes of creating future consoles, sure PS2 and Xbox were extremely competitive, but Sega was already on shakey ground before the Dreamcast was even released. But surely you can see how the PC just can't be compared to a single console manufacturer and certainly not the Dreamcast if it were? and then to compare WoWs success on the PC to Soul Caliburs on the Dreamcast? I think you just fell out of reality into magic fantasy land on that one.

 

[queamin]

Out of the last 20 games i brought 1 game from the high street and that was c&c3 and that was because i forget to order it thinking i had done and so i went out and got it on the sat.
There are 2 sides to EA.
1. is that every year you get almost the same game as in sims and the rest
2. they will port a game over to almost every system even if it is good or bad.

 

[peetee]

spektor perhaps i should have used the saturn as a comparison.

You'v failed to see my point, Iv made a few posts, you should read the others to get the jist of my arguement else you take things out of context.

My point is we dont really get anything new, MMOs might be booming, same for the Sims, the profits of PC games should therefore be taken with a pinch of salt, as theres a decrease in QUALITY new games of more traditional genres IN MY OPINION.
I freely admit that PC games market is profitable, my point was that its profits are not growing as fast as console, due to consoles becoming more and more popular - with PC users also buying them, the Wii encouraging people who would otherwise not buy to buy, whereas PCs are confusing for a lot of the market, due to the added hassle which comes to average Joe using a PC.

This in my opinion is a sign that the PC gaming market it not booming, and does infact risk dying, due to a lack of quality new games for the WHOLE of the market, and the focus on consoles due to the potential for more profits.
If this trend continued we'd end up only having PCs for MMOs and strategys/simulators, which im fairly sure would kill PC gaming for a lot of people.

 

[spirity]

Why do threads like these remind me of watching a woman run for a bus

 

[mr.sly]

spektor perhaps i should have used the saturn as a comparison.

You'v failed to see my point, Iv made a few posts, you should read the others to get the jist of my arguement else you take things out of context.

My point is we dont really get anything new, MMOs might be booming, same for the Sims, the profits of PC games should therefore be taken with a pinch of salt, as theres a decrease in QUALITY new games of more traditional genres IN MY OPINION.
I freely admit that PC games market is profitable, my point was that its profits are not growing as fast as console, due to consoles becoming more and more popular - with PC users also buying them, the Wii encouraging people who would otherwise not buy to buy, whereas PCs are confusing for a lot of the market, due to the added hassle which comes to average Joe using a PC.

This in my opinion is a sign that the PC gaming market it not booming, and does infact risk dying, due to a lack of quality new games for the WHOLE of the market, and the focus on consoles due to the potential for more profits.
If this trend continued we'd end up only having PCs for MMOs and strategys/simulators, which im fairly sure would kill PC gaming for a lot of people.

"We don't get anything new" - PC gaming usually gets everything first.

"A decrease in quality new games" - 2007 was probably one of the best years for PC gaming in a long time. If anything it's going up.

"I freely admit that PC games market is profitable, my point was that its profits are not growing as fast as console" - And they don't need to, the whole market is growing each year, just because Halo 3 sold a few million it doesn't mean PC gaming can't grow.

And again, PC gaming isn't dying, there's plenty of quality titles around and I'm sure we'll see a lot more this year.

 

[Timdog]

tbh if fps games on the console could all use mouse and kb i would never buy a pc again, and a lot of my fiends feel the same way. but until they do ill be a pc gamer mainly. but my experiences with pcs has just been too troublesome and annoying. the constant need to upgrade. to me a console is just more economical and a lot less hastle

 

[Darkwave]

tbh if fps games on the console could all use mouse and kb i would never buy a pc again, and a lot of my fiends feel the same way. but until they do ill be a pc gamer mainly. but my experiences with pcs has just been too troublesome and annoying. the constant need to upgrade. to me a console is just more economical and a lot less hastle

I'd say the same but building and upgrading will always be a passion for me. In fact I'd say something almost opposite: If consoles didn't have exclusives I wanted, I wouldn't own one.

Edit: I just noticed you said "constant need to upgrade", such rubbish.

 

[Timdog]

I'd say the same but building and upgrading will always be a passion for me. In fact I'd say something almost opposite: If consoles didn't have exclusives I wanted, I wouldn't own one.

yea well my 3700+ and agp 1950 is getting pretty dated now, and tbh i cant see me upgrading it cause i just got a 360 and theres just so many good games out for it. maybe after uni or during my placement year ill treat myself to a new pc

Edit: I just noticed you said "constant need to upgrade", such rubbish.

yea i know as you can see i dont i mean like a new graphics card once a year which is more upgrading than ill do with a console

 

[Darkwave]

yea well my 3700+ and agp 1950 is getting pretty dated now, and tbh i cant see me upgrading it cause i just got a 360 and theres just so many good games out for it. maybe after uni or during my placement year ill treat myself to a new pc

Considering the X1950s came out about two years ago, and if you're talking about a Pro then it wasn't exactly the best at the time anyway, I'd say you had a very good run.

Saying there's a "constant need" to upgrade is, frankly, totally exaggerating.

yea i know as you can see i dont i mean like once a year which is more upgrading than ill do with console

Yeah but you still don't really have to, which was my point.

 

[Timdog]

Considering the X1950s game out about two years ago, and if you're talking about a Pro then it wasn't exactly the best at the time anyway, I'd say you had a very good run.

Saying there's a "constant need" to upgrade is, frankly, totally exaggerating.

i bought it last jan, it was the best agp and seeing how i had only bought my pc a year earlier i didnt feel like an entire upgrade . but yea it can still play most games, but on low which i hate. and yea i was exaggerating

Yeah but you still don't really have to, which was my point.

well i suppose i only did because i bought mid range cards. had a regular 6800 before, i reckon an 8800 would last me a good few years

 

[Darkwave]

well i suppose i did because i only bought mid range cards. had a regular 6800 before, i reckon an 8800 would last me a good few years

TBH this is what I mean when people say you need to upgrade a lot, and I know you were just exaggerating a bit, but if you go from a 6800 to an X1900 then you've pretty much had unbeatable value even as far as console buying goes.

 

[ins0mn1ac]

Here are Gamespot's top rated PC games for the last twelve months.

Crysis rated higher than Portal is PURE blasphemy!

(Yeah I know the Orange Box is near the top also!)

 

[Margaret]

If there was a constant need to upgrade could you please tell me how the 8800GTX (November 2006) still rips through all games? With the except of Crysis on Very High.

Lets face it, 8800GTX/GTS 512/GT aren't exactly going to be completely incapable of playing new games on reasonably high settings for a good while still.

 

[Darkwave]

Crysis rated higher than Portal is PURE blasphemy!

(Yeah I know the Orange Box is near the top also!)

I wasn't paying attention to the scores as I don't bother with Gamespot, I was just using it as a general list of fantastic games that came out in the last 12 months.

 

[Timdog]

TBH this is what I mean when people say you need to upgrade a lot, and I know you were just exaggerating a bit, but if you go from a 6800 to an X1900 then you've pretty much had unbeatable value even as far as console buying goes.

yea it was good value, but i would have to buy everything except a hard drive and a psu so i just decided screw it and bought a 360

surprisingly fps games arent that bad on a controller

 

[Darkwave]

surprisingly fps games arent that bad on a controller

Each to his own but I just can't get used to them for FPS at all.

 

[Timdog]

Each to his own but I just can't get used to them for FPS at all.

well it is a lot more spray and pray for me but in vegas 2 i just sit on a corner and wait with a shotgun

surprisingly i made my decision on the same day gta 4 came out, what a coincidence

im sure i could quite easily be convinced to upgrade if some fantastic games are released though

 

[queamin]

We are month orso away from the next nvidia/ati cards cannot wait to see what sort of power you get for £100 nevermind £200 to £300 with luck it be a good jump from gtx.

 

[Edinho]

Wait...WAIT.

So, no consoles game have needed patches, none of them have crashed?

No hassle? Howcome so many people can't play the PS3 version of GTA IV without it constantly crashing?

Getting RROD on your Xbox 360 and waiting weeks or going down the shops for a replacement isn't hassle?

Personally my PC hasn't crashed since I installed Vista (over 8 months ago) and I've had zero blue screens.

Pull a random guy (or girl) off the street. An ask them the run GTA IV on the pc and console. Most will struggle to get the pc working, what happens if drivers need updating?

Your here on a pc tech forum hardly qualifies as being Mr average.

 

[mr.sly]

Pull a random guy (or girl) off the street. An ask them the run GTA IV on the pc and console. Most will struggle to get the pc working, what happens if drivers need updating?

Your here on a pc tech forum hardly qualifies as being Mr average.

The general population who play games (because that's what we are talking about) will be able to load a game on a PC. And if they have never played a PC game before, it's not hard to open the manual and read. If they fail at that, then they fail at life and don't deserve a PC. If drivers need updating, Vista will handle that for them, its not the best the best way to handle driver updates but it works.