Not heard that every year for the past 20 years. Hasn't PC gaming always been dying? Ignoring the fact it's stronger than it's ever been.
But is it though? The only thing really working on the PC at the moment is the Indy scene.
AAA titles are just a cluster
**** of bugs, poor optimisation and dumbed down gameplay.
Take CoD:AW as an example. The PC player base at peak times is only 15k globally, usually as low as 7k in general. CSGO has around 130k online right now, often peaking at around 250k.
Those are huge differences considering AW is supposed to be a AAA hit to demolish all other CoD games.
Pretty much every game released on PC these days is a bug fest that is simply an afterthought because we all know the devs primarily code for consoles.
This gen consoles are already showing they are pretty capable. Nowhere near my PC, but what is the point of having all that power if devs are not going to design for it? It makes the extra grunt and capability of a PC a bit of a moot point.
Over the years we have seen PC only titles freefall into insignificance. Who can remember what the last AAA game was that was solely designed for PC? I know I can't. We are bombarded with constant ports, or poorly optimised and tested versions of the console games.
The bottom line is, if you put a mouse and keyboard into a current gen console, they would actually be the superior platform in overall usability and functionality as far as playing games are concerned. When you add in their multitude of media functions it is clear to see how far they have come.
We tend to think of PC's as the superior platform, and it is true they would be if their capabilities were utilised. But they are not, and in the cold light of day we see that the PC market is taking a back seat due to the prevalence of relatively cheap console platforms and the fact that devs are catering for their largest market (consoles).
Because of this, it does not matter how much more powerful PCs are, they won't be getting the support of devs. The next gen of consoles will be even more capable, and even though PC technology at that stage will be a lot higher, if we see the trends continuing, then PC game sales will be such a small fraction of the revenue stream for devs they probably will stop developing for the PC platform entirely. At some point the cost benefit analysis is going to show that the PC platform is simply not financially viable for devs/pubs. The fact that PC gamers are getting tired of poor ports and lazy development further compounds the problem as they will refuse to buy titles because of how badly let down they have been time and time again (in fact this is already happening).
There seems to even be a big shift on Steam too. On my store page, the majority of titles they are trying to sell me are early access or niche Indy games. Sure there are some big hitters but most of it is games and devs I have never heard of. That is not to say they are producing bad games, but they are not going to produce the same level and quality of content that consoles will be getting. Sony are already trying their best to integrate the Indy scene into PSN as well.
Whilst I don't think the PC gaming scene will ever die, I do feel that the amount of high quality games on it will reduce to such a level that owning a gaming PC will not be worth the money.
In fact, for me personally I already see this to be true. I spend more time playing older (better quality imo) PC games on a high spec rig than I do playing cutting edge ones that test my setup. SO in many respects the exrtra power and increased cost of my PC is simply wasted.
CoD:AW was the latest new game I brought. I spent about 8hrs on the SP and about 20hrs on the MP. Then gave up.
I have spent more time playing Unreal SP than I have AW SP. That in itself is a damning indictment of modern PC games.
