Comments on: Is PC gaming on the way out? Long live consoles?

By: Kevin

Kevin — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 15:05:00 +0000

I love this topic. Let's face it, the mainstream audience is turning its back on the desktop PC, and soon the laptop PC. The PS3 and 360 make it so easy to do all the PC home essentials (video, internet, photo, music, internet gaming) from the luxury of your couch for half the price of a well-built desktop PC. Now Google TV is here – combining the internet with the TV. The Ipod/Ipad have taken a lot of the audience also. The PS3 and 360 are basically cheap mini-computers for your TV with most the kinks worked out of them. Why wouldn't the mainstream audience want them?

Desktops are going to become a specialized platform, mostly for mouse-controlled strategy games and FPS's. Even some newer MMOs are starting to walk away from traditional PC formats. Desktops will always be good for detailed business work, such as using Microsoft Office, Photoshop, and Video Editing. But for the mainstream audience… I think technology is going towards more of a living-room friendly environment.

By: Richard

Richard — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 00:56:00 +0000

The reason PC games are not selling in retail shops as much as console games is PC gamers tend to be more tech savvy and buy games vastly cheaper online from companies like Play.com (which is now the biggest UK seller of computer games) instead, it's nothing to do with popularity of gaming as a whole. :)

By: Richard

Richard — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 23:56:00 +0000

The reason PC games are not selling in retail shops as much as console games is PC gamers tend to be more tech savvy and buy games vastly cheaper online from companies like Play.com (which is now the biggest UK seller of computer games) instead, it’s nothing to do with popularity of gaming as a whole. :)

By: Richard

Richard — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 23:56:00 +0000

The reason PC games are not selling in retail shops as much as console games is PC gamers tend to be more tech savvy and buy games vastly cheaper online from companies like Play.com (which is now the biggest UK seller of computer games) instead, it’s nothing to do with popularity of gaming as a whole. :)

By: Jake Lockley

Jake Lockley — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 06:54:00 +0000

PC gaming in short is not dying, but less attention is being paid to it than before for a couple of reasons.

1) is the decline in intelligence of the average technology user. Any monkey can put in a disk on standardized hardware and pick up a fisher price styled controller

2) Consoles target the masses and that means more dollars so console development comes first with PC development coming last.

With the dumbing down of technology (Mac appliances, big pretty shiny candy colored buttons and GUIs that wow people visually but provide no real functionality, Vista, OSX simplifying the experience by hiding complexity or removing it) consoles as computer appliances have a larger market. Add to that the different consoles which require more money and more time to target each specifically and their capabilities by the time developers get to the PC version IT's capabiltiies are not harnessed or taken advantage of so the experience is not as overwhelmingly good as it good be. For example to target the Intel and AMD chips true capabiltities there would also have to be two different versions of the PC game, one for each chipset. Given that it's a smaller market than the consoles which developers have already spent time targeting specifically the PC has become the bastard step-child and merely gets a single port of the console version.

All it will take it is more games that target the PC and take advantage of it's capabilities, for example MMOs, mods, or if anyone every gets around it distributed game assets and intelligence (think games that are mashups) and the PC games market will carve out it's own more advanced niche.

By: Jake Lockley

Jake Lockley — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 06:54:00 +0000

PC gaming in short is not dying, but less attention is being paid to it than before for a couple of reasons.
1) is the decline in intelligence of the average technology user. Any monkey can put in a disk on standardized hardware and pick up a fisher price styled controller
2) Consoles target the masses and that means more dollars so console development comes first with PC development coming last.

With the dumbing down of technology (Mac appliances, big pretty shiny candy colored buttons and GUIs that wow people visually but provide no real functionality, Vista, OSX simplifying the experience by hiding complexity or removing it) consoles as computer appliances have a larger market. Add to that the different consoles which require more money and more time to target each specifically and their capabilities by the time developers get to the PC version IT’s capabiltiies are not harnessed or taken advantage of so the experience is not as overwhelmingly good as it good be. For example to target the Intel and AMD chips true capabiltities there would also have to be two different versions of the PC game, one for each chipset. Given that it’s a smaller market than the consoles which developers have already spent time targeting specifically the PC has become the bastard step-child and merely gets a single port of the console version.

All it will take it is more games that target the PC and take advantage of it’s capabilities, for example MMOs, mods, or if anyone every gets around it distributed game assets and intelligence (think games that are mashups) and the PC games market will carve out it’s own more advanced niche.

By: Justin Hilyard

Justin Hilyard — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 10:03:00 +0000

People have been saying that PC gaming is dying for decades. I sincerely doubt that this time, it just happens to be true. Yes, consoles are a more stable development platform, but gamers have no trouble getting 99% of games to run. Even 16-bit or earlier games on Vista can be managed by them using DOS emulation software, which at its current point runs DOS games just as well as the actual OS itself. (It's not like that hasn't been an issue already anyway; has anyone here ever tried to get a game from the pre-Windows 3.0 days running on XP without emulating it? It's near impossible, compatibility mode aside.)

PC gaming might be slipping now, but it's not going to die off any time soon.

By: Justin Hilyard

Justin Hilyard — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 10:03:00 +0000

People have been saying that PC gaming is dying for decades. I sincerely doubt that this time, it just happens to be true. Yes, consoles are a more stable development platform, but gamers have no trouble getting 99% of games to run. Even 16-bit or earlier games on Vista can be managed by them using DOS emulation software, which at its current point runs DOS games just as well as the actual OS itself. (It’s not like that hasn’t been an issue already anyway; has anyone here ever tried to get a game from the pre-Windows 3.0 days running on XP without emulating it? It’s near impossible, compatibility mode aside.)

PC gaming might be slipping now, but it’s not going to die off any time soon.

By: Justin Hilyard

Justin Hilyard — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 10:03:00 +0000

People have been saying that PC gaming is dying for decades. I sincerely doubt that this time, it just happens to be true. Yes, consoles are a more stable development platform, but gamers have no trouble getting 99% of games to run. Even 16-bit or earlier games on Vista can be managed by them using DOS emulation software, which at its current point runs DOS games just as well as the actual OS itself. (It’s not like that hasn’t been an issue already anyway; has anyone here ever tried to get a game from the pre-Windows 3.0 days running on XP without emulating it? It’s near impossible, compatibility mode aside.)

PC gaming might be slipping now, but it’s not going to die off any time soon.

By: Justin Hilyard

Justin Hilyard — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 10:03:00 +0000

People have been saying that PC gaming is dying for decades. I sincerely doubt that this time, it just happens to be true. Yes, consoles are a more stable development platform, but gamers have no trouble getting 99% of games to run. Even 16-bit or earlier games on Vista can be managed by them using DOS emulation software, which at its current point runs DOS games just as well as the actual OS itself. (It’s not like that hasn’t been an issue already anyway; has anyone here ever tried to get a game from the pre-Windows 3.0 days running on XP without emulating it? It’s near impossible, compatibility mode aside.)

PC gaming might be slipping now, but it’s not going to die off any time soon.

By: Damian

Damian — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 05:19:00 +0000

A hundred bucks says that the next XBOX release will be something lame like the XBOX720 or something.

This time, double the already many dimensions. Good arguments spoken for I see, nonetheless.

I still say that Vista, and any further release of Windows MUST come with DOS. I don't like downgrading just to play old games again. (Owns Vista unfortunately.) And shutup, I have DOSbox; it just works better on a Mac, ironically, than on Vista.

By: Damian

Damian — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 05:19:00 +0000

A hundred bucks says that the next XBOX release will be something lame like the XBOX720 or something.

This time, double the already many dimensions. Good arguments spoken for I see, nonetheless.

I still say that Vista, and any further release of Windows MUST come with DOS. I don’t like downgrading just to play old games again. (Owns Vista unfortunately.) And shutup, I have DOSbox; it just works better on a Mac, ironically, than on Vista.