PC Games Will Outsell Consoles by 2014
- Thread starter Greg Tito
- Start date
Not sure how much of their sales statistics are really driven by the stuff on GOG, but I think those really shouldn't be counted. Yes they are a great service and I myself have purchased a number of things off of there. However those sales figures are more or less inadmissible to the current market of gaming. Unfortunately those graphs aren't really broken down into any specific sales market, nor really a believable prediction. Sure a PC only title is going to sell well on the PC... duh. Plus those GOG games are only available on the PC and are usually driven by nostalgia purchases.
If we add in all the people running around ebay buying old PS1 titles and SNES games sure those sales figures would go right up too, or take sales figures from when those games were released but we don't.
Either way it is good to see that the PC gaming market may make some sort of come back, honestly besides a few titles over the past couple of years there hasn't been an experience I've been willing to take on the PC over a console and no MMOs and other online games like that don't count for me.
If we add in all the people running around ebay buying old PS1 titles and SNES games sure those sales figures would go right up too, or take sales figures from when those games were released but we don't.
Either way it is good to see that the PC gaming market may make some sort of come back, honestly besides a few titles over the past couple of years there hasn't been an experience I've been willing to take on the PC over a console and no MMOs and other online games like that don't count for me.
People always miss the point about why most people would rather play consoles than PCs for gaming:
Its not about the ability of a platform to play with great graphics [sup](or at least not really)[/sup]
Its not about the ability to mod
Its not about the ability to upgrade and improve your system
What it is about is the ability to plug-in-and-play
What it is about is the ability to straight away have a completely stable, hassle-free version of a game
What it is about is the ability to kick back on a sofa and chill whilst zapping aliens or whatever, rather than be hunched over a moniter.
Consoles are about EASE OF USE. Nothing more. People often choose to forget that just because they get a thrill out of building an awesome rig for their gaming, most people do not care enough and cannot afford to do the same. People cannot be bothered to install 300 hundred windows updates to play a game, or install extra programs just so they can talk to people. Personally the half-hour or so of hassle that comes with installing a game because you didn't read the specs right is acceptable, but for other people this is not the case.
This is why Console gaming will continue to dominate the non-casual market, or at the very least, the reason why traditional PCs will never again truly dominate this niche.
Its not about the ability of a platform to play with great graphics [sup](or at least not really)[/sup]
Its not about the ability to mod
Its not about the ability to upgrade and improve your system
What it is about is the ability to plug-in-and-play
What it is about is the ability to straight away have a completely stable, hassle-free version of a game
What it is about is the ability to kick back on a sofa and chill whilst zapping aliens or whatever, rather than be hunched over a moniter.
Consoles are about EASE OF USE. Nothing more. People often choose to forget that just because they get a thrill out of building an awesome rig for their gaming, most people do not care enough and cannot afford to do the same. People cannot be bothered to install 300 hundred windows updates to play a game, or install extra programs just so they can talk to people. Personally the half-hour or so of hassle that comes with installing a game because you didn't read the specs right is acceptable, but for other people this is not the case.
This is why Console gaming will continue to dominate the non-casual market, or at the very least, the reason why traditional PCs will never again truly dominate this niche.
I'm sure the rise of sales has nothing to do with the absolutely insane sale you often find on Steam. I swear, Steam sales are like a new form of crack. Who can avoid the allure of game bundles where the games are as cheap as $1 or less per game? It doesn't take long for those $5-$10 games and game bundles to add up to some serious cash. Ask anyone who's participated in one of the big Steam sales where all their money went. Sure, Steam isn't the only place on the internets to learn how to properly separate you from your cash with the allure of cheap games. They're just the most noteworthy one.
By the way, am I alone in thinking of this video whenever the phrase "PC gaming master race" is mentioned? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OzWIFX8M-Y
By the way, am I alone in thinking of this video whenever the phrase "PC gaming master race" is mentioned? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OzWIFX8M-Y
He has also acknowledged he doesn't understand what's up with Nintendo. He freely admits that his "Wii HD by (Insert year after Wii was released but before Wii-U was announced)" predictions have flopped. His non-Nintendo related things have Nostradamus like accuracy.dantoddd said:
Besides, this isn't a prediction, this is simply reading the sales charts.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_265/7935-Punching-the-Baby-Seal-of-PC-GamingUltratwinkie said:
That article outlines pretty much what made me more-or-less give up PC gaming a year and a half ago.
Now most of the time, everything goes fine and dandy in the realm of the PC game -- most of the time you just download it, click it and BAM, you're playing, however the things that happened to Chuck Wendig in that article really do happen -- and they've happened to me (well not those exact problems, but you get my point).
I will also say that the casual gaming market is another beast altogether, and consoles will never be the king of that particular hill, but neither will PCs any longer -- I think its pretty safe to say that handhelds (ie Iphones) are where the future of that particular genre is headed.
Ah yes, but this is about the future of console gaming -- I think we can be fairly sure that after the fiasco of the Red Ring of Death on the xbox, neither Sony, MS or Nintendo are going to risk anything similar in the the next generation of consoles. I definitely predict that these problems will be gone. Though you do make a valid point that shit happens on both platform types, however whilst the RRoD is more like a hardware blip on the record of consoles, hardware failure, I would argue, is far more common in PCs as a whole, not just gaming PCs.adamtm said:
With PCs, no matter how far back or forwards we go, I believe that as long as things remain non-standardised -- as long as there are dozens of manufacturers of PCs and Graphics Cards and everything else like that, bugginess will always be a problem.
There is a standardized PC platform, its called a Mac. The last time i looked the game market for Macs was horrible. My friend just recently was totally excited to finally play Call of Duty on his Mac, Call of Duty 2 that is.Puzzlenaut said:
There is no "future of console gaming".
As is, we do not have a next nextgen console generation on the horizon. We just don't.
The WiiU is 4 year old hardware, it still runs DX10.
The future of console gaming is having more of the same. Instead of an open-world Dragon Age, instanced corridor missions with re-used assets. Because theres only so much you can cram on a DVD and just so much processing power available to display it.
The next generation of consoles will need to go with DX11 at minimum, meaning it is only -now- being developed with current-gen PC chipsets, you won't see one for at least 2 years if its even developed at all.
The future might still release faulty hardware, all systems have glitches, even Macs. The console stability myth is as flawed as the Mac stability myth.
AFAIK Fallout 3 is one of the buggiest games on Xbox. There is no "better" or "more stable".
Consoles are just really good at one thing: Plug and Play
I.E. convenience
Well, to be fair, consoles tend to age more gracefully than PCs. They eliminate some very tricky obstacles for developers and as we've seen with the current generation, developers have constantly found ways to squeeze more due to improved coding techniques and the benefit of having static hardware requirements. A PC of equivalent hardware to an Xbox won't perform as well because of hardware, driver and coding inefficiencies.SirBryghtside said:
Gaming on the PC isn't necessarily more expensive than consoles, but it requires homework, and some foresight. However, the growing need for patch/firmware updates, draconian DRM, high cost of proprietary online services and poor support for digital distribution is making console gaming look far less attractive by constricting accessibility, which is one of the core strengths of console gaming.
PC is at least a generation ahead of consoles and the sheer amount of gaming variety is astounding. It's a great time to be a PC gamer because the market is accessible, with great flexibility for consumers.
You dont need a friggin thesauras to "build" a gaming PC because todays basic systems are gaming capable, and the hardware thats being worked on for release at the end of this year and next year are geared for getting the high end abilities on low end hardware. its called laptops and not needing to care what the graphics are because it will work. This will in turn bring that ability to low end desktops integrated graphics.Witty Name Here said:
thousands of dollars for a graphics card? yes you are correct there are some that cost that mmuch. but they are also NOT gaming cards and would actualy do worse than a $100 solution because they are not made for gaming. obviously you have no real idea what you are talking about so you really shouldnt be saying "what is and isnt".
With hexa-cores available, octo-cores on the way, 16GB of RAM costing less than what most people spend o shoes, storage space nearing limits that can't be filled unless you toil for months and video cards that could render in real time what a few years ago was a CGI movie, we're heading for a very interesting time.
Are people actually shallow enough to care which platform is outselling the other? I just want to play my games and don't hold allegiance to any particular platform, just the games that I like.