Poll: PC Gaming Future?

[Lunar Templar]

lol
no
if i had to hazard a guess its the consoles that would die first from how much more costly they are to their company's.

 

[Ricardo Marques]

Simple thought here..

PCs are needed to make games. Dig down from here.

 

[Idlemessiah]

Honestly its more like "consoles" are becomeing PC's.

Eeeeyup. Pretty much this. The only thing consoles can't do right now is word process or run CAD. They basically do everything apart from the "boring work programmes". MS might as well just add kinect compatibility to PCs and you can have the same things.

 

[Atmos Duality]

PC gaming won't ever truly "die". There is always going to be at least someone who gives enough of a fuck to create something inexplicably fun just because they're bored. Niche fulfillment and all that.

As for MAINSTREAM gaming? The real question lies not in "will PC gaming become the future of mainstream" so much as "Can consoles survive the costs of development again?"

If they can, then consoles will remain dominant. Convenience and initial cost will trump the technical superiority of PC gaming in terms of mass-market appeal. At least until we hit the cost-ceiling for electronic processors (when Moore's Law no longer applies; bedlam).

We're looking at the Proprietary Publishing systems vs Console Gardens.
The PUBLISHERS ultimately control the fate of mainstream gaming; not Sony, Microsoft or Nintendo (especially not Nintendo anymore), and the Big Three will have to suck up to the Publishers even harder with an appealing platform to invest in or the publishers will default to PC.

 

[MrTub]

Actually I like more the consoles. Especially for the controls. I was never big on PC gaming and I just downloaded TF2 and I hate the mouse and keyboard to control a game.

Dude you can use the same controllers on a PC as you do a console. both a PS3 and a 360 controller. "Controller" excuse is just something to make you feel better about a preferance and be completly ignorant at the same time. This is one of the reasons consoles as gaming machines is on the decline. excuses such as i prefer a controller and i prefer to sit on my couch infront of my bigscreen TV are completly irrelevant. today you can do the same exact thing on a console as you can on a good laptop and more and more people know that. Laptop PC's will kill both the console and desktop PC market.

If you look at the cell phone/mp3 player/portable game device market you can see it is completly controlled by the smartphones. why would you want a cell phone an MP3 player and a game machine when you can have a phone that does all 3 just as good with more functions than all 3 would have? you wouldnt unless you were an uber geek that just has to have all of them regardless of redundancy. Thats what laptops are doing today in the PC market and console market. why would you have a console to play games and movies, a desktop PC for work and internet, and a laptop for portable version of the desktop? shit no you would buy a laptop and do all 3.

Laptops are not quite ready to dominate yet because the vid cards on them are still getting roughed out and the best laptop vid card today is mid/top range for a desktop card. give it a couple years and most likely before both Sony and MS bring out the next gen consolized PC a laptop GPU will be as good as any desktop.

Its impossible for a gpu in a laptop to be as good as a gpu in a desktop. (Unless they invent a new way of cooling stuff)

The biggest reason is that laptops cannot have enough cooling while with a desktop you can use watercooling or use chassis with several fans and lots of space.

 

[Tax_Document]

Millions of people use Steam, 10 million WoW Subscribers, 25 million play League of Legends, not to mention other games/services, hundreds of thousands log into Runescape, RUNESCAPE, everyday.

Whoever say it's dying hasn't researched it enough.

 

[Zack Alklazaris]

When it comes to the best quality looking game you just can't beat the PC. When you think graphics you think PC and its not like you can't hook up a controller to your computer. These together insure computers will stay for a long time.

However, Piracy is hurting the industry and its a turn off to game developers to create a PC version or at least delay it for a while. I don't think PC gaming will die out any time soon though.

 

[MrTub]

When it comes to the best quality looking game you just can't beat the PC. When you think graphics you think PC and its not like you can't hook up a controller to your computer. These together insure computers will stay for a long time.

However, Piracy is hurting the industry and its a turn off to game developers to create a PC version or at least delay it for a while. I don't think PC gaming will die out any time soon though.

Funny part is that piracy exist for Xbox 360 and Ps3 as well.

And whats even more funny is that pretty much all big xbox 360 games are leaked 2-3 weeks before release date.

 

[Zack Alklazaris]

When it comes to the best quality looking game you just can't beat the PC. When you think graphics you think PC and its not like you can't hook up a controller to your computer. These together insure computers will stay for a long time.

However, Piracy is hurting the industry and its a turn off to game developers to create a PC version or at least delay it for a while. I don't think PC gaming will die out any time soon though.

Funny part is that piracy exist for Xbox 360 and Ps3 as well.

And whats even more funny is that pretty much all big xbox 360 games are leaked 2-3 weeks before release date.

Best part is for some reason industries ignore them completely... maybe its just not as bad. I know some PC games had a 1/4 ratio. As in for every game bought 4 were stolen. Not sure about consoles.

It should change relatively soon, most games are become online games and with that you need a actual copy. I would love for companies to bring back all games on PCs instead of just straight to consoles.

 

[MrTub]

When it comes to the best quality looking game you just can't beat the PC. When you think graphics you think PC and its not like you can't hook up a controller to your computer. These together insure computers will stay for a long time.

However, Piracy is hurting the industry and its a turn off to game developers to create a PC version or at least delay it for a while. I don't think PC gaming will die out any time soon though.

Funny part is that piracy exist for Xbox 360 and Ps3 as well.

And whats even more funny is that pretty much all big xbox 360 games are leaked 2-3 weeks before release date.

Best part is for some reason industries ignore them completely... maybe its just not as bad. I know some PC games had a 1/4 ratio. As in for every game bought 4 were stolen. Not sure about consoles.

It should change relatively soon, most games are become online games and with that you need a actual copy. I would love for companies to bring back all games on PCs instead of just straight to consoles.

pff you do not need an actual copy for Xbox 360. A "friend" of mine had a modded xbox 360 which he used to play xbox 360 games online with.

And another fun fact if I didnt used to pirate I would most likely never gotten into pc gaming and therefor I wouldn't have bought around 100games and a very expensive computer.

 

[babinro]

The PC tower rig seems like old technology these days. It's my thought that it along with consoles will eventually fade away.

The tower will take a long time though considering business dependence on it...but I'd imagine it'll be a thing of the past in about 20 years.

It's my thought that gaming will go online only and primarily exist on hand held devices like tablets, and cell phones, ect. This isn't really what I hope will happen, but it seems to make the most sense given where we are today.

 

[theheroofaction]

snip

Why is it people keep interpreting what I say to be the opposite of what I mean?

Ever saw the poster " pc gaming, happily dying since 1985".

I was kinda going for that type of tone.

 

[AD-Stu]

The PUBLISHERS ultimately control the fate of mainstream gaming; not Sony, Microsoft or Nintendo (especially not Nintendo anymore), and the Big Three will have to suck up to the Publishers even harder with an appealing platform to invest in or the publishers will default to PC.

On the flipside of that though, don't a lot of developers prefer consoles because the hardware is standardised and they don't have the PC-related problem of testing and optimising the game for a million different hardware configurations?

 

[Orks da best]

Didn't moviebob do a big picture on this topic, pc gameing as in sitting in a chair is dieing, but pic games are not, because the pc is going moble and with that, you can game anywhere you can take it.

 

[Woodsey]

Well, it won't be around forever, but PC gaming certainly isn't dead or dying.

Its at the healthiest its been for quite a while.

 

[milath]

The PUBLISHERS ultimately control the fate of mainstream gaming; not Sony, Microsoft or Nintendo (especially not Nintendo anymore), and the Big Three will have to suck up to the Publishers even harder with an appealing platform to invest in or the publishers will default to PC.

On the flipside of that though, don't a lot of developers prefer consoles because the hardware is standardised and they don't have the PC-related problem of testing and optimising the game for a million different hardware configurations?

I think testing and optimizing for PC isn't testing each and every PC configuration under the sun. They pick a few common setups and the lowest end minimum requirement/recommended and test those. Then they deal with any other problems that crop up after the game is released. Which usually isn't much since most PCs these days have pretty similar setups. Not like the old days when there were 7 different graphic card manufacturers and 10 different sound card makers.

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

I really how first you perpetuate with genuine hyperbole one of the biggest myths of PC gaming and then call yourself an avid PC gamer so to be honest I am assuming this a bit of a troll/flame bait topic but whatever not much else is happening.

Also feel free to skip this as it will be long.

First off no it is not dying nor will it die in the near future. If you would have a look around you would realise that console have become more like PCs with every passing generation that they will eventually just become gaming rigs with fixed hardware thus making them redundant.

Desktops may be decreasing in prominence but even then they will always exist. People are always talking about trying to centralise media well you know what the desktop already has that done for you and has done for years I mean you can even hook it up to a TV or use a Monitor depending on room size. All that into consideration and for serious people desktops will always be used as it is just more power no ifs, ands or buts.

PC gaming is evolving to include other things but not be dominated by them. Stuff like Facebook "games"(there are some real ones if you look) and Tablet gaming which is an extension of mobile gaming and this isn't even including Laptops. Sure my laptop is not great but it gets the job done. Dawn of War 2 Retribution may be on the lowest of the low settings but the load times are also low along with decent FPS. Nothing to complain about. That is part of PC gaming the ability to be flexible and up scale and down scale things but this does lead to other problems like troubleshooting I can live with that.

PCs are cheaper in the long run. The games are cheaper and you only have to upgrade once in a gen to keep up with modern standard of gaming. Sure you can upgrade more but it is unneeded. The costs of games on PC are ridiculously lower than console games so if you are a serious gamer you are probably cost wise better off with a PC. Say if you spent 1,000 of your currency($/?/£) at the start of this gen(I will be working with ?t) you will not have to have upgraded your PC. Even then very few people do this from scratch and this would have included monitor and OS. If you really want to run everything at max then you will need an upgrade my old PC was half that price and it can still do low settings so an optimised purpose built PC would still be hitting around mid settings.

This is also taking an average of 5 new games(first hand) a year which is about 3/4 of my new purchase average.

Ok so that is at max ?1,000 on a PC. Xbox cost ?350ish at launch and if you want to play Live that is roughly ?50*6 years which is another ?300. Then by serious gamer you buy a fair bit of games that is new games Xbox games where I am used to be ?70+ new so I'll assume an average of ?60(As games are now around 50-45). 5*60*6=1,800 over 6 years on games. While on PC new games can be anywhere between ?50(Cod) and ?25(my collectors Edition of DoW2 Ret) so we'll take average and rounded up price of ?40. 5*40*6=1,200 so on games alone and disregarding XBL that is ?600 saved. This isn't including buy a new Xbox which for me was needed.

Xbox in total with a standard(non hd tv) is 350+300+ 600 surplus on game cost=1,250. Add on 200 if you want to include HD tv as the comp does include a monitor and OS.

Now I will not included Wii as that is cheaper and since many don't consider it a "real" console and lack of games I will omit it but say that the Wii does work out cheaper than PC by a bit around 200ish but this depends entirely on how many peripherals you buy.

PS 3 was ?500 at launch and games have averaged at about ?60 maybe a bit less I don't own a PS3 I have a 360 and PC so as far as know games were 60 at launch and are now around 50ish. So 55*5*6= 1650. So 500+450 surplus = 950 and this is once again not including HD TV(add 200) peripherals and I don't know anyone who hasn't bought at least 1 extra controller or some sort of peripheral. So PS 3 is slightly cheaper in this scenario but in reality it is equal.

Now I know I have made assumptions in that if you go into a crusade over them I won't reply to you. I am adding in the cost of HD TV although done separately as that computer includes a lot of unnecessary costs as well like monitor and casing as everyone has a PC(not so much on HD TV) so most parts are then anyway. All that needs changed to bring it up to gaming standard is Video Card and Ram and maybe a CPU change and a small possible change of Motherboard or PSU but your computer would need to be quite old for that to be required.

All that being said on price consoles do have advantages on price as the are low cost in short and low cost if you buy a few games. In reality the only cost advantage either has is entirely dependant on how many games you buy and neither is a truly better system.

On input devices well the PC always has the advantage as anything a console can do in this department a PC can do. No one can complain about keyboard and mouse when you can plug in any controller into a PC all you might need is something to pick up a wireless signal.

Piracy is something we can't quantify and say either is worse. On PC we have much closer to the real figures than consoles as people who pirate on PC tend to get off their asses and find their own torrents and cracks. Console pirates get someone else to crack a console which they do not use for online play(usually) and then buy games from that person. So every time a console game is pirated that can be sold 100s or 1,000s of more times for that one download while this does not tend to happen on PC as there is no market for it. Even taking that into consider this is pure speculation.

Sure we have the Witcher dev saying his game is pirated 4.5 mil times but we also have console games leaked before launch and PC version if you follow Escapist news and Microsoft saying they banned 1mil xboxes for being pirate consoles. That is shocking when you consider that it is thought and believed that most pirating happens offline on consoles. So if that is a minority of the pirates the true scale seems a lot similar to PC games.

Em yeah I think that's me done for the night.

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

snip

Why is it people keep interpreting what I say to be the opposite of what I mean?

Ever saw the poster " pc gaming, happily dying since 1985".

I was kinda going for that type of tone.

You're on the Escapist sometimes we forget what a joke is you might need to specify if it something that some people try as an argument.

 

[Valkraye]

Console cycles are too long.
The technology in them becomes stagnant too quickly.
Games advance at a faster rate and have to hold themselves back, in a sense.
PC gaming, however, evolves alongside the games, some times faster then they do.
Given that when the current generation of consoles came out they were priced at around $800 for a PS3, you will now have, for the first time, price parity between the two. You can pick up a good PC for that much money these days that will leave you with a solid platform to improve upon. A console cannot do that.
Sure, a console will be able to play everything in its cycle, but there are many holes in that logic, just look at Skyrim on the PS3. The console should be able to handle the game, that is what consumers have paid for, and yet it just can't.

In my mind, what we see as console gaming is under threat. The XBoxs, Wiis and PS3s of today are a dying breed with perhaps another cycle, maybe two, left in them. After that, it is anyone's guess. I believe that "portable" gaming will probably take the lead as the highest grossing/medium with the largest audience, but until those things reach power parity with a desktop, when they can handle games of the same scope and size, I don't think PC gaming is under any threat.

 

[Khada]

Its sorta hard to imagine that the machine used for nearly all game development will no longer be used to play games... know what I mean?